Tides

NORFOLK, VA. -- You'd never know that this time last year fans were embracing the Big Apple and singing "New York, New York" at the end of every game. Now it's all Charm City, crab races on the video screen and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." They even let loose with an "O" during the national anthem. Funny things happen in baseball's offseason. For the Triple-A Norfolk Tides last winter, it meant severing a 38-year relationship with the New York Mets and getting hitched to the Orioles.

The Orioles announced after Saturday's 10-6 loss to the Tampa Bay rays that they optioned infielder Ryan Flaherty to Triple-A Norfolk. Flaherty, 26, was hitting .133 with a .228 on-base percentage and a .233 slugging percentage in 90 at-bats over 30 games for the Orioles this season. He had two homers and six RBIs. Flaherty appeared in Saturday's game as a defensive replacement. The Orioles recalled Yamaico Navarro from Norfolk on Tuesday and he started the past two games at second base.

NEW YORK -- Those in the know say he's the man to beat on Oscar night. The man is Nick Nolte, star of the critically acclaimed hits, "The Prince of Tides" and "Cape Fear."Mr. Nolte won a Golden Globe nomination as best dramatic actor for "Tides" Saturday night. The Los Angeles Films Critics Association also voted Mr. Nolte best actor for "Tides." The movie was No. 3 at the box office last week, having grossed $40.1 million.Many experts predict that Mr. Nolte will be nominated for an Academy Award as best actor for his role as Tom Wingo, the unemployed Southern football coach in the Barbra Streisand-directed "Prince of Tides."

As the television networks announced their fall schedules during this week's upfronts, news was pretty mixed for TV's LGBT characters. The good news first: Former "Will & Grace" star Sean Hayes is returning to NBC with a new sitcom bound to touch on gay issues. In "Sean Saves the World," the openly gay Hayes stars as a divorced gay dad raising a teenage daughter (Sami Isler) with the aid of his overbearing mother (Linda Lavin). Judging by the trailer , the show will tread on conventional multi-camera sitcom ground, especially with that pushy laugh track.

The movie, "The Perfect Storm," is based upon a real incident in the fall of 1991, an event that is today synonymous with killer waves and lives lost at sea. As that storm churned away offshore in the Atlantic, I couldn't convince anyone it was a big story. People thought I was crazy. For years I've observed that the really bad storms, the ones that bring death and destruction, are largely not yelled about by the broadcast media. The worst false alarms are the ones trumpeted loud and long by the television stations in the last two weeks of August, when any ripple on the ocean during vacation season is accompanied by electronic media battery.

OCEAN CITY -- Jim Mathias, a sentimental soul, remembers growing up in Baltimore when it felt like the center of the known world. His family lived on 34th Street in Hampden. Mathias recalls Saturday afternoon triple features at the Ideal movie theater, road trips to the roller coaster rides at Gwynn Oak Park and cultural excursions all the way to the Greyhound bus station on Howard Street just to play the pinball machines. They're all gone now. Long ago, the youthful Mathias imagined they would remain forever.

The Orioles announced after Saturday's 10-6 loss to the Tampa Bay rays that they optioned infielder Ryan Flaherty to Triple-A Norfolk. Flaherty, 26, was hitting .133 with a .228 on-base percentage and a .233 slugging percentage in 90 at-bats over 30 games for the Orioles this season. He had two homers and six RBIs. Flaherty appeared in Saturday's game as a defensive replacement. The Orioles recalled Yamaico Navarro from Norfolk on Tuesday and he started the past two games at second base.

OCEAN CITY -- Storm-driven surf subsided today after a day of snapping at the sea wall, surging up to the boardwalk, nipping away at dunes, dune grass and fences dedicated just this week as part of a $44 million beach replenishment project.Tides surged 4 to 5 feet above normal highs yesterday afternoon, flooding much of the south end of Ocean City, the Inlet and most of the streets along the length of the bay side."It's the worst high tide since the 1962 northeaster," said Terence J. McGean, acting city engineer.

Norfolk outfielder Luis Terrero hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth inning Friday night, highlighting a seven-run rally that broke up a 3-3 tie and carried the Tides to a 10-3 victory over Louisville in an International League game. Terrero was one of five Norfolk batters to collect two hits in the win that enabled the up-and-down Tides to end their eight-game road trip with a 2-6 record. However, for one night at least, the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate not only flashed home run power but hitting throughout the lineup.

VENICE, Italy -- The sirens wailed, the waters of the Adriatic Sea crept into St. Mark's Square, and a cold chill struck every Venetian who had suffered through the historic floods of 1966.It was Nov. 4 -- 25 years to the day after the unwelcome tides rose more than 6 feet above their normal level, wreaking devastation on the centuries-old buildings and monuments of this magic city built on tiny islands."Acqua alta" is Italian for "high water," the strange phenomenon that visits this decaying Renaissance capital with increasing regularity.

