BALTIMORE, Maryland December 9, 2013 - Mandela died on December 5: Just the shortest retelling of Nelson Mandela's story is all that is necessary to realize how heroic and noble this South African is. Sadly, he died last week at his home after a prolonged illness. Born Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918 in the town of Mvezo in what is now the Cape Province of South Africa. According to Wikipedia, the town is on the banks of the Mbashe River, not far from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The funeral for Mr. Mandela will be held there on December 15, 2013.
Born into the royal family of the Thebu People, a tribe of South African people, Mr. Mandela studied at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand, both in South Africa. He studied law and worked as a lawyer for a time after graduating. Moving to Johannesburg, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became involved in anti-colonial politics. He was soon in charge of the ANC's Youth League and also took a leading role in a movement called the Defiance Campaign which opposed the South African National Party which ruled South Africa beginning in 1952. Originally dedicated to non-violent tactics, he eventually became involved in a militant organization known as Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961. This movement carried out a campaign of sabotage against the apartheid government. Arrested in 1962, he was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and sentenced to jail. He served an incredible 27 years in various hellish prisons before being released in 1990. His long imprisonment became the focal point of an international campaign against the apartheid government. Civil unrest was mounting and Mandela's release was a conciliation by the white government of F. W. de Clerk. Mr. Mandela and Mr. de Clerk entered into negotiations that led to the abolition of apartheid and national elections open to citizens of all races. In that campaign, Mr. Mandela became the nation's first black President, and his government became one of conciliation and peace. In other contries, the end of colonial rule had sparked violence and reprisals of all kinds. Thanks in no small part of Mr. Mandela, that did not happen in South Africa. Both Mr. Mandela and Mr. de Clerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
No one would have blamed Mr. Mandela if he had emerged from his long confinement as a bitter man determined to take his revenge on his tormentors. Instead he accomplished the impossible with peace and non-violence. He has set an example for all people and is a role model for many.
The Snow Fell in Waves but Could Not Stop Ravens Charge: In the end, it may well be that the Ravens began their playoff push too late in this 2013 season to succeed. Although they currently occupy the sixth and final playoff position in the American Football Conference, their hold is tenuous and provides no room whatsoever for another loss. This scenario played a prominent position on Sunday as the Ravens battled the tenancious Vikings in Baltimore. Although their season's record was abysmal, Minnesota came in to Baltimore with a 2-1-1 record in its last four games and have shown signs of turning things around under interim head coach Leslie Frazier. What neither the Ravens or Vikings were fully prepared for was the extremely heavy snow storm that rolled into Baltimore at mid-morning Sunday, and was going strong when the two teams kicked off at 1:00 pm. The first half was a virtual white-out as quarterbacks struggled to grip and control the football and players struggled to keep their footing. Yardlines and end zones were kept partially visible only because grounds crew folk used snow shovels at almost every break in the action. The snow was so heavy in the first half that Joe Flacco said he had trouble seeing the white-clad Vikings down the field. By the fourth quarter the snow had changed to freezing rain, making more of the field at least visible after frantic half-time snow clearing. The footing never improved. The Ravens bravely held a narrow 7-6 lead after three quarters, thanks to a swarming and undaunted defense, Ed Dickson's touchdown catch after a Viking Turnover (and for Viking fans, there is no question this was a bad call to begin with, made all the more terrible because it was upheld on review. The Viking ball carrier was gang tackled, and with both knees on the ground the ball was ripped from his grip. But with the knees down the play was over and the fumble and turnover should never have stood), and Minnesota's virtually complete inability to convert third down opportunities. The Vikings punted nine times during the game.
In the fourth quarter the Vikings finally scored a touchdown to take the lead, and as the clock ticked down to within seconds of the two-minute warning, that lead, 12-7, still stood. That's when the bedlam started. The Ravens finally mounted a sustained drive, culminated by Dennis Pitta's catch of Joe Flacco's second TD pass of the game. It was Pitta's first game action since the Superbowl. He sustained a terrible hip injury early in training camp and needed serious surgery. There were fears, initially, that the injury was career threatening. But any fears about a lasting impact to Pitta's ability went thrown out the window in the third quarter when Pitta dove straight out and made a reception using only his hands, sending his body pounding into the frozen ground. He immediately popped up and trotted back to the huddle. After the TD, the Ravens went for a two point conversion and converted, giving them a 15-12 lead. The crowd assumed the game was over. Sadly, so did the Ravens. It took the Vikings all of two plays to drive for another go ahead touchdown. The score came on a 41 yard run by a back-up running back after All-Pro Adrian Peterson went down with an injury in the second quarter. Peterson then laid into the Raven faithful after some threw snowballs at the Viking bench. Shameful, more or less. I remember a playoff game at dear old Memorial Stadium. It had snowed the day before and the stadium seats were not cleared by any kind of ground crew. The fans took care of that, at least the ones in the closed end of the stadium. After an official's call the fans didn't approve of resulted in an Oakland touchdown, the fans opened up with a barage of snowballs at the poor officials who were condemned to stand there in the endzone for the extra point. I was still a teenager and it didn't seem all that shameful. Times change. Anyway, the Vikings then kicked off and Jacoby Jones got a running start as he caught the short kick. Seconds later he had run by the Viking defenders to put the Ravens back in front. It didn't last. This time a short pass turned into a 79-yard touchdown and the Vikings were back in front, 26-22. The clock showed 45 seconds and the Ravens had two time-outs. Joe Flacco went right to work, finding Pitta, Marlon Brown and, as i recall, Torey Smith, or was it Jacoby Jones. Anyway, the Ravens had a first down at the Viking 9-yard line with 10 seconds left. Flacco calmly lofted a soft high pass to the back of the endzone where Brown had found open space. At 6'5", Brown had the height and he also had the athleticism to sky into the air to catch the pass. He then landed with both feet barely in bounds. Game, set and match.
