Jump

A year ago, Devin Butler sat in a purple seat at M&T Bank Stadium and watched Frederick Douglass of Prince George's County fall to Middletown in the Class 2A football state championship. On Saturday, the freshman quarterback was on the field with the same stakes, battling the Knights in an attempt to land the first state title for Douglass. On the state's largest stage, Butler alternated flashes of brilliance with reminders of his youth in a 30-12 loss to Middletown. Douglass fell behind Middletown, 16-0, and couldn't recover as the Knights beat the Eagles in the title game for the second straight season, closing out their first perfect campaign with their 22nd straight victory.

Baseball's winter meetings begin in earnest Monday, and this was supposed to be the year that a lot of the impact signings were made before the sport's annual powwow. The thought was that changes in compensation for free agents would jumpstart the market and that some of the huge names would come off the board before anyone got on a plane to Nashville. Although more rumors are swirling this week, only seven of Yahoo Sports' Top 50 free agents have signed and only one of the Top 14 (Hiroki Kuroda, who re-upped with the New York Yankees)

Baltimore-based Millennial Media Inc., a major player in the mobile advertising business, reported nearly a doubling of revenues and wider losses in the third quarter as it continued to ramp up spending on its technology infrastructure and overseas expansion.   Millennial, which supports an ad network across thousands of different types of mobile devices, is part of the fast-growing mobile advertising industry. The company turned a profit before going public, and is spending now to continue to expand in Europe and Asia, the company has said in the past.

A quick start at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday helped put an end to four years of utter frustration for City. In a game that often defines their entire season, the Knights jumped out to a two-touchdown lead after the first 10 minutes, then held off a second-half comeback bid by archrival Poly in a 20-14 win - their first in the series since 2007 - before an announced 7,194. "This was our playoff game," City coach George Petrides said. "It was important to stop this losing streak.

Every week, the opposing team makes available a player to be interviewed by Baltimore media via conference call. On Wednesday afternoon, Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas was the interview participant. Towards the end of the conference call, Ravens free safety Ed Reed made his way through the media room at the team's practice facility in Owings Mills. After finding out from public relations coordinator Tom Valente that Thomas was on the phone, Reed jumped in. “Hey, Joe, how you doing?

Booming Under Armour Inc. announced Thursday that it earned $57 million in the third quarter, a 25 percent jump over the year-earlier period that was driven by strong demand for men's, women's and youth apparel and growing acceptance of the brand's footwear. Revenue surged nearly as much — 24 percent — at the Baltimore-based sports apparel maker, to $575 million in the three months ended Sept. 30. In last year's third quarter, Under Armour made $46 million on revenue of $466 million.

Earl Badu, a former Maryland basketball player and St. Frances graduate, died after he had jumped to his death Thursday morning. Badu, 33, had jumped from the I-95 overpass onto I-695, where he fell about 50 feet, Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said in an email. She said Badu was still alive at the scene when medic crews arrived around 9 a.m. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview, where doctors pronounced him dead. According to online court records, just six days before his death Badu received a five-year suspended sentence for passing a bad check in Montgomery County.

Franklin jumped into this week's media Maryland High School Football State Poll after its 35-30 win over Catonsville, while the Comets and Atholton both dropped out of the Top 25 after losing for the first time this fall. The Indians entered the poll at No. 23 and knocked Catonsville, No. 18 last week, out. Atholton, No. 23 last week, fell out after losing to Long Reach, 13-12. Westminster (4-0) moved up one spot to No. 14 after ending Martinsburg, W. Va.'s 32-game winning streak, 36-33.

Westminster  makes the biggest move in this week's media Maryland High School Football State Poll, climbing to No. 15 from No. 20 after Friday night's 49-14 win at unranked Linganore. Including the Owls, five of the nine Baltimore area teams in the Top 25 moved up as Dunbar jumped three spots to No. 20 and No. 11 Arundel, No. 18 Catonsville and No. 23 Atholton each moved up one. No. 2 Gilman, No. 5 Calvert Hall, No. 6 River Hill and No. 14 Old Mill held their ground. Three new area teams also got votes this week: Franklin, Mount Hebron and St. Paul's.

Orioles fans, your time has finally come. Who's had it tougher than you the past 14 years? The Backstreet Boys? You watched so much bad baseball you almost forgot what good baseball looked like. Season after season, it felt as if the Orioles were out of the race by Arbor Day. You watched the parade of mediocre players, over-matched managers and timid front office types come and go, took all that abuse from your out-of-town friends, and wondered if it would ever get better. And now it has. Oh, man, has it gotten better.