Locker

Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a locked container in his locker, according to the team, and the NBA is looking into the situation. The Wizards issued a statement saying there was no ammunition in the container. Arenas and the team have notified authorities and the league. Arenas told the Washington Times he took his guns to the arena after his daughter was born this month. About a week later, he said he handed them over to security to give to police.

Free-spirited pitcher Tommy Hunter is hoping that he can re-establish himself as a starting pitcher at some point, but he's not going to be picky about the role he ultimately plays on this year's team. "I'd definitely like to start," he said, “but if that doesn't happen, I'll take the ball whenever I can get it. It's about getting outs. I want to win. I want to win the World Series.” Hunter is one of the few Orioles players who has actually played in a World Series - with the Rangers - and he believes that the O's have what it takes to take the next step in that direction after last year's surprise trip to the playoffs.

Maybe this is what happens when you've won 16 straight games in your own house and then another  team gums things up by having the nerve to knock you off, as the Pittsburgh Steelers did Sunday with their surprising 23-20 win over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Maybe it throws off your normal routine or disrupts your rhythm or reorders the team karma, a word that probably makes John Harbaugh gag. Whatever the reason, the Ravens post-game locker room had a weird vibe to it last night.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Kevin Gausman's spring training locker sits along a row next to Orioles veteran pitchers Darren O'Day, Jim Johnson and Jason Hammel. That placement is strategic - manager Buck Showalter gives a sly grin when asked about it - just like 19-year-old left-handed pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez's locker being next to pitchers Miguel Gonzalez and Pedro Strop. The plan is for first-time big league campers like Gausman and Rodriguez, two of the Orioles top three pitching prospects, to learn what life is like in the big leagues by example.

The Ravens' laundry list of free agents is highlighted by running back Ray Rice, left guard Ben Grubbs and linebacker Jarret Johnson, but that trio did not appear Monday when media was allowed in the locker room. However, outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said keeping Rice, a two-time Pro Bowl player, is a “no-brainer.” “We're really good about that, guys who are truly Ravens, keeping them Ravens,” Suggs said. “There's no one better in the game to do it than [Ravens general manager]

A group of reporters was gathered around Ravens center Matt Birk this week, asking difficult questions about the team's pitiful pass protection, when someone across the locker room turned up his stereo as loud as it would go and began to sing. You didn't even need to turn around to identify the troubadour. Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time in the Ravens' locker room over the last five years knew immediately that it was Terrell Suggs. When things get a little too tense during the season, especially after a difficult loss, there are a few things you can always count on at the team's complex in Owings Mills.

Baltimore County police evacuated Franklin Middle School in Reisterstown yesterday afternoon after five vials of flammable substances were found in the locker of a 12-year-old pupil. Police said the seventh-grader told administrators that he was trying to sell the substances to other pupils as bomb-making ingredients. Sgt. Dean Brubaker of the arson and hazardous devices unit said a preliminary investigation showed that the materials were household chemicals that, if combined with "certain incendiary devices," could become explosive.

The second annual Best of Bowling Mixed Doubles Duckpin Handicap tournament drew 124 doubles teams from the mid-Atlantic area to Riviera Bowl the last weekend in April.While the official prize list with a $2,000 first-place guaranteed prize has not been released by the Baltimore Duckpin Bowlers Association, it appears that the winners of the event are Sandy Locker and Wayne Gruss.The team of Locker and Gruss prove what every bowler should know but that many do not realize -- when a tournament is a handicap event anyone can be a winner.

Outside her first-grade classroom at Sandymount Elementary School, Megan Bollinger opened a locker and whispered her opinion of the renovated building."

I hate lugging my gym bag back and forth to the gym and having to plan workout days in advance. Can I pay my health club extra money to get a permanent locker? At most gyms, this is simply a space issue. Membership usually exceeds the number of available lockers, but some larger gyms do offer locker rental. At the Merritt Downtown Athletic Club, for instance, $27.50-$44 will buy you your own locker for one year (but the locker space is not in the main locker room). If your health club has a strict policy against permanent lockers (some will even use cutters to remove your lock if left overnight)

Boys basketball practice at Archbishop Spalding on Saturday was more than just running drills, practicing jumpers and preparing for Sunday afternoon's game at St. Maria Goretti, a 58-56 loss for the Cavaliers. For fifth-year coach Derrick Lewis and the Cavaliers, it was a chance to learn about life and deal with the trying circumstances that came from an incident during Friday night's game at St. Frances. When the Cavaliers returned to their locker room at halftime, they found their belongings had been sorted through and some items were missing.

