Optimism

What did you expect after such an uplifting 2012 season? The Orioles clubhouse is full of players who think that they can go even farther into October this year if they can stay reasonably healthy for the duration. “I do," said catcher Matt Wieters. “One, we're getting a healthy Nick [Markakis] back and a healthy Nolan [Reimold] back. We're comfortable with all the guys we have in this clubhouse and just what we did last year and improving on it. The good thing is we do have a lot of guys back from last year and now if everybody takes a step forward, we're right where we want to be.” The big question, after a year that produced some highly unusual statistics - 29-9 in one-run games, 16 consecutive extra-inning victories - is whether that winning chemistry will carry over into 2013.

The Kentucky Derby winner and oddsmakers' favorite for the Preakness Stakes isn't exactly a Maryland horse, but he's close - Orb is partially owned by a Baltimore County businessman, and his sire spent some time in Harford County. Attendance at Saturday's races might or might not set an all-time record, but it's bound to be close - top-flight music acts, it seems, are a bigger draw than BYOB debauchery. The weather may not be perfect, but it will be close - the latest forecast is for a high of 72 but with a slight chance of showers.

B y just about any measure, 2009 was a pretty lousy year. The hope for a fresh start that radiated from Washington during President Barack Obama's inauguration quickly soured into some of the deepest partisanship in memory. The financial meltdown of 2008 quickly morphed into highest-in-a-generation unemployment in 2009. Casualties spiked in Afghanistan as President Hamid Karzai emerged victorious from a blatantly fraudulent election that underscored the depth of corruption in his government.

Karl Marx is credited with saying that religion is "the opium of the people. " But here in the nation's capital, baseball is the drug of choice that rescues political junkies from the unpleasant realities around them. Currently providing relief from the congressional stalemate over the deficit that has produced the "sequester" of spending cuts, job furloughs and general fiscal paralysis is the return of last year's Cinderella baseball team, the Washington Nationals. After rising from traditional doormat to champion of the National League's East Division, the Nats heart-breakingly collapsed in the final game of their first playoff series.

The drumbeat of an NFL labor resolution grew louder Tuesday as rumblings of a deal -- or at least the framework of one -- could be reached within the next month. That would avert the disastrous possibility of games being canceled for the first time since 1987. The league and players continued their talks before a mediator Tuesday and Wednesday in an undisclosed location in Maryland, just outside of Washington, and signs are that the sides have gotten past the rhetoric and are gaining traction on real progress.

The Pesthouse By Jim Crace Nan A. Talese / 272 /pages / $24.95 Deep down, Jim Crace swears he's as sunny as the next fellow. He has a strange way of showing it. His 1999 novel, Being Dead, begins with the blunt-force trauma deaths of two main characters. Others feature wind-gouged landscapes, starvation, even the ravages of Christ's journey through the wilderness. The two-time Man Booker Prize finalist insists that these locales and topics don't reveal a dark spirit. It is simply where he finds his particular brand of bracing optimism.

After three years of sporadic growth and rising optimism, Maryland retailers and service providers turned leery last month, as poor Easter sales raised fears that the economic recovery had ended.While the Maryland manufacturing sector continued to produce hopeful signs through April, service companies said their revenues fell last month, a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., reported yesterday.And service companies say they fear demand will keep dropping in the next six months.

BERLIN -- If you think Germany is turning anti-American, pay attention to what happened here last month when the president visited Berlin. No, not President Bush -- President Clinton. Mr. Clinton, who helped unveil the refurbished Brandenburg Gate, was swarmed as Germans clamored to see, hear or shake hands with him. Elvis was in the house. If Mr. Bush visited Germany today there would also be street riots -- the sort they use tear gas to control. Why the difference? In fairness to Mr. Bush, it's partly because he had to order the bombing of Afghanistan, and may do the same in Iraq, and these are deeply controversial decisions on this increasingly pacifist continent.

BOSTON -- I never dreamed that I would be feeling quite so cranky this early in the campaign season. Or that I would be driven from my usual sunny disposition to grumpiness by the Optimism Imperative. Have you noticed that the second most overused word in presidential politics -- right after "values" -- is optimism? Optimism is not just an attitude anymore, it's an entire political platform. It's as if both candidates were competing for Optimist in Chief. The whole thing began, as far as I can tell, in February, that dourest of months, when President Bush's campaign manager said: "We're moving into a phase where we will begin contrasting the president's positive, optimistic vision with the alternative."

WASHINGTON -- Business leaders are increasingly confident that the economy has shaken off recession and is entering a mild recovery, according to a new Conference Board survey to be announced today.The optimism of top corporate executives surged from January through early March, rebounding from a slide during the final three months of 1991, an index compiled by the New York-based business research center found."I think we're at a turning point right now," said Joseph W. Duncan, vice president and chief economist of Dun & Bradstreet, which issued a similar survey of business executives Wednesday.

