Horseshoe

AFTER A morning of beachcombing on Delaware Bay, the news brief jumped out at me from the local paper. New Jersey was extending restrictions on catching crabs -- horseshoe crabs.Good news, I thought, having found noticeably fewer of these primordial creatures on the ocean's edge and along the bays.New Jersey's reason was not only to save the Limulus polyphemus itself, but to assure a food supply for shorebirds with the eggs of these marine animals.Since horseshoe crabs have been around for a half-billion years, nearly a tenth of the currently estimated age of planet Earth, they have obviously developed sufficient protections to deal with these ancient avian predators and survive.

Moving to Maryland has been a learning experience for Chad Barnhill, general manager of the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino that will fill the sweeping vacant lot currently greeting drivers coming into the city on Russell Street. At home within the walls of a casino - he's worked for Caesars Entertainment since graduating from college in 1994 - this is the first time he's overseen the building of a new facility. When he's not meeting with city officials regarding building permits, he's addressing neighborhood associations concerned about what plopping a casino near their houses might mean.

With another spawning season about to begin, horseshoe crabs appear to be hanging on in Maryland's coastal bays, despite limited habitat for their annual reproductive reunion. Volunteers tallied 23,105 crabs last year, roughly the same number counted in 2010, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program reports. The annual horseshoe crab spawning congregation on the Delaware shore is closely watched, because the ancient sea animals' eggs provide food for shorebirds, particularly red knots , which stop over there to rest and refuel during an epic 9,000-mile migration north.

Baltimore will hire a recruitment coordinator to look for city residents who can help fill the 1,700 jobs expected to be created by the construction and operation of the new casino. The city's Board of Estimates authorized the temporary position Wednesday. It will pay up to $60,000, plus benefits, for 12 months of work. The position is being funded by the casino operators, a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the agreement with the casino, expected to open next year along Russell Street near the stadiums, represents a "commitment to make local residents aware of and give them access to the casino's jobs.

The horseshoe that catcher Greg Zaun rubs for luck before each game may need a good polishing after the Orioles' weeklong road trip.Starting catcher Chris Hoiles left Saturday's game with a strained left hamstring and did not play yesterday. The Orioles will know more about Hoiles' status later today.However, even if Hoiles is not put on the disabled list, his playing status will remain iffy. Either way, Zaun figures to get more work."This is something I've wanted all of my life," Zaun said.

SLAUGHTER BEACH, DEL. -- This time of year, the horseshoe crabs practically have the place to themselves. With only a sunbather and a smattering of greenhead flies in the distance, the spiderlike creatures mate undisturbed on the sandy shores. But just a few miles away sits what the crab's protectors consider a major threat to a species that is older than dinosaurs - Charlie Auman, a waterman who has spent much of his adult life catching horseshoe crabs and selling them for bait. For the past decade, Delaware officials have been pushing to protect the crabs, which swim into the bay each spring from the ocean and mate by the millions on its shores.

The "Dream Team" lost its first match.Don't remember this scenario during the endless Summer Olympic telecasts? Well, you shouldn't. This isn't the U.S. basketball team that won the gold medal during the Olympics.This is the Dream Team of horseshoe pitching. And it was playing for the Special Olympics, not in the Summer Games.The 11th annual Horseshoe Tournament in Winfield brought out 56 two-person teams yesterday in search of that all-important ringer -- the high-scoring throw that leaves the horseshoe's sides around the metal peg -- and to raise money for the county's Special Olympics, an athletic event for the disabled.

INDIANAPOLIS - If Baltimore football fans were waiting for their counterparts in Indiana to do the right thing, their patience was not rewarded. The Indianapolis Colts are not going to change their name, and local sympathy only goes so far for the city that the horseshoe used to call home.Walk down any street. Stop in any sports bar. You'll hear the same thing. This is Colts country now. It has been 12 years since the team slipped out of Baltimore under the cover of night and to hear these Hoosiers tell it it's time for Marylanders to get on with their lives.

EVEN AS THE Northern Hemisphere approaches its shortest day of the year (Dec. 21) and winter begins to grip the East Coast in earnest, one of spring's great exuberances is taking form in the coastal ocean between Maryland and New Jersey.By the hundreds of thousands, perhaps the millions, horseshoe crabs are beginning to mass along the sea bottom for the long, slow crawl into Delaware and Chesapeake bays to spawn.It is a spectacle to behold, especially in Delaware Bay, where up to a million of the ancient, helmeted creatures emerge on the beaches in May and June.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is looking for volunteers to check beaches for horseshoe crabs starting Monday.The crabs, one of the oldest surviving species, have started spawning in the sand.The number of horseshoe crabs has dropped severely since the early part of the century when too many were harvested for fertilizer and animal food.The department has proposed dredging restrictions and further study of their habits and habitat.Peak spawning times are high tides during the next few full moons.

