BALTIMORE, Maryland October 30, 2014 - In state after state, district after district, local legislators have followed voter momentum and federal mandates to improve the accuracy and believability of voting practices, all with an eye toward heading off planned voter fraud. Democratic action groups, I'm ashamed to report, are almost always at the forefront of these voter fraud efforts. Democrats have fought to register illegal aliens, the dead, and even non-existent individuals. Groups like Acorn are legendary in their efforts to swell democratic voter rolls no matter how illegal their tactics. States were instructed to improve the honesty, up-to-date posture, and believability of their voting rolls by culling people who had died, people who had moved out of state, and people who have moved and people who have missed so many successive voting opportunities that laws decree their names are to be stricken from the rolls. And every time a state goes about this, Eric Holder and his justice department intervene to block the effort.
Holder uses the language of civil rights, but the days when racial hooliganism was used to limit minority participation are over. The only hooliganism taking place in 2014 is at the behest of the Democratic Party. Republicans are too bashful, afraid, and downright boring to pull the illegal nonsense that the Dems promise at every turn.
And whenever any state tries to clean up the mess, Holder tries to keep it from happening. Consider this:
The Dems are strenuously and diametrically opposed to voter ID cards. They claim it is a ploy to limit minority participation. What they are saying is that minorities are too stupid to obtain the requisite ID cards, but white voters will not have such problems. Really? Is there any minority group in the United States that is that stupid? I didn't think so. But such ID cards will absolutely keep illegal aliens and the like from voting. That would be a huge problem for the Dems, who seem to sign thousands of them up each election day.
Holder takes the same tact when any state or local jurisdiction tries to cull the dead or the moved from their voting rolls. He couches this nonsensical, biased, bigoted ploy in civil rights language also. Obama backs this. And the media doesn't say a word. What kind of country has a major political party openly favor fraudulent voting? Right now, the answer is these United States.
Holder should be indicted.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wales, Poland, Iceland, Ireland and Northern Ireland Among Group Leaders in UEFA's Euro 2016
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 30, 2014 - With teams having played up to three games each, several unlikely names have emerged as leaders in UEFA's Euro 2016 Championship - Qualifying Phase. Wales, for instance, leads Group B with 7 points, 1 better than second place Israel and 3 better than third place Belgium, although Israel and Belgium have played but two matches, one fewer than Wales. Iceland and the Czech Republic are tied atop Group A with 9 points apiece and perfect 3-0-0 records. Notherlands, a final four nation in the recently concluded World Cup, are a distant third place with only 3 points.
In Group C, Slovakia leads with 9 points nnd a perfect 3-0-0 record, while Spain and the Ukraine are tied for second place with 6 points each and records of 2 wins, 1 loss and 0 draws. Poland and Ireland sit atop Group D with 7 points each. Both nations have two wins and one draw. World Cup Champion Germany is in a third place tie with Scotland, each with 1-1-1 records. The shocker in this group was Poland's 2-0 win over Germany in Warsaw on October 12. England has a firm grip on Group E, as it sits atop the standings with 9 points and a perfect 3-0-0 record. Slovenia and Lithuania are tied for second with 6 points and identical 2 win, 1 loss records. Powerful Switzerland sits alone in fourth place with a dismal 1 win, 2 loss record. Northern Ireland is in the lead in Group F with a perfect 3-0-0 mark and 9 points, but Romania is solid in second place with 7 points and a mark of 2 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. Finland and Hungary are tied for third with 4 points and records of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. Powerful Greece is in 5th place, ahead of only the Faroe Islands. The Greeks have a mark of 0 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. Austria leads the hotly contested Group G with 7 points and a mark of 2 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. Russia and Finland, with equal marks of one win and two draws, are in a second place tie with 5 points. Montenegro, with one win, one draw and one loss, is right behind Russia and Finland with 4 points. Even the teams tied for last, Moldova and Liechtenstein, each have a point and are but two wins behind the division leader. Group H is also a dogfight, with two teams undefeated after three games and one team with two wins and one loss. Italy and Croatia are tied for first with perfect 3-0-0 records and 9 points. Norway is third with 2 wins and 6 points. In Group I, the only division with only 5 teams, Denmark and Albania are tied with four points each, although Albania has played but two games. Portugal is but one point behind the leaders with 3 points and a record of one win and one loss. Serbia and Armenia have one point each and are tied for fourth.
The next round of qualifying games are November 12-14. They are the last for this year. The qualifying continues in March, 2015. France, as the host team for the Championship Round, is an automatic qualifier for the finals.
In Group C, Slovakia leads with 9 points nnd a perfect 3-0-0 record, while Spain and the Ukraine are tied for second place with 6 points each and records of 2 wins, 1 loss and 0 draws. Poland and Ireland sit atop Group D with 7 points each. Both nations have two wins and one draw. World Cup Champion Germany is in a third place tie with Scotland, each with 1-1-1 records. The shocker in this group was Poland's 2-0 win over Germany in Warsaw on October 12. England has a firm grip on Group E, as it sits atop the standings with 9 points and a perfect 3-0-0 record. Slovenia and Lithuania are tied for second with 6 points and identical 2 win, 1 loss records. Powerful Switzerland sits alone in fourth place with a dismal 1 win, 2 loss record. Northern Ireland is in the lead in Group F with a perfect 3-0-0 mark and 9 points, but Romania is solid in second place with 7 points and a mark of 2 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. Finland and Hungary are tied for third with 4 points and records of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. Powerful Greece is in 5th place, ahead of only the Faroe Islands. The Greeks have a mark of 0 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. Austria leads the hotly contested Group G with 7 points and a mark of 2 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. Russia and Finland, with equal marks of one win and two draws, are in a second place tie with 5 points. Montenegro, with one win, one draw and one loss, is right behind Russia and Finland with 4 points. Even the teams tied for last, Moldova and Liechtenstein, each have a point and are but two wins behind the division leader. Group H is also a dogfight, with two teams undefeated after three games and one team with two wins and one loss. Italy and Croatia are tied for first with perfect 3-0-0 records and 9 points. Norway is third with 2 wins and 6 points. In Group I, the only division with only 5 teams, Denmark and Albania are tied with four points each, although Albania has played but two games. Portugal is but one point behind the leaders with 3 points and a record of one win and one loss. Serbia and Armenia have one point each and are tied for fourth.
