Regular Season

Major League Lacrosse announced today that the defending champion Chesapeake Bayhawks and the Rochester Rattlers will play a regular-season game at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Saturday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. MLL returns to the Sunshine State for the second time, after a successful All-Star Game in Boca Raton last season, as it contemplates future expansion. The game will serve as the Rattlers' home opener. Al Lang Stadium was the past spring training home to the Orioles, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.

In this town, it remains a sepia-toned nightmare: Billy Cundiff's 32-yard field-goal attempt in the chill of Gillette Stadium drifting left, left, left - so far left you thought it would smack one of the cheerleaders. Cundiff has never recovered from that miss in last year's AFC championship, the one that left the Ravens in stunned disbelief and the New England Patriots headed to the Super Bowl with a 23-20 win. Funny thing is, Justin Tucker can't get away from that miss, either.

Prior to losing a fumble on the Ravens' first possession of Sunday's 24-9 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Wildcard round, Ray Rice had gone 445 consecutive touches without losing the football. The three-time Pro Bowl running back hadn't lost a fumble since Dec. 11, 2011. So coughing up the ball twice Sunday was somewhat surprising. Rice owned up to the gaffes, but when pressed on whether he was trying to make a little more out of the play, he got a little defensive.

All season, the Ravens talked about peaking at the right time. They downplayed their 9-2 start, maintaining that a strong finish to the regular season was what was important. They didn't want to just make the playoffs. They wanted to enter them with momentum, their offense putting up points and their defense putting down quarterbacks. Before walking out of the visiting locker room at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday following a 23-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals to end the regular season, the Ravens were singing a decidedly different tune.

Despite their many differences, the Ravens and Bengals can say they share one thing: their approach to Sunday's game at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Reiterating their previous stances, the head coaches for both teams said their approach to the regular-season finale won't change despite neither team having much at stake. "You have to" maintain the same preparations, John Harbaugh said after the Ravens practiced late Wednesday. "And that's the 46 guys who are active. They have to be a part of that.

It took just one big turnaround performance by the Ravens - and the fact that they finally clinched the AFC North title - to spawn a debate over how they should approach their final regular-season game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Should they go all out to win on the off chance that the New England Patriots lose a home game against the Miami Dolphins and squander the No. 3 conference playoff seed? Or should they take the pedal off the metal and try to make sure they are as healthy as possible for their home playoff opener the following weekend?

A sprained right ankle forced Marshal Yanda to snap a 44-consecutive starts streak dating back to Nov. 29, 2009. Whether the right guard can avoid back-to-back absences is a mystery. Yanda declined to put a percentage on his return for Sunday's regular-season home finale against the New York Giants and said he's unsure of his availability. “We'll see what happens,” he said prior to Wednesday's practice. “We're going to test it out this week and see how it feels.” Yanda, who was replaced in the Ravens' 34-17 loss to the Denver Broncos last Sunday, said he felt close to playing, but elected to avoid the risk of aggravating the sore ankle.

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.

As the end of the Major League Baseball regular season drew to a close this year, something that hadn't happened in a long time came to pass: the Baltimore Orioles made it to the postseason, winning the wild card playoff with the Rangers and then dropping their divisional round playoff with the Yankees. All-in-all, the 2012 season was a success for the Orioles, who hadn't make the playoffs since 1997. Some credit the team management, some the players, most likely both. This is baseball, though, a sport notorious for its legendary superstitions.

The box score for Maryland's opening-game loss to Kentucky contained one gaudy, improbable number - 28. "I've never seen anything like it," Wildcats coach John Calipari said of the 28 offensive rebounds - 19 in the first half - the Terps collected in losing, 72-69, at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Maryland (0-1) - which hosts Morehead State (1-0) on Monday night - shot 33 percent in the Kentucky game Friday night and were just 3-for-19 on 3-pointers. "Our shot selection was poor," coach Mark Turgeon said.