Second Season

The Ravens have had 20 un-drafted free agents working out at their team facility at a rookie mini-camp that started Friday and ends today. If anybody knows what they are going through, from the burning desire to make a strong impression to the bouts of uncertainty to the nerves and fatigue, it is LaQuan Williams . Williams, who played his high school football at Poly before moving on to the University of Maryland, reported to training camp...

HBO renewed its two new Sunday-night comedies 'VEEP' and "Girls' for a second season, and that's great news for the Baltimore TV and film production community. HBO made the announcement Monday afternoon via Twitter: "We're happy to announce #Veep and #Girls have both been picked up for a second season. @GirlsHBO. " The second season order on "VEEP" is for 10 episodes, which should mean about $15 million to the local economy.   I predicted an announcement within days after seeing the premiere week ratings for "VEEP.

"VEEP," the widely-praised Maryland-made comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, got off to a solid start Sunday night with an audience of 1.7 million viewers for two showings. The 10 p.m. showing opposite AMC's  "Mad Men"  drew 1.4 million viewers. "VEEP"  drew 300,000 more viewers than the finale of "Eastbound and Down,"  which aired the previous week in that timeslot for HBO. "Girls,"  another critically-acclaimed HBO comedy, opened the week before with 810,000 viewers in its 10:30 p.m.Sunday timeslot and 1.1 million for two showings.

As far as coach Don Zimmerman is concerned, UMBC's contest this Saturday against visiting Hartford is more than just the team's opener in the America East. It also represents a new beginning. “This is the second season,” Zimmerman said Tuesday. “We're halfway through our schedule and now we go into conference play. Conference play is always something that we put a great deal of emphasis on. We want to do well in the conference. We're starting off by playing the defending conference champion in Hartford, and they're always a tough team.

This time last year, there were more questions than answers about Orioles shortstopJ.J. Hardy. Personally, the newcomer fit in well: Unassuming, friendly, movie-star good-looking and the unrivaled and unbeaten king of the clubhouse ping pong table. But professionally, who was he? What had the Orioles received from the Minnesota Twins in December 2010 when they acquired Hardy and his nearly $6 million contract for two minor league pitchers (Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson)? Was Hardy the shortstop with the explosive bat and rocket arm that impressed early on in Milwaukee, a guy who had the potential to be - gasp - included in the same sentence with Hall of Famer Robin Yount among Brewers fans?

As the IZOD IndyCar Series motors toward the final race of the season Sunday in Las Vegas, drivers Dario Franchitti and Will Power can look back on an array of irritating moments. The two have accused each other of dirty driving. They've called each other names. They've exchanged obscene gestures. And they've seen the points lead change hands six times. Battling to the wire for the second straight season as they approach the IZOD IndyCar World Championships in Las Vegas, Franchitti and Power insist they respect each other.

Within a half-hour of her arrival on the TV set, Kerri O'Dair was transformed from casually clad college student to the picture of a young lawyer, dressed in pearls, a black suit and high heels. While a stylist applied makeup, the 18-year-old studied her notes and prepared for her appearance on "School Court TV. " O'Dair, a student at the Community College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus, plays the prosecutor in the latest episode of the courtroom drama, which airs this weekend on cable television at Comcast 45.2 or Fios 45.6.

After all of the previous postseason disappointments, this spring was supposed to be the one that ended differently for the Washington Capitals. Wednesday night, though, there would be no furious comeback, no heroics from the star-studded lineup to match the Tampa Bay Lightning's killer instinct. There would be no win in the second round, either. The Lightning captured a 5-3 win in Game 4 at the St.Pete Times Forum to complete a tidy four-game sweep of the Capitals in the Eastern Conference semifinals that took all of six days.

Last season in previewing HBO's "Treme," I said that in 30 years of writing about television, I had never heard music used as organically, wisely and powerfully as it was in the New Orleans-based series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer. I also said I never expected to hear it done better on TV. I was wrong. Sunday night's opening of Season 2 takes it to another level. And the use of music just keeps getting stronger and stronger through each of the episodes made available by HBO. In the Season 2 opener, titled "Accentuate the Positive," there is one knockout musical production after another.

Four years ago when Amanda O'Leary was recruiting her first class at Florida, it wasn't a tough sell. The chance to play lacrosse at a good academic institution with a long history of athletic success and good weather never is. But committing to the Gators and a new program did require a small leap of faith. Come here if you want to win championships, Kitty Cullen remembers athletic director Jeremy Foley telling her. They came, mostly from the Northeast, where more-established lacrosse powers recruited them, and Florida lived up to its end of the deal.