The next round of qualifying games are November 12-14. They are the last for this year. The qualifying continues in March, 2015. France, as the host team for the Championship Round, is an automatic qualifier for the finals.
In Maryland: National Party Heavyweights Flooding In as Internal Polling Shows GOP Challenger Hogan Has Closed Gap in Governor's Race; Terps Crush Hartwick, Brace for Showdown with Ohio State Saturday Night; Big Ten Regular Season Title Still Possible
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 30, 2014 - Maryland has been off the national radar this election season, even more so than usual. This is because there isn't even the nominal race for the U.S. Senate, leaving only the race for Governor to occupy the time of political junkies. With its overwhelming edge in registration, the Democrats always take Maryland for granted, and with good reason. With the exception of the odd ball race that brings a GOP candidate to power once every now and then, the national interest in Maryland is minimal or less. But this year is, out of the blue, proving to be the once every now and then that Democrats fear. The Dems' candidate for governor is two-term Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, bidding to become the first Black Governor in the state's history. His opponent is conservative businessman Larry Hogan. All summer long it appeared that Hogan had failed to generate interest because his campaign coffers were so ill-funded. All that has changed in the last days of the campaign when the internal polling of both candidates has shown a tremendous surge for Hogan. One wonders why it didn't start sooner.
It's not that Brown is a bad politician. But he is an atrocious government official. His big assignment during the eight years of Martin O'Malley was to get the Maryland obamacare website up and running. It never did get up and run. It has cost Maryland tax payers millions upon millions of dollars and was so awful that the state finally pulled the plug and started over again, spending more millions. He has nothing else to point to since he never broke from O'Malley even once, and has never sought to distance himself from the habitual tax hiker even in an oblique kind of way. O'Malley has been the dyed-in-the-wool leftist from the start of his eight years and has raised every tax he could and invented many new taxes - including the infamous "rain tax" - to inflict on Marylanders so that he could fund every one of his far left spending plans, while Brown did nothing but cheer from the sidelines. Brown never broke ranks with President Obama, either. The good news for him is that both Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama are coming to Maryland in the closing days of the campaign to pump life and, hopefully, votes into the Brown race. The bad news is that the Dems feel they have to do this to avoid a humiliating loss in a state that some have taken to calling the Massachusetts of the south. The fact that the Dems have to send either, much less both, is a sure sign of abject panic among the party that has ruled Maryland with an iron grip for as long as any living Marylander can remember. O'Malley was so far left that he defied Federal Law and expressly invited illegal aliens to come to Maryland to live. Brown has not spoken against that policy statement either.
In the GOP camp, they are celebrating the news that Chris Christey, the erstwhile Republican Governor of New Jersey, is coming to Maryland in these closing days to try to push Hogan over the final hump. Outspent by Brown and forced to accept public campaign money, Hogan has run a shoestring campaign that only in the closing days has been taken seriously. But you only have to be taken seriously one time, and that is when people vote. They vote early and often in Maryland and Hogan will need an overwhelming walk-up vote to put him in the winner's column, something that even Robert Ehrlich, Jr. could not do twice. Ehrlich was the one Republican to win the governorship in Maryland in recent years, getting into power in 2003 when the Dems nominated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to run against him. She was a Kennedy living in Maryland, but portrayed by Ehrlich as an outsider. She could not overcome the Maryland GOP Rep.in Congress, but Ehrlich lost twice in bids for a second term to O'Malley. O'Malley badly wants to be President, so badly, in fact, that he has yet to promise that he won't run against Clinton even though he was her Maryland Campaign Chairman eight years ago. Some think he wants a promise from Clinton for a top-level post in any cabinet she might get to name in Washington in return for dropping his bid.
Terps Hammer Hartwick, 5-2, as Kabelik Scores Twice; Ohio State Comes to College Park Saturday Night in Battle for Possible Big Ten Regular Season Title The Big Ten Soccer Standings are almost hopelessly jumbled and any one of six teams are still in a position to claim at least a share of the regular season title and a top seed in the conference tournament that begins one week from Saturday. Maryland, which hammered Hartwick, 5-2, in a game that wasn't that close Tuesday night in College Park, has now won six straight games in a remarkable late season surge that gives firm indication that the Terps may be the team to beat in the tournament, the first in Big Ten History. Right now, Penn State leads the Big Ten with 15 points, but the Nittany Lions are hardly in a position to claim certain top honors. They managed to emerge from a three-game losing streak on their home field last weekend when they beat last place Wisconsin in double overtime. In second place at this moment is Maryland's opponent Saturday night at Ludwig Field, Ohio State. The Buckeyes have 12 points. Michigan State stands in third place with 11 points and Maryland and Indiana are tied for fourth with ten points. Strangely, Maryland, ranked No. 14 in the Top Drawer National Poll, and Indiana, ranked No. 1, are the teams, along with Michigan State, that draw significant national attention. It is the remaining schedule of all of the teams that will decide the conference title.
Penn State has but one conference game left, and that is Sunday at Northwestern. The Wildcats, which have been in and out of the national rankings, are currently in sixth place with nine points. Besides Penn State, the Wildcats entertain Wisconsin on Wednesday. If they win both games they will finish with 15, tied with Penn State, and will get the number one seed over the Nittany Lions by virtue of beating them in head-to-head competition. There are a lot of ifs in that statement, and more left unsaid. For Northwestern to win the conference title they will need significant help from other Big Ten teams. Stay with me.
Ohio State is in second place at the moment, and they have two conference games left at this moment. If they manage to win both (at Maryland on Saturday night and at arch-rival Michigan on Wednesday) - a tall order - they will finish no worst than tied for first with Penn State. But the only way Ohio State can get the number one seed is if they win their final two and Penn State loses at Northwestern. If Ohio State and Penn State finish tied, Penn State will get the higher seed by virtue of their victory over Ohio State in September.
Michigan State is in third place with 11 points. The Spartans have two conference games remaining. On Sunday they are at Michigan and on Wednesday they are at Indiana. The only way for MSU to emerge as regular season champs is for them to win both remaining games and for Penn State to lose Sunday at Northwestern and Ohio State to do no better than split their remaining games.
