Host

The latest evidence that Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo won't be muzzled about his support for same-sex marriage: He is hosting a Monday Night football party for the cause. Gov. Martin O'Malley this morning applauded Ayanbadejo for "tackling the issue" (O'Malley's pun, not ours), and plans to join. The party is set for Oct. 8 at Mother's Federal Hill Grille in Baltimore. The football player has been a longtime supporter of same-sex marriage, but received a flood of attention after Baltimore County Del. Emmett Burns, a Democrat, tried to stop him from talking publicly about the issue.

Major League Lacrosse announced Thursday that it will host the 2013 All-Star Game on July 13, 2013, at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.  The stadium is home to the Charlotte Hounds, a 2012 expansion team. The 2013 MLL All-Star Game will revisit the 2011 format in which two fans get to pick their fantasy All-Star teams on Friday night of All-Star weekend. They will serve as honorary captains and will take part in all team activities during the weekend. Tickets for the game are on sale now through the Hounds.

In the battle of waterfront towns, Newport, R.I., has beaten Baltimore for the right to host the only U.S. stopover of the around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race in 2015. Volvo race CEO Knut Frostad and other officials were on their way to Providence for a Tuesday afternoon news conference at the Rhode Island State House. State officials have promised to spend more than $3 million to build a legacy sailing facility for the visit. Ocean Racing USA, the Baltimore bidder, and other officials were informed of the decision in a conference call Friday.

Volvo Ocean Race officials will visit Baltimore on Monday to evaluate a bid to host the only U.S. stop of the 2014-2015 edition of the round-the-world contest known as the Super Bowl of sailing. Volvo officials are expected to begin announcing the ports along the route next week. Announcements will continue into February. "I really believe we're going to win this thing," said Rob Housman, an executive director of Ocean Racing USA, the private-sector bidder. "The success of Sailabration last summer shows Baltimore knows how to do fantastic water events.

Stony Brook's Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium was chosen Thursday as host for the 2013 and 2014 America East men's lacrosse championships, marking the first time the conference has predetermined a site for the event. The location was determined in a vote of the conference's athletic directors at their fall meetings. All three games of the 2013 America East championship will take place on Long Island for the first time, starting with the semifinals Thursday, May 2 and concluding with the title game  Saturday, May 4, which will be nationally televised on ESPNU at 10 a.m. Semifinal game times will be announced on a future date.

Johns Hopkins women's lacrosse coach Janine Tucker announced today the Blue Jays' 2013 schedule, which features eight home games, two nationally televised games and the 2013 American Lacrosse Conference tournament. Hopkins will face nine teams that were ranked in the final IWLCA poll of 2012, including six NCAA tournament teams. Hopkins will play three straight home games and six of its first seven games at Homewood Field. The Jays will face Old Dominion in its season opener on February 16 in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

After 50 years as host of "It's Academic," the longest-running quiz show on television, Mac McGarry, the longest-tenured host, says that "it's really time" to step down. "I'm 85 years old and gone way beyond Social Security," the Potomac resident said Thursday. "A lot of things are getting to me like this sinus trouble. Right now my eyes are watering, and I thought, 'My gosh, would I be able to read the cards?' Generally speaking, I'm in good health, but these minor things make you realize you might be losing a step here or there.

Captains Sharing & Caring, a nonprofit foundation that gives children with terminal illnesses or physical disabilities and their families a day out on several local waterways, is looking to marinas, yacht clubs and those with private docks to hosts events this summer. According to Cheryl Krajcsik, the executive director of the foundation, this is the third summer that the foundation will run events, mostly on Middle, North East and Magothy rivers and Bodkin Creek. The events typically last from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the water - with a picnic or other activities, such as swimming afterward - on Sundays from June through August.

PPL Park in Chester, Pa., will host the Atlantic Coast Conference men's lacrosse tournament in 2014 and 2015, the conference announced Wednesday. It will mark the first time in eight years that the tournament has been held at a neutral site. The 18,500-seat stadium, home to Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, will be the host venue for the ACC on April 25-27, 2014, and again in the spring of 2015. Next season will be the fourth time in the 26-year history of the tournament that the event has been held at a neutral site.

NEW YORK - Moving swiftly to replace departed talk show host Tavis Smiley, National Public Radio said it will launch a new daily public affairs program aimed at the black community with journalist Ed Gordon as host. News and Notes With Ed Gordon will start in late January. Gordon, who, like Smiley, previously hosted an evening show on the BET cable network, will be based in New York, where he is also a contributing correspondent for CBS News' 60 Minutes. Gordon will have a yet-to-be-named co-host on the West Coast.