Right-handed reliever Alex Burnett, who was officially sent to the minors Saturday, was promoted to take Wei-Yin Chen's place Tuesday (which is allowable under baseball's rules because he was replacing an injured player). It's the third time Burnett has been called up by the Orioles this season; he has pitched just one scoreless inning of relief in the majors this year.   "The first time I came up here, they made me feel like a part of the team, just with the guys who are in this clubhouse and the coaching staff,” said Burnett, who had a 1.86 ERA in seven games with the Tides.

This may come as a surprise to loyal Orioles fans, but the club is going to make a roster move on Sunday. I was kidding about the surprise part. The Orioles' Norfolk Express, which in the last three weeks has brought Josh Stinson, Zach Britton, Luis Exposito, Zach Clark, Steve Johnson, Freddy Garcia and Alex Burnett (twice), will be running again Sunday morning. Technically, the reliever that will be called up will be coming from Syracuse, where the Tides are this weekend.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta, who was sent down after four excruciatingly erratic starts with the Orioles, pitched well in his first two starts for Triple-A Norfolk. Last night, his third start with the Tides did not go quite as well. The 27-year-old took the loss after allowing five runs, four of them earned, and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings. One of those runs came when Buffalo's Anthony Gose straight up stole home plate on him. Here's the video: Your browser does not support iframes.

Right-hander Daniel McCutchen, whom the Orioles signed to a minor league deal this winter and was sent out of camp March 23, has been suspended for 50 games for violating the league's drug policy for using a banned substance. According to a Major League Baseball press release, McCutchen tested positive for Methenolone and a metabolite of Trenbolone. The suspension begins immediately. McCutchen, 29, was 1-0 with a 6.14 ERA in 7 1/3 innings over seven games this spring with the Orioles.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon said he talked to his players at halftime of their National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal against Alabama about Frazier-Ali, Michael Jackson and other great performances at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Now, Maryland will get a chance to end its season with one of its own. The No. 2-seeded Terps weathered a late surge from the No. 1-seeded Crimson Tide on Tuesday night, winning 58-57 in Coleman Coliseum and earning a trip to Madison Square Garden for next week's NIT semifinals.

Think seeding is important? It sure is in the National Invitation Tournament, where top-seeded Alabama will get to host second-seeded Maryland on Tuesday night for the right to advance to the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on April 2. The better seed gets the home game in the NIT.   Alabama defeated fourth-seeded Stanford, 66-54, on Saturday to advance. If the Cardinal had won, the Terps would have hosted the quarterfinal game at Comcast Center. Maryland has won four of five games since the regular season ended -- two in the ACC tournament and two in the NIT. Alabama and Maryland last played in Puerto Rico early last season -- a 20-point Alabama win. The Crimson Tide hasn't lost at home since Dec. 30 -- a 53-50 loss to Tulane.

A rare combination of persistent winds and a slowed Florida ocean current were the cause of unusually high tides in Maryland and all along the East Coast earlier this summer, scientists say. The two phenomena added several inches to as much as two feet to predicted high and low tides along the mid-Atlantic coast, and drew notice from coastal residents and scientists alike, according to a preliminary study released Monday by the National Oceanic and...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - For more than 30 years, scientists have searched in vain for a connection between tidal forces and earthquakes, hoping for clues to help predict when a fault is ready to slip. Now, researchers from UCLA and Japan have discovered that certain types of faults near coasts are more likely to let loose during high tides. The finding supports a theory about how nearby faults interact with each other that could be very important for understanding earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area and other regions with several active faults.

A three-year absence from the NCAA tournament doesn't sit well with Don Zimmerman, but the UMBC coach may not have to issue any challenges to his players. That may come from his senior class. Fourteen of the team's 42 players are seniors, who also are the largest class on the current roster. And those seniors have yet to get a taste of the NCAA tournament - a gap on their resumes that they're not shy about emphasizing, according to Zimmerman. “I think the message that they're delivering is, 'Hey, we haven't had a winning season since we got on board, and we're certainly not satisfied with that by any means.

Organizers of the Maryland Conservative Action Network conference (Turning the Tides 2013) were profoundly disappointed that The Sun ran an attack on our conference and our speakers on the very morning of our conference ("The tide of Islamophobia," Jan. 12). You did a huge disservice to your readers by posting this polemic in a complete vacuum and without an opportunity for response from those, especially Pamela Geller, whose characters were impugned by a writer with an obvious ax to grind.