Maryland, currently tied with Indiana for fourth place, has a manageable remaining schedule and like Northwestern, can win if they sweep those games. That means they need a victory Saturday night in College Park over Ohio State and Wednesday at Rutgers. The Scarlet Nights are in 8th place with only 4 points. If the Terps sweep those two games and if Penn State loses Sunday, Ohio State also loses to Michigan on Wednesday and Michigan State loses one of its remaining games, the Terps will win the regular season title regardless of what No. 1 Indiana does, because, as everybody knows by now, the Terps whacked the Hoosiers in Bloomington two weeks ago. Maryland would also win out over Northwestern, even if the Wildcats sweep, because the Terps will have one more point than the Wildcats, just as they do now.
Indiana, despite their number one ranking, has a tall order to win the Big Ten regular season title. First, they will have to win both of their remaining games: at Wisconsin on Saturday and at home against Michigan State on Wednesday. If they win both, they will still need lots of help. First, Penn State must lose to Northwestern. Second, Ohio State must lose both of their remaining games. Third, Michigan State must not only lose to the Hoosiers, but they also must get beat by Michigan. Fourth, Maryland must lose at least one of their remaining games, and not just either of those games. For Indiana to emerge as regular season champs, the Hoosiers need Maryland to beat Ohio State on Saturday night, but then to lose to lowly Rutgers on Wednesday.
Got that? I still haven't figured out if Northwestern really has a mathematical chance to win. Points wise they can tie Penn State and would win the tiebreaker because they would have beaten the Lions. But can every other team lose often enough for them to pass over every team betweem them and first place? I think it is possible. I think. I do know that Northwestern, which beat Maryland, can win both of their games and still lose out to Maryland because the Terps, if they also win both of their games, will have one more point than the Wildcats. Let's just wait and see what happens.
It's not that Brown is a bad politician. But he is an atrocious government official. His big assignment during the eight years of Martin O'Malley was to get the Maryland obamacare website up and running. It never did get up and run. It has cost Maryland tax payers millions upon millions of dollars and was so awful that the state finally pulled the plug and started over again, spending more millions. He has nothing else to point to since he never broke from O'Malley even once, and has never sought to distance himself from the habitual tax hiker even in an oblique kind of way. O'Malley has been the dyed-in-the-wool leftist from the start of his eight years and has raised every tax he could and invented many new taxes - including the infamous "rain tax" - to inflict on Marylanders so that he could fund every one of his far left spending plans, while Brown did nothing but cheer from the sidelines. Brown never broke ranks with President Obama, either. The good news for him is that both Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama are coming to Maryland in the closing days of the campaign to pump life and, hopefully, votes into the Brown race. The bad news is that the Dems feel they have to do this to avoid a humiliating loss in a state that some have taken to calling the Massachusetts of the south. The fact that the Dems have to send either, much less both, is a sure sign of abject panic among the party that has ruled Maryland with an iron grip for as long as any living Marylander can remember. O'Malley was so far left that he defied Federal Law and expressly invited illegal aliens to come to Maryland to live. Brown has not spoken against that policy statement either.
In the GOP camp, they are celebrating the news that Chris Christey, the erstwhile Republican Governor of New Jersey, is coming to Maryland in these closing days to try to push Hogan over the final hump. Outspent by Brown and forced to accept public campaign money, Hogan has run a shoestring campaign that only in the closing days has been taken seriously. But you only have to be taken seriously one time, and that is when people vote. They vote early and often in Maryland and Hogan will need an overwhelming walk-up vote to put him in the winner's column, something that even Robert Ehrlich, Jr. could not do twice. Ehrlich was the one Republican to win the governorship in Maryland in recent years, getting into power in 2003 when the Dems nominated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to run against him. She was a Kennedy living in Maryland, but portrayed by Ehrlich as an outsider. She could not overcome the Maryland GOP Rep.in Congress, but Ehrlich lost twice in bids for a second term to O'Malley. O'Malley badly wants to be President, so badly, in fact, that he has yet to promise that he won't run against Clinton even though he was her Maryland Campaign Chairman eight years ago. Some think he wants a promise from Clinton for a top-level post in any cabinet she might get to name in Washington in return for dropping his bid.
Terps Hammer Hartwick, 5-2, as Kabelik Scores Twice; Ohio State Comes to College Park Saturday Night in Battle for Possible Big Ten Regular Season Title The Big Ten Soccer Standings are almost hopelessly jumbled and any one of six teams are still in a position to claim at least a share of the regular season title and a top seed in the conference tournament that begins one week from Saturday. Maryland, which hammered Hartwick, 5-2, in a game that wasn't that close Tuesday night in College Park, has now won six straight games in a remarkable late season surge that gives firm indication that the Terps may be the team to beat in the tournament, the first in Big Ten History. Right now, Penn State leads the Big Ten with 15 points, but the Nittany Lions are hardly in a position to claim certain top honors. They managed to emerge from a three-game losing streak on their home field last weekend when they beat last place Wisconsin in double overtime. In second place at this moment is Maryland's opponent Saturday night at Ludwig Field, Ohio State. The Buckeyes have 12 points. Michigan State stands in third place with 11 points and Maryland and Indiana are tied for fourth with ten points. Strangely, Maryland, ranked No. 14 in the Top Drawer National Poll, and Indiana, ranked No. 1, are the teams, along with Michigan State, that draw significant national attention. It is the remaining schedule of all of the teams that will decide the conference title.
Penn State has but one conference game left, and that is Sunday at Northwestern. The Wildcats, which have been in and out of the national rankings, are currently in sixth place with nine points. Besides Penn State, the Wildcats entertain Wisconsin on Wednesday. If they win both games they will finish with 15, tied with Penn State, and will get the number one seed over the Nittany Lions by virtue of beating them in head-to-head competition. There are a lot of ifs in that statement, and more left unsaid. For Northwestern to win the conference title they will need significant help from other Big Ten teams. Stay with me.