Getting into a five-goal hole, failing to capitalize on extra-man opportunities, and committing too many penalties are just some of issues that flared up in No. 6 Salisbury's 10-8 loss to No. 3 Stevenson Wednesday night. Those troubles were noted by coach Jim Berkman, but he also tried to glean positives from the setback. “We've got to stay out of the penalty box, that's for sure,” he said Thursday morning, referring to the 13 penalties the team accumulated. “But I was proud of how our kids came back.

When Congress and the White House failed to make a deal on budget cuts March 1, sequestration went into effect, requiring federal agencies to identify $85 billion in required cuts. The looming reductions, which will be spread across agencies - with the exception of safety-net programs such as Medicaid - has federal employees and those who benefit from federal dollars concerned about how and if they will be affected. Laurie Proietti, the acting director of Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services, said she's concerned about how the sequestration cuts will affect her agency and the residents it assists.

What did you expect after such an uplifting 2012 season? The Orioles clubhouse is full of players who think that they can go even farther into October this year if they can stay reasonably healthy for the duration. “I do," said catcher Matt Wieters. “One, we're getting a healthy Nick [Markakis] back and a healthy Nolan [Reimold] back. We're comfortable with all the guys we have in this clubhouse and just what we did last year and improving on it. The good thing is we do have a lot of guys back from last year and now if everybody takes a step forward, we're right where we want to be.” The big question, after a year that produced some highly unusual statistics - 29-9 in one-run games, 16 consecutive extra-inning victories - is whether that winning chemistry will carry over into 2013.

John Wall upgraded from a Washington Wizards T-shirt to his No. 2 practice jersey Thursday, a significant development during a season in which his absence has contributed to expectations being downgraded from reaching the playoffs to simply escaping the NBA cellar. For the first time since a stress injury was diagnosed in his left patella in late September, Wall participated in limited-contact drills, sped up and down the court, and traded trash talk with his teammates after making baskets.

In his seven years in an Orioles uniform, right fielder Nick Markakis couldn't talk about the upcoming season as optimistically as he did on Tuesday. Surely, every offseason comes with its share of hopefulness. But this one, coming off the Orioles first winning season and postseason berth in 15 years, bears actual fruit. "You can definitely tell from the fans' standpoint," Markakis said. "It's good to see. This will by my eighth season coming up, and the six years prior to this past season, it's been tough.

Local legislators offered hope tempered with an acknowledgment of the economy's continuing lethargy as they spoke during the annual legislative luncheon hosted by the Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Nov. 14. "Our economy is going to continue to be very flat," said County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, speaking before Catonsville's business leaders for the first time since his December 2010 election. With tax revenues seemingly destined to continue to decline, Kamenetz said the county will continue to emphasize maintaining what it already has and encourage private enterprise.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks rose yesterday, led by technology and retail issues, amid optimism that consumers and businesses won't curtail their spending in the wake of higher interest rates.Better-than-expected earnings from ITT Corp. and Browning-Ferris Industries Inc., along with Boeing Co.'s move to trim costs by laying off more workers, also gave investors a reason to buy stocks."There's optimism about the corporate earnings picture, because the economy just seems poised to level off, not head down," said Thom Brown, managing director at Rutherford, Brown & Catherwood Inc. in Philadelphia.

NEW YORK -- More than color and line explode off the paintings collected in the final gallery of the Whitney Museum's mammoth survey of American art during this century's first 50 years. Self-confidence leaps from the canvases too.It's a great irony. For years, few Americans accepted the abstract expressionist painters -- names like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning -- whose works were celebrated in the recent Whitney exhibit as the culmination of the nation's artistic maturation.

Eric Hutchinson's success as a singer-songwriter could be measured by the Baltimore venues he's played. After honing his skills on smaller, now-defunct stages such as Fletcher's and the Funk Box, the 32-year-old Takoma Park native headlined the considerably larger Rams Head Live this past June. The rapturous response, according to the Warner Bros. recording artist, was impossible to ignore. "It was one of the best shows on the tour," Hutchinson said. "It felt like a hometown show.

Earlier Wednesday, Bernard Pollard vowed to be healthy enough to play in the Ravens' upcoming contest against the New England Patriots at M&T Bank Stadium Sunday night, but the starting strong safety did not practice on Wednesday. Pollard, who bruised his ribs on the final play of the first quarter of Sunday's 24-23 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, could be the beneficiary of an extra day off to accelerate the healing process. In addition to Pollard, a trio of starters in cornerback Lardarius Webb, inside linebacker Jameel McClain and defensive end Pernell McPhee did not take part in Wednesday's session.