Lawyers for Baltimore say a group of Westport residents seeking an injunction to stop construction of the Horseshoe Casino along Russell Street have no legal standing and are being used by a shadowy organization more concerned with delaying the facility opening than environmental factors. In a response filed Tuesday, city solicitors Matthew W. Nayden and Daniel J. Sparaco dismissed the group's claim that the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment colluded to allow CBAC Gaming to avoid following protocol for publicly discussing and planning cleanup of the site.

Chad Barnhill, the general manager of the Horseshoe Casino that will be constructed along Russell Street, is in Cincinnati today to observe a sort of soft opening (the Cincinnati newspaper is live blogging the event ) for the Horseshoe Casino there that will open its doors Monday. Though Barnhill knows the Horseshoe brand well, having served as general manager for the one located in the City of Bossier City ( which is the official name, according to the website which lists among its top news items the fact that the city pool is accepting applications to be a lifeguard this summer )

Baltimore's Urban Design & Architecture Review Panel gave approval Thursday to a revised design for the casino scheduled to be built near where Russell Street enters the heart of the city. The latest renderings show a modern-design building made of a golden-hued stone. In the new images, a garage that sits behind the casino - and therefore can be seen from Interstates 95 and 395 - has been redesigned to appear less bulky and more horizontal. It is also shown sitting within a robust grove of trees.

Caesars Entertainment, which plans to bring a casino to Baltimore, announced Thursday that it would spend $25 million more and hire 500 more people than originally planned to take advantage of opportunities presented by the passage of Question 7. Caesars now will build a higher-end Horseshoe-brand casino rather than a Harrah's on the Baltimore site near M&T Bank Stadium that will focus on table games such as poker and black jack. The Las Vegas-based company had long hinted it would invest more if Maryland expanded gambling because it believes it will draw dedicated cardplayers from around the country to the casino, which now will feature a World Series of Poker room and host series events.

With another spawning season about to begin, horseshoe crabs appear to be hanging on in Maryland's coastal bays, despite limited habitat for their annual reproductive reunion. Volunteers tallied 23,105 crabs last year, roughly the same number counted in 2010, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program reports. The annual horseshoe crab spawning congregation on the Delaware shore is closely watched, because the ancient sea animals' eggs provide food for shorebirds, particularly red knots , which stop over there to rest and refuel during an epic 9,000-mile migration north.

It started about 30 years ago — no one seems to recall the exact date — when three men who'd grown up together in Pigtown took a vacant lot at the corner of Ward and Bayard streets, sank two metal pegs into the ground and started tossing horseshoes back and forth. None of the three — not Roy Whitney, not his cousin Emory Green, not Emory's little brother, Leon — had a clue they were founding a tradition. "We started playing for the fun of it, then word got around, people started coming from other neighborhoods, and it kept on growing," Leon Green, 62, said Saturday afternoon as rhythm and blues music, the smell of burgers on barbecues and the "clink" of horseshoes filled the air at the First Annual Horseshoe Tournament at the Pit In Pigtown.

Ula Clyde Collison was never at a loss for words or things to do. There was always a joke to tell or a horseshoe to pitch; a flower to plant or yarn to spin; a prank to pull or game to umpire. He could do them all with the best of them.Mr. Collison, 88, died Saturday of heart failure, said his daughter, Barbara Lamar Moyer of Guam. He suffered from Parkinson's disease and apparently became disoriented and fell down an embankment near his Annapolis home.An athlete and Annapolis sports legend for more than 40 years, Mr. Collison's accomplishments include four decades of coaching youth sports; perennial all-star in the city's adult fast-pitch softball league; horseshoe champion; and golfing gold-medal winner.

There is one person in the United States of America who is excited about the baseball strike that approaches like a thunderhead, threatening to wash out an entire season.One person in the country who is not sorry to see pitches traded in for pickets.One person who sees the light in the impending darkness."Let me put it this way," Jim Speros was saying before last night's professional football game at Memorial Stadium, "they may be trying to take away the name of my team, but they can't take away the luck of that horseshoe."

It is difficult not to be moved by the plight of the red knot, the small shorebird that migrates 9,300 miles annually from South America all the way to the Canadian Arctic, one of the longest such journeys of any bird on the planet. Their numbers have dwindled to an alarming level. Critical to the species' survival is what happens in Maryland's backyard. The red knots make a stopover in Delaware Bay each spring (usually peaking around Memorial Day weekend) to feast on eggs laid by horseshoe crabs, which appear on coastal beaches at just the right time to spawn.

With the Summer Olympics almost upon us, it seems appropriate to take special note of an ultra-marathon champion that seldom gets the attention it deserves. The event is seemingly impossible: a journey from Tierra del Fuego to the Canadian Arctic and back, 9,300 miles each way, in nonstop stages that last days without food or water. And like some nightmare of Roman gladiators, if you fail, you die. But there's a catch: The participants can fly. These ultra-marathoners are migratory red knots, shorebirds not much more than half the weight of a pigeon.