Ohio State is in second place at the moment, and they have two conference games left at this moment. If they manage to win both (at Maryland on Saturday night and at arch-rival Michigan on Wednesday) - a tall order - they will finish no worst than tied for first with Penn State. But the only way Ohio State can get the number one seed is if they win their final two and Penn State loses at Northwestern. If Ohio State and Penn State finish tied, Penn State will get the higher seed by virtue of their victory over Ohio State in September.
Michigan State is in third place with 11 points. The Spartans have two conference games remaining. On Sunday they are at Michigan and on Wednesday they are at Indiana. The only way for MSU to emerge as regular season champs is for them to win both remaining games and for Penn State to lose Sunday at Northwestern and Ohio State to do no better than split their remaining games.
Maryland, currently tied with Indiana for fourth place, has a manageable remaining schedule and like Northwestern, can win if they sweep those games. That means they need a victory Saturday night in College Park over Ohio State and Wednesday at Rutgers. The Scarlet Nights are in 8th place with only 4 points. If the Terps sweep those two games and if Penn State loses Sunday, Ohio State also loses to Michigan on Wednesday and Michigan State loses one of its remaining games, the Terps will win the regular season title regardless of what No. 1 Indiana does, because, as everybody knows by now, the Terps whacked the Hoosiers in Bloomington two weeks ago. Maryland would also win out over Northwestern, even if the Wildcats sweep, because the Terps will have one more point than the Wildcats, just as they do now.
Indiana, despite their number one ranking, has a tall order to win the Big Ten regular season title. First, they will have to win both of their remaining games: at Wisconsin on Saturday and at home against Michigan State on Wednesday. If they win both, they will still need lots of help. First, Penn State must lose to Northwestern. Second, Ohio State must lose both of their remaining games. Third, Michigan State must not only lose to the Hoosiers, but they also must get beat by Michigan. Fourth, Maryland must lose at least one of their remaining games, and not just either of those games. For Indiana to emerge as regular season champs, the Hoosiers need Maryland to beat Ohio State on Saturday night, but then to lose to lowly Rutgers on Wednesday.
Got that? I still haven't figured out if Northwestern really has a mathematical chance to win. Points wise they can tie Penn State and would win the tiebreaker because they would have beaten the Lions. But can every other team lose often enough for them to pass over every team betweem them and first place? I think it is possible. I think. I do know that Northwestern, which beat Maryland, can win both of their games and still lose out to Maryland because the Terps, if they also win both of their games, will have one more point than the Wildcats. Let's just wait and see what happens.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Surging Maryland Rips Santa Clara as Conference and NCAA Championship Tournaments Loom
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 26, 2014 - With both the Big Ten and NCAA Soccer Championship Tournaments on the immediate horizon, the suddenly surging University of Maryland soccer team put on another impressive display Saturday night, ripping tenacious Santa Clara, 3-1, at Ludwig Field in College Park. It was the Terps' fifth straight win, and comes on the heels of their amazing turnaround, which is finally being recognized by the national soccer polls. Maryland was unranked after a series of defeats leading up to the midseason mark. A heartbreaking overtime loss at Northwestern was the nadir, as Maryland dropped to 3-5-2 overall on that sad Sunday afternoon in Illinois. Beginning with their next outing, however, Maryland's entire season changed. The troubles they had experienced from the outset of the season with scoring seemed to evaporate overnight. In succession now, the Terps have defeated Virginia Commonwealth, Penn State (a 4-0 rout over the then-undefeated and Big-Ten-leading Nittany Lions), Lehigh, Indiana (now ranked No. 1, and playing at home in Bloomington), and now the same Santa Clara team that had played No. 2 UCLA to a scoreless tie through two overtimes a few short weeks ago. Maryland is now ranked No. 14 in the Top Flight Division I poll. In the most recent NSCAA (Coach's) poll, they are unranked but with points. The NCAA, at their web page, is carrying the soccer RPI. In the latest edition of that thing the Terps are No. 23. None of these polls make any sense when you consider that the Terps beat Indiana in Bloomington and absolutely destroyed Penn State when it was undefeated. The Terps do not want to give these people any wiggle room when they already have five losses.
Maryland has three regular season games remaining, including Tuesday night at home against struggling but always tenacious Hartwick, and Saturday night at home against Ohio State. They then complete the regular season on the road at Rutgers. Penn State and Ohio State are tied for first with 12 points apiece. Maryland and Michigan State are right behind the two front runners with ten points each. Obviously, the Maryland game with Ohio State on Saturday night is of supreme importance, as the Terps make a late push for conference honors. And despite their spate of victories, it is imperative for them to continue. Maryland has literally forced themselves on NCAA selection committees for many years. It is impossible to deny a team that comes to the table every season with a dozen quality wins. This year might be different. They are in a new league that isn't familiar with them or their ability. And they opened the season with a series of dismal offensive performances. The plain truth is that Maryland relied heavily on Patrick Mullins the last two seasons, and they needed time and games to ween themselves away from that reliance. Now, they have. They also have Sasho Cirovski, fortunately, and he is one of the best coaches in the game. No one expected the present team to finish the season like they started it. The only question was whether the turnaround would be in time to permit them to earn a berth in the national tournament. That question has been answered in the positive also, providing they don't stumble during these final weeks of the regular season. They have two places to watch for such a stumble. The first is Saturday night against Ohio State and the second the final game of the regular season at Rutgers. Rutgers really scares me. Maryland will be ready for Ohio State. They are a huge name in any sport, and in the case of soccer, they are ahead of Maryland in the conference standings. But Rutgers is one of those street-fighters that love the mud and dust in front of the goal and manage to make your life miserable no matter what their record is coming in. The Scarlet Knights this season are an unenviable 5-9-1, including a last place Big Ten mark of 1-5-1. Their win was in overtime at Wisconsin early in the season. Their tie, which is also about their most impressive outing of the season, was a tie with Michigan State.
All three of Maryland's remaining matches, including tonight's with Hartwick, Saturday's with Ohio State and next Tuesday's with Rutgers in East Rutherford, start at 7 pm.