An incident at St. Frances during Friday night's boys basketball game against Archbishop Spalding resulted in the game being suspended at halftime after the visiting Cavaliers alleged some electronic items were stolen from their locker room. “Two phones were missing and [Spalding coach] Derrick [Lewis] said his kids didn't want to play the second half,” St. Frances coach Nick Myles said on Saturday morning. St. Frances had a 17-15 lead going into halftime when the game was halted.

CBS Super Bowl broadcasters Jim Nantz and Phil Simms say they see a lot more than just Ray Lewis when they look at the Baltimore Ravens. And come Sunday, the conversation they do have about Lewis in the biggest broadcast booth in popular culture is going to be primarily about his play on the field and inspirational power in the locker room - not what happened in Atlanta. "I would just say, Ravens?" Nantz said Tuesday when asked for his sense of the team's image during a teleconference.

A throng of reporters and cameramen waited in front of his locker this afternoon, anxiously anticipating a quote or quip that would liven up the Super Bowl rhetoric. The old Terrell Suggs would have loved this opportunity. This year's version, however, turned the corner in the Ravens' locker room, surveyed the scene and emitted an audible groan. For Suggs, it was a chance to reflect on a decade in the NFL where he had never before reached this point. It was a chance to revel in his own perseverance, to remind everyone why he worked so hard to return from a preseason Achilles tendon injury and an in-season biceps tear.

While much of the focus in the offseason and preseason was on the negotiations for a long-term deal between the Ravens and quarterback Joe Flacco, cornerback Cary Williams also took a risk and declined a three-year, $15 million extension. But Williams said he never viewed his decision as a risk. “I just left it in God's hands,” he said after Friday's practice. “At the end of the day, I knew that God had brought me this far, and all of that hard work and preparation was going to come into play, and I just continued to keep my head down, continued to do what I'm normally doing, and I felt success would be there.

Maybe this is what happens when you've won 16 straight games in your own house and then another  team gums things up by having the nerve to knock you off, as the Pittsburgh Steelers did Sunday with their surprising 23-20 win over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Maybe it throws off your normal routine or disrupts your rhythm or reorders the team karma, a word that probably makes John Harbaugh gag. Whatever the reason, the Ravens post-game locker room had a weird vibe to it last night.

The main attraction at the new Linton Springs Elementary School in Sykesville yesterday wasn't the middle-school-size gym or the state-of-the-art media center.The buzz was about the bright blue lockers.As schools in Carroll County opened for more than 26,000 students yesterday, Maria Griffith's second-grade class at Linton Springs sat in a hallway, mouths open, heads tilted up. They hung on Griffith's every word, as she gave instructions on how to use a locker."You will see that we have hooks, so if you have an umbrella, book bag or coat you don't have to put everything on one hook," Griffith said.

A Wilde Lake Middle School student was arrested Monday after a BB gun was found in the boy's locker, according to Howard County police. The 13-year-old Columbia boy, who authorities did not identify, was charged as a juvenile with carrying a deadly weapon on school property. Police said the juvenile justice system will determine any penalty. According to authorities, the locker was searched after other students told Wilde Lake administrators that the boy had the BB gun at a bus stop yesterday morning.

Dez Wells could joke about the turnovers now. It was easier to digest the five miscues - and the good-natured, locker-room scolding he got from his coach - after the sophomore topped his career high in points for the second straight game as Maryland survived a quick and gritty George Mason team, 69-62, on Sunday in the BB&T Classic. Wells scored 25 points as Maryland (6-1) overcame 19 turnovers to win its sixth straight game in front of an announced 10,256 fans at the Verizon Center.

A Holabird Middle School student was disciplined after an inoperable starter pistol was found in his locker Wednesday, Baltimore County schools officials said. The Dundalk school sent a letter home with students about the discovery of the gun, and an investigation involving county police indicated that the student did not plan to threaten or hurt anyone, schools spokesman Charles Herndon said. A starter pistol shoots blank shells or caps and is typically used at sporting events. "Possession of such a device is still a serious offense, however, and the school has taken appropriate disciplinary action," the letter signed by Principal Julie Dellone states.