The win kept the Ravens in the final playoff position. They have no room for losses. Their lead is so narrow that they are actually in a tie with the Dolphins at 7-6, but have a technical hold on the playoff spot because the first tiebraker is head-to-head competition. The Ravens, recall, beat the Dolphins down in Miami. It is their only road win. Michael Preston of the Sunpapers wrote on Monday that the wild win indicates the Ravens have their "mojo" back. I hope so. They have two road games and one home game left to play. This weekend, they play the Monday Night game at Detroit, the NFC North's Division Leader. I actually think the Ravens will win a wild affair, by a score of something like 38-24. Unlike the game on Sunday, this one will be played under Pontiac's Dome. Flacco will have a field day.
Terps set for College Cup in Philadelphia; Will Face Virginia for Third Time: It was the kind of win that proves just how great a coach Sascho Cirovski is. The Maryland Coach dug in his cleats and started freshmen at the two central defensive positions and at Keeper c vvĩat the start of this season. The result was an unusual slow start by the always powerful Terrapins. Maryland's first game was at Stanford, a good but not great Pac-12 team. Maryland needed to rally to tie the game, and the tie held through overtime. The second game was at California, a very strong Pac-12 team, with the emphasis on "strong Pac-12". Again, Maryland fell behind, rallied to tie, and sent the game into overtime. This time California scored a golden goal and the Terps lost. They returned home and beat Duke decisively on a Friday night, but lost again to Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday night. Thus, they opened the season 1-2-1. In the coach's poll, a record like that would knock almost any other team out. But his fellow coach's only cut Maryland down to no. 12. In the most recent poll the Terps are no. 4, and one suspects they will be higher in a final poll after the College Cup. Maryland improved because the three freshmen improved. Well, they didn't improve individually, they didn't need to. What improved was their ability to play well with each other. Anyone who has ever been involved in soccer knows that team defense almost always improves as a season moves on, especially if the same players are on the pitch. Cirovski didn't back off his decision to start the three freshmen. He has been rewarded with an incredible, but not unusual Terrapin run. Under Cirovski, Maryland making the College Cup is not the exception, it is the norm. On Saturday, in Berkley, California, Alex Shinsky put the Terps on top after just over one-half hour of play. Shinsky is an outstanding player. He was the most highly recruited player in the land as a high school senior in York County, Pennsylvania. He has had to work hard to get playing time at Maryland, but now that it is coming regularly, he is making it count. The Bears tied the score in the opening minutes of the second half and the score remained that way until Michael Sauers blasted home the game winner with less than four minutes remaining.
All season long the national polls and the NCAA RPI rankings tried to tell everyone that the Pac-12 had arrived en force. UCLA and Washington were 1 snf 2 in the final poll after California held the number one spot for much of the season. In the national tournament, the NCAA selection committee seeded UCLA, Washington and California 1, 2 and 4 respectively. Many people suspected that the folks at the top were getting carried away and turns out that they were. Come the final four, all the Pac-12 lads are gone. And since they were seeded so high, you know that they all fell at home.
Friday, in Philadelphia, Notre Dame will play New Mexico at 5 pm. Then, for the third time this season, Maryland play's Virginia at 7:30 pm. You might have noticed that three of the final four are ACC teams. During the regular season, Maryland and Virginia played to a 3-3 tie in Charlottesville. Then, in the ACC Tournament Championship, Maryland edged Virginia, 1-0. In the regular season game, Patrick Mullins made two second half penalty kicks as the two teams battled to a 3-3 draw. In the ACC Title Game, the match was scoreless until the final minutes when Mullins managed to turn the corner on a Cavalier Defender and head toward the goal. But he was right at the end line and had no direct shot. What'd the country's greatest collegiate player do? He sent a hard shot along the end line. Directly in front of the goal a retreating defender tried desperately to arrange his legs and feet to somehow deflect the shot harmlessly away. But he couldn't. The shot hit the defender and went directly into the goal. Do ya think Mullins might get a bit of attention from the Cavaliers on Friday?
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