Maryland has three regular season games remaining, including Tuesday night at home against struggling but always tenacious Hartwick, and Saturday night at home against Ohio State. They then complete the regular season on the road at Rutgers. Penn State and Ohio State are tied for first with 12 points apiece. Maryland and Michigan State are right behind the two front runners with ten points each. Obviously, the Maryland game with Ohio State on Saturday night is of supreme importance, as the Terps make a late push for conference honors. And despite their spate of victories, it is imperative for them to continue. Maryland has literally forced themselves on NCAA selection committees for many years. It is impossible to deny a team that comes to the table every season with a dozen quality wins. This year might be different. They are in a new league that isn't familiar with them or their ability. And they opened the season with a series of dismal offensive performances. The plain truth is that Maryland relied heavily on Patrick Mullins the last two seasons, and they needed time and games to ween themselves away from that reliance. Now, they have. They also have Sasho Cirovski, fortunately, and he is one of the best coaches in the game. No one expected the present team to finish the season like they started it. The only question was whether the turnaround would be in time to permit them to earn a berth in the national tournament. That question has been answered in the positive also, providing they don't stumble during these final weeks of the regular season. They have two places to watch for such a stumble. The first is Saturday night against Ohio State and the second the final game of the regular season at Rutgers. Rutgers really scares me. Maryland will be ready for Ohio State. They are a huge name in any sport, and in the case of soccer, they are ahead of Maryland in the conference standings. But Rutgers is one of those street-fighters that love the mud and dust in front of the goal and manage to make your life miserable no matter what their record is coming in. The Scarlet Knights this season are an unenviable 5-9-1, including a last place Big Ten mark of 1-5-1. Their win was in overtime at Wisconsin early in the season. Their tie, which is also about their most impressive outing of the season, was a tie with Michigan State.
All three of Maryland's remaining matches, including tonight's with Hartwick, Saturday's with Ohio State and next Tuesday's with Rutgers in East Rutherford, start at 7 pm.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
An Air of Professional Wrestling Overcomes NFL Side Judge Rick Patterson, Who Robs Ravens of Winning Touchdown and Masters the Art of Seeing What Never Was There
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 26, 2014 - It was a whale of a game. John Harbaugh, the coach of the Baltimore Ravens, made sure everybody knew that, and he should know. He was right there on the field where the battle played out. On the shore of the great Ohio Rover, in the crisp air that helps make autumn what it is, two of the best football teams the NFL has in its stable had at each other on Sunday. The first three quarters were pretty good, but the fourth quarter was one for the ages. As that quarter began to play out, the Cincinnati Bengals seemed to have the game in control. They led, 20-14 (they had led by as much as 11 points earlier), and they had the ball at the Baltimore Raven 32 yard line. There was under seven minutes left and they were already in field goal range, a field goal which would have forced the Ravens to score twice in waning minutes to catch up. But the Ravens are champions and nobody watching thought this one would end quietly.
Nevertheless, the change was sudden. The Bengals faced a second down and six yards to go situation at the Baltimore 32 yard line. Their quarterback, Andy Dalton, dropped into the pocket to throw when he heard a grinding roar. The Ravens have the best defensive lineman in the game, Hloti Ngata, and he was bull-rushing one of the Bengals offensive linemen. A bull-rush is when a player just bashes right through an opponent. Quick as a flash, Ngata reached right through the linemen and grabbed Dalton. Dalton went down and the ball went flying backwards toward the Bengal goal line. Darryl Smith of the Ravens picked the ball up and went tearing down the field toward the endzone. One of the Bengals finally caught up to Smith and forced him down, but he was all the way down the field at the Bengal 8-yard-line. The Ravens came to life quickly after that. On first down from the Bengal 8, Lorenzo Taliaferro barged around the end and into the endzone. When Justin Tucker added the extra point, Baltimore had its first lead of the game at 21-20. There was six minutes and 36 seconds left on the clock. Hold on.
Because the Ravens were penalized for a supposed unsportsmanlike conduct violation after Taliaferro's run, they had to kick from their own 20. Justin Tucker boomed his kick some 74 yards to the Bengal 6 yard line, where Pacman Jones fielded the ball and ran it back 34 yards to the Bengal 40. The Raven defense went back to work. On first down Dalton tried a quick pass to Mohammed Sanu. Sanu appeared to catch the ball inside of a crowd of Raven receivers about 8 yards from the line of scrimmage. As he was hit simultaneously by two or three different Ravens, the Baltimore safety, Matt Elam, ripped the ball from Sanu's grasp. The ball flew up into the air, wobbling slowly. C.J. Mosely, the Ravens' superb rookie linebacker from Alabama, grabbed the ball and headed down the field again. He didn't get that far before running into Raven all-pro linebacker Terrell Suggs. Stunned briefly, Mosely collected himself and started again. He was taken down at the Bengal 43. I kind of thought the Ravens made a mistake at this point. There was 6:12 left, and they had only a one-point lead. I did not think they should sit on the ball. I thought they should keep right on going and do their best to put the game on ice. Instead, they ran three positive plays, all of which gained yards. Justin Forsett gained five yards on first down. Justin Forsett gained one yard on second down. Marlon Brown caught a pass from Flacco on third down, but he was tackled at once by Iloka at the 35 yard line for only a two yard gain. It brought up a fourth down and two yards to go. On came Justin Tucker, and his second field goal of over 50 yards in this game gave the Ravens a four point lead. There was now 4:05 left.
Now the Bengals marched methodically down the field. Whereas the Ravens had bull-rushed and bashed and ripped on the two previous Bengal possessions, this time it was the Bengals who were the aggressors. They marched to the one yard line of the Ravens, and from there all of their beef surged forward, with Dalton at their rear, for a quarterback-sneak-of-a-touchdown. Now the Bengals were back in front, 27-24. There were 57 seconds left.
The kickoff resulted in a touchback, and the Ravens took over at their 20-yard-line. Two passes from Flacco were incomplete. Now it was third down and ten yards to go, and the Ravens had long since run out of tine-outs, wisely using them near the end of the Bengals drive in the event that Cincy scored. There were but 47 seconds left. A NFL Side Judge with latent visions of grandeur was about to claim his moment of fame. His name, we are told, is Rick Patterson, and although he allegedly officiated the entire game, he wasn't watching very closely. He apparently didn't notice that a whole lot of physical contact between defensive backs and wide receivers was being overlooked. He missed it when, right in front of him, one of the Bengals defensive backs poked Raven wide receiver Torey Smith in the eye, an attack so vicious that it forced him to stop dead in his tracks on a crucial third down play. Joe Flacco threw the ball to where Smith intended to be. The Bengals intercepted. No penalty was assessed. He also missed it when George Iloka, the defensive back whom was the "victim" of the so-called offensive interference, was hanging, literally, on Steve Smith, Sr.'s back during a pass into the endzone earlier in the game. But now there were 47 seconds left, and Rick Patterson decided that enough was enough. Bully for him! Bully for you, Rick Patterson.
