Two Minutes

Do you have two minutes, Eddie? Eddie Murray: Who are you with? The Baltimore Sun. Murray: You one of those venomous writers from The Sun? No, I don't think so. Just a couple of questions on Cal? At the event last week [Ripken's send-off at Camden Yards], did you get to spend much time around Cal, and did you get a feel for where his head was as he approached this weekend? Murray: I have no idea where it is. I didn't get to see him a whole lot in Baltimore. He showed up actually a little late at the ballpark that day. Just a little conversation on the field, and we were out of there.

The way Anne Arundel Community College student Jesse Alton sees it, the world is one big elevator - hopefully, going up. Alton is among several students at the community college who will enter in the school's fourth annual Big Idea Elevator Pitch contest, a competition designed to test young entrepreneurs' ability to crystallize their business ideas and pitch them quickly and effectively. AACC officials looking to give students a boost in selling their ideas created the contest based on the "elevator pitch" concept, which says a person should be able to sell an idea in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

Jorge del Corral scored with two minutes remaining as visiting and unranked Florida International upset No. 10 Maryland, 4-3, in men's soccer in College Park yesterday. The Terps (1-2) were outshot, 14-10.Maryland led throughout and took a 3-2 lead when Jason Cropley scored unassisted with 21 minutes left in the game. The Golden Panthers (2-0) tied the game two minutes later on a goal by Tyrone Marshall and took their first lead on del Corral's game-winner.Colgate 2, Navy 1: Freshman Dan Rollins scored a pair of goals less than a minute apart in the late stages of the second half to rally Colgate (1-1)

The blowout defeats the Navy football team suffered early this season are a distant memory, in the record books but no longer embedded in its collective psyche. The struggling offense and a quarterback plagued by turnovers are also no longer part of the game plan. They have been washed away by a three-game winning streak and an emerging star named Keenan Reynolds. Reynolds, the first freshman to start at quarterback at Navy in more than two decades, helped the Midshipmen erase an early 10-point deficit and, more significantly, a nine-point deficit in the final 12:18 to beat Indiana on Saturday, 31-30, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium before an announced homecoming crowd of 33,441 that included NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson.

How to get a part in a play:Choose an audition piece that the director hasn't heard.Don't choose an audition piece that the director hasn't heard.Choose an audition piece that demonstrates a range of emotions.Don't choose an audition piece that demonstrates too many emotions.Do something so unique that the director remembers you.Don't do anything so unique that the director remembers it, not you.Don't arrive late for your audition.Don't arrive early for your audition. -- Tips gathered from directors and actors at Everyman TheatreIt is the second of three nights of open auditions at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre and Vincent Lancisi is watching a woman die of ovarian cancer.

FIRE* Mount Airy: Mount Airy assisted Frederick County by investigating flooding on Lakeview Drive at 9:31 p.m. Thursday. Units were canceled after two minutes.

FireManchester: Firefighters responded at 2: 47 p.m. Thursday to a fire alarm in the 3300 block of Main St. Units were out two minutes.

FIRE* Hampstead: Hampstead was dispatched to help Baltimore County at a house fire in the 900 block of Maplecrest Lane at 2:13 p.m. Friday. Units were canceled after two minutes.

FIRE* Gamber: Gamber responded to a fire alarm in the 3300 block of Niner Road at 3:59 p.m. Thursday. Units were out for two minutes.

FIRE* Winfield: Winfield and Mount Airy investigated an alarm in a building in the 4400 block of Salem Bottom Road at 8:45 a.m. Thursday. Units were canceled after two minutes.

It's hot - but not too hot - and humid - but not too humid - here as 150,000 people make their way toward Churchill Downs, where the 138 th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place at about 6:30 tonight. Hard rain fell overnight, leaving the track sloppy in the morning and preventing any of the Derby's 20 contestants from going to the track (it has since been upgraded all the way up to fast). Graham Motion, the Fair Hill trainer who won the Derby last year with Animal Kingdom, had told me he hoped to take Went the Day Well out there.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh likes to talk about attacking, but he needs to attack with common sense. His decision to try an onside kick trailing 9-7 with 2 minutes and two seconds left in the game, and two timeouts, was a poor one. Instead of attempting the onside kick, he should have allowed one of his top weapons, kicker Billy Cundiff, to nail it deep in the endzone. He should have put the pressure on rookie quarterback Baline Gabbert to produce and get a first down. If the Ravens had held, they only needed a field goal to win. Instead, the Ravens didn't gain possession and they basically put the Jaguars in field goal range.

When the Ravens got the ball with 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and trailing the Tennessee Titans, 23-10, the offense never went to the no-huddle -- a somewhat surprising decision considering the deficit the Ravens found themselves in. Coach John Harbaugh said during his post-game conference on Monday that there was no call for the two-minute offense because the team wanted to be patient and make the right calls. "We changed the offense," he insisted. "We were in our two-minute calls.

I have to give Keith Olbermann and Current TV their due: For 58 minutes Monday night, they delivered an impressive premiere on the new "Countdown" show. Strong production values, reasonable discussions and no ugly over-the-top slanderous attacks on anyone. And then with only a few minutes left, Olbermann, who behaved like a professional broadcaster most of the night, teed it up for contributor Markos Moulitsas to tear into on-air talent and management at MSNBC, Olbermann's last TV home.

Filmmaker Gregory Bryan says he was "sick and tired of seeing the same Hollywood films. " What he came up with instead was "The Dark," an ethereal, 21/2-minute nightmare complete with crawling blackness, creaking skeletons and enough creepiness of all kinds to win the 2011 Sun Shorts film contest. "I really just wanted to experiment," says Bryan, 24, who, when he's not crafting eerily compelling nightscapes, works for his dad's cabinet-repair company. "It was an amazing, thrilling experience.

There might be a day, perhaps even this season, when the Maryland women's basketball team can withstand the severe demands of playing one of the country's finest teams in an uncommonly hostile environment and emerge a winner. Until then, the 14th-ranked Terrapins must settle for nights such as these, when a 71-64 loss to No. 3 Duke on Thursday revealed both the possibilities and pitfalls associated with such a youthful group. In the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both schools before an announced 5,214 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Maryland looked every bit the match for its adversary through 37-plus minutes, when it led, 60-58.

In a game in which the Ravens' secondary took a giant step back, much-maligned cornerback Frank Walker took a huge step forward with his goal-line strip of a potential touchdown Sunday in San Diego. The Ravens might need an even bigger effort from Walker this week if starting left cornerback Fabian Washington is sidelined with a concussion he suffered in the last two minutes of a 31-26 victory over the Chargers. Coach John Harbaugh hedged on Washington's availability for the Week 3 game against the Cleveland Browns, saying, "He'll have a chance to play this week."

The only blemish on top-ranked McDonogh's record in the past two years is a loss to No. 4 Perry Hall early last season. The teams met again Saturday in the McDonogh Challenge, and this time, the Eagles showed their mettle by scoring two second-half goals for a hard-fought 2-0 victory in a steady rain at Loyola College. McDonogh is 6-0, having beaten two nationally ranked teams and two teams ranked in the top five of The Baltimore Sun poll. "I think Perry Hall is a good team," McDonogh coach Steve Nichols said.