The call he made was for "offensive pass interference" and it was against Steve Smith, Sr., one of the game's elder statemen and a certain hall-of-famer. Joe Flacco had avoided the fierce Bengal pass rush that had played a role in the incompletions on first and second down. He ran to his left, then toward the line of scrimmage, where, long before he crossed that line, he heaved a long picture-perfect spiral to Smith. Three defenders, at least, were around Smith, Sr., and one of them, Iloka, got his feet tangled together and fell down. Everybody was pushing and grabbing, trying to get in position as the ball descended. Smith caught it and squirmed away from the other defenders. When last seen by the Bengal defense, he had run across the Bengal goal line to put the Ravens ahead. There were only 32 seconds left.
Rick Patterson had made his mark. And solely because of that call, termed "abysmal" and "just plain ridiculous" by NFL Sanctioned Media Observers, the Ravens lost to the Bengals in a pivotal AFC North showdown in Cincinnati on Sunday.
Let me interrupt my recounting of the event right here. What is wrong with this picture? What credo would a real professional official be following at this point of an extremely important professional football game being witnessed by many hundreds of thousands of fans? What would a real official, one who has permitted, and thereby encouraged the teams to settle the game on the field, have done? The answer, of course, is: nothing. Absolutely nothing. A real official would realize that football fans, having paid hundreds of dollars for their tickets, and the millions of fans watching on TV, do not come to watch dunderheaded stripeys making fools of themselves by sticking their mugs where they do not belong. The game on Sunday was great for the first 59:13 because it was a war between two great teams being permitted to have at each other. Fans everywhere want games decided on the field. And that is what was happening on the field in Cincinnati. As Ravens coach John Harbaugh said later, he saw a tremendous game played by two championship-caliber teams, bashing into each other with a vengeance for over three hours. They saw two tremendous comebacks and were in the middle of seeing a third really stupendous rally. One of the game's great clutch quarterbacks, in the prime of his career, finding one of the games great pass receivers, fighting with everything he had to make a sublime, breathtaking great catch in a crowd of defenders. And all Mr. Rick making sure as he did, that nobody was being held, that nobody had their hands clenched in a fist as they jockeyed for position, and making sure nothing untoward (like spitting or the like) was being utilized. Patterson was asked to watch. The worst part of what Patterson did was act like he missed the rest of the game. The officials throughout the contest, as they always seem to do when these two teams meet, let the men play. It was brutal throughout. A bunch of guys were hurt. A whole lot of the brutality was taking place right in front of Patterson. Torey Smith, the great Ravens receiver, was intentionally poked in the eye on a crucial third down play. He was so shocked and blinded that he stopped dead in his tracks, leading to Flacco's pass being intercepted. No call was made. Rick Patterson, without ever meeting him, emerges instantly as somebody with a personal issue, somebody who had a deep-seeded need to show how tough he was, how big he was. And all he did was show what a wee small man he is.
For the record, Patterson wasn't the only one deserving of criticism on the call. When an important game is in danger of being decided by such an awful call, the game referee, whoever he was (the NFL guards that information as if it were a national secret. They might announce it at the start of a television broadcast but after the game, forget about it. In fact at the NFL web page, the call played no part in the outcome). After the game and seeing the winning touchdown play many times on video-replay, another NFL-sanctioned media observer said, "we didn't see it (the alleged interference), the pinstripes "saw" it, and that's how this one ended."
Former NFL Receiver Quadry Ismail said on another NFL-sanctioned radio broadcast that defensive backs and receivers battle with their hands for position on a play like that, when all of the players involved get to the spot where the ball will land before it actually gets there. In such a situation, the official always lets them battle for position. ALWAYS. After the game, a Cincinnati reporter tried to goad Raven coach John Harbaugh into laying into the offending officiating crew, but Coach Harbaugh deftly pushed it aside.
"I saw a completion," Harbaugh said in describing the incident. When the reporter persisted, Harbaugh said, "You saw the play, write about it."
Let me say this about the call: only a third class, "C" League game official would think it was acceptable (laudable?)for a game such as the one he was officiating to end on a call like the one he made. Great games end with great players making plays, not with bonehead offials putting a wrasslin' brand on the proceedings. Steve Smith had been bumped, banged, pushed, shoved, held, including having his jersey held, tripped, slapped and all other manner of physical assaults that take place in an NFL game such as the one played in Cincinnati yesterday. Because apparently for Mr. Home Town Hero, the rest of the game and the way it was officiated didn't matter. Instead of a first-class on-the-field play deciding the game, it ended with a distinct air of professional wrestling wafting across the playing field.
There are times when league officials try to defend a knuckleheaded call like the one in question by saying it was a "judgment" call. But in the real world, a first class football referee would disagree. The wrong judgment was made when, seeing what occurred, the official still thought that anything at all needed to be called. Nothing needed to be called because no rules were broken. There wasn't even anything close to a foul taking place on the play. The call the official missed was extending both arms upward when Smith crossed the goal line. Important games need to be decided on the field. Good referees realize this. It is the knucklehead, the small man in need of attention, that needs to insert himself into such a situation. Ask yourself this, if the correct call was made - which was a no-call - would the Bengals have complained even a little bit? There was a game a few years back in Atlanta when a Falcons receiver obviously, really obviously, with arms extended and the defender stumbling backward, committed offensive interference on the deciding touchdown catch. Even on the replay the guys in the booth admitted the Falcons had gotten away with one. There was no league announcement after the game, however, and the Ravens didn't pursue it. The game on Sunday pitted two pro teams battling to the end and giving no quarter. And an officiating crew that from the beginning of the game to the end, let them play. There were injuries galore, there was sweat, effort and determination. Then one fool ruined it. Now his supervisors will either put their collective noses in the air "and let it go, or do the right thing. They can't turn back the clock, it's too late. All they can do is get rid of Mr. Patterson as a warning to other would-be-hometown-heroes. Some fool on Fox tried to provide cover for his former colleague. The networks do that now. They hire former referees to take up for the ones still employed when a controversial call is made. Rarely, if ever, do they disagree with the guy on the field, so you know you're not getting an objective opinion. In many ways football offciating it one big joke because there are, technically, penalties on every play. In Sunday's game the Bengals marched on their first possession. Near the goal line they were flagged for an obvious hold in the offensive line. I watched on the next play. Not only were there obvious holds, but the player flagged for the hold on the previous play doubled down on the next play. No call was made, and just for that the Bengals scored a rare TD. Their weak-armed quarterback was allowed enough time to step into his threw and complete it. Good for him. Comparing him and his arm to Flaccos is like comparing apples and oranges. It would be nice if an offensive coordinator came up with an system that fully utilized Flacco's abilities. Kubiak has a great plan and the Ravens are winning with it. But it doesn't capitalize on Flacco's arm. For the Ravens not to have scored a TD until the fourth quarter was disgraceful. I know that Kamar Akin dropped a TD pass. I know everybody thought he was ready for the pressure of being the go to guy on that play. I know the throw came out of the sun and was a tiny bit low, but Kamar - who will be a great receiver if given the chance - didn't have his hands right for the pass to begin with. He had both parallel to the ground and the ball just skidded across both. He needed to have his hands ready to make the catch. And for the record and while on the subject, why can't NFL fitness people come up with a regimen for skill players that addresses hamstring injuries. It, for the undereducated on the toic like myself, is absolutely amazing that a guy who has to be in great physical shape like Michael Campanaro, can pull a hamstring well into the second quarter, when you know he is warmed up. And, finally, Flacco and Torey have to get together and hash out the things that are keeping them from hooking up more often. Both of them are premier players - there are no better that their positions. And yet we don't get near enough from Torey and we hear that he isn't a great rout runner. Baloney. If he isn't running certain patters properly, change the patterns, don't avoid the receiver. Nobody tries harder in the game than Torey and Joe. Do this, dudes, OK? So here we are at the half-way point with a 5-3 record. Two of the losses are to a team that is not and will not be as good as you are. I believe Dean Pees is as good as it gets at his job. But there has to be a way to shut this Cincinnati team down. Their quarterback has weak arm. I know losing Jimmy Smith early was very tough. I know that Ladarius Webb still isn't at full strength. But our line and especially our linebackers are incredibly good. Everybody says the key is putting pressure on the QB. It's just like basketball. Put pressure on the ball and suddenly all of those marvelous passes evaporate.
The Ravens will be recorded as losing a game that they out-scored the Bengals, 30-27, not counting the extra point they weren't allowed to kick because of the dunderheads in pinstripes. Unless the NFL has totally succumbed to the PC police, they will eliminate a knucklehead like the one who made the awful call, and they will speak to the game official who didn't take matters into his own hands when the reputation of the game was directly threatened. If you're the captain of a ship and the man assigned to the watch tells you he just saw three mermaids, will you allow your ship to bash into the shoals or get another watchman?
Nevertheless, the change was sudden. The Bengals faced a second down and six yards to go situation at the Baltimore 32 yard line. Their quarterback, Andy Dalton, dropped into the pocket to throw when he heard a grinding roar. The Ravens have the best defensive lineman in the game, Hloti Ngata, and he was bull-rushing one of the Bengals offensive linemen. A bull-rush is when a player just bashes right through an opponent. Quick as a flash, Ngata reached right through the linemen and grabbed Dalton. Dalton went down and the ball went flying backwards toward the Bengal goal line. Darryl Smith of the Ravens picked the ball up and went tearing down the field toward the endzone. One of the Bengals finally caught up to Smith and forced him down, but he was all the way down the field at the Bengal 8-yard-line. The Ravens came to life quickly after that. On first down from the Bengal 8, Lorenzo Taliaferro barged around the end and into the endzone. When Justin Tucker added the extra point, Baltimore had its first lead of the game at 21-20. There was six minutes and 36 seconds left on the clock. Hold on.
Because the Ravens were penalized for a supposed unsportsmanlike conduct violation after Taliaferro's run, they had to kick from their own 20. Justin Tucker boomed his kick some 74 yards to the Bengal 6 yard line, where Pacman Jones fielded the ball and ran it back 34 yards to the Bengal 40. The Raven defense went back to work. On first down Dalton tried a quick pass to Mohammed Sanu. Sanu appeared to catch the ball inside of a crowd of Raven receivers about 8 yards from the line of scrimmage. As he was hit simultaneously by two or three different Ravens, the Baltimore safety, Matt Elam, ripped the ball from Sanu's grasp. The ball flew up into the air, wobbling slowly. C.J. Mosely, the Ravens' superb rookie linebacker from Alabama, grabbed the ball and headed down the field again. He didn't get that far before running into Raven all-pro linebacker Terrell Suggs. Stunned briefly, Mosely collected himself and started again. He was taken down at the Bengal 43. I kind of thought the Ravens made a mistake at this point. There was 6:12 left, and they had only a one-point lead. I did not think they should sit on the ball. I thought they should keep right on going and do their best to put the game on ice. Instead, they ran three positive plays, all of which gained yards. Justin Forsett gained five yards on first down. Justin Forsett gained one yard on second down. Marlon Brown caught a pass from Flacco on third down, but he was tackled at once by Iloka at the 35 yard line for only a two yard gain. It brought up a fourth down and two yards to go. On came Justin Tucker, and his second field goal of over 50 yards in this game gave the Ravens a four point lead. There was now 4:05 left.
Now the Bengals marched methodically down the field. Whereas the Ravens had bull-rushed and bashed and ripped on the two previous Bengal possessions, this time it was the Bengals who were the aggressors. They marched to the one yard line of the Ravens, and from there all of their beef surged forward, with Dalton at their rear, for a quarterback-sneak-of-a-touchdown. Now the Bengals were back in front, 27-24. There were 57 seconds left.
The kickoff resulted in a touchback, and the Ravens took over at their 20-yard-line. Two passes from Flacco were incomplete. Now it was third down and ten yards to go, and the Ravens had long since run out of tine-outs, wisely using them near the end of the Bengals drive in the event that Cincy scored. There were but 47 seconds left. A NFL Side Judge with latent visions of grandeur was about to claim his moment of fame. His name, we are told, is Rick Patterson, and although he allegedly officiated the entire game, he wasn't watching very closely. He apparently didn't notice that a whole lot of physical contact between defensive backs and wide receivers was being overlooked. He missed it when, right in front of him, one of the Bengals defensive backs poked Raven wide receiver Torey Smith in the eye, an attack so vicious that it forced him to stop dead in his tracks on a crucial third down play. Joe Flacco threw the ball to where Smith intended to be. The Bengals intercepted. No penalty was assessed. He also missed it when George Iloka, the defensive back whom was the "victim" of the so-called offensive interference, was hanging, literally, on Steve Smith, Sr.'s back during a pass into the endzone earlier in the game. But now there were 47 seconds left, and Rick Patterson decided that enough was enough. Bully for him! Bully for you, Rick Patterson.
The call he made was for "offensive pass interference" and it was against Steve Smith, Sr., one of the game's elder statemen and a certain hall-of-famer. Joe Flacco had avoided the fierce Bengal pass rush that had played a role in the incompletions on first and second down. He ran to his left, then toward the line of scrimmage, where, long before he crossed that line, he heaved a long picture-perfect spiral to Smith. Three defenders, at least, were around Smith, Sr., and one of them, Iloka, got his feet tangled together and fell down. Everybody was pushing and grabbing, trying to get in position as the ball descended. Smith caught it and squirmed away from the other defenders. When last seen by the Bengal defense, he had run across the Bengal goal line to put the Ravens ahead. There were only 32 seconds left.
Rick Patterson had made his mark. And solely because of that call, termed "abysmal" and "just plain ridiculous" by NFL Sanctioned Media Observers, the Ravens lost to the Bengals in a pivotal AFC North showdown in Cincinnati on Sunday.
Let me interrupt my recounting of the event right here. What is wrong with this picture? What credo would a real professional official be following at this point of an extremely important professional football game being witnessed by many hundreds of thousands of fans? What would a real official, one who has permitted, and thereby encouraged the teams to settle the game on the field, have done? The answer, of course, is: nothing. Absolutely nothing. A real official would realize that football fans, having paid hundreds of dollars for their tickets, and the millions of fans watching on TV, do not come to watch dunderheaded stripeys making fools of themselves by sticking their mugs where they do not belong. The game on Sunday was great for the first 59:13 because it was a war between two great teams being permitted to have at each other. Fans everywhere want games decided on the field. And that is what was happening on the field in Cincinnati. As Ravens coach John Harbaugh said later, he saw a tremendous game played by two championship-caliber teams, bashing into each other with a vengeance for over three hours. They saw two tremendous comebacks and were in the middle of seeing a third really stupendous rally. One of the game's great clutch quarterbacks, in the prime of his career, finding one of the games great pass receivers, fighting with everything he had to make a sublime, breathtaking great catch in a crowd of defenders. And all Mr. Rick making sure as he did, that nobody was being held, that nobody had their hands clenched in a fist as they jockeyed for position, and making sure nothing untoward (like spitting or the like) was being utilized. Patterson was asked to watch. The worst part of what Patterson did was act like he missed the rest of the game. The officials throughout the contest, as they always seem to do when these two teams meet, let the men play. It was brutal throughout. A bunch of guys were hurt. A whole lot of the brutality was taking place right in front of Patterson. Torey Smith, the great Ravens receiver, was intentionally poked in the eye on a crucial third down play. He was so shocked and blinded that he stopped dead in his tracks, leading to Flacco's pass being intercepted. No call was made. Rick Patterson, without ever meeting him, emerges instantly as somebody with a personal issue, somebody who had a deep-seeded need to show how tough he was, how big he was. And all he did was show what a wee small man he is.
For the record, Patterson wasn't the only one deserving of criticism on the call. When an important game is in danger of being decided by such an awful call, the game referee, whoever he was (the NFL guards that information as if it were a national secret. They might announce it at the start of a television broadcast but after the game, forget about it. In fact at the NFL web page, the call played no part in the outcome). After the game and seeing the winning touchdown play many times on video-replay, another NFL-sanctioned media observer said, "we didn't see it (the alleged interference), the pinstripes "saw" it, and that's how this one ended."
Former NFL Receiver Quadry Ismail said on another NFL-sanctioned radio broadcast that defensive backs and receivers battle with their hands for position on a play like that, when all of the players involved get to the spot where the ball will land before it actually gets there. In such a situation, the official always lets them battle for position. ALWAYS. After the game, a Cincinnati reporter tried to goad Raven coach John Harbaugh into laying into the offending officiating crew, but Coach Harbaugh deftly pushed it aside.
"I saw a completion," Harbaugh said in describing the incident. When the reporter persisted, Harbaugh said, "You saw the play, write about it."
Let me say this about the call: only a third class, "C" League game official would think it was acceptable (laudable?)for a game such as the one he was officiating to end on a call like the one he made. Great games end with great players making plays, not with bonehead offials putting a wrasslin' brand on the proceedings. Steve Smith had been bumped, banged, pushed, shoved, held, including having his jersey held, tripped, slapped and all other manner of physical assaults that take place in an NFL game such as the one played in Cincinnati yesterday. Because apparently for Mr. Home Town Hero, the rest of the game and the way it was officiated didn't matter. Instead of a first-class on-the-field play deciding the game, it ended with a distinct air of professional wrestling wafting across the playing field.
There are times when league officials try to defend a knuckleheaded call like the one in question by saying it was a "judgment" call. But in the real world, a first class football referee would disagree. The wrong judgment was made when, seeing what occurred, the official still thought that anything at all needed to be called. Nothing needed to be called because no rules were broken. There wasn't even anything close to a foul taking place on the play. The call the official missed was extending both arms upward when Smith crossed the goal line. Important games need to be decided on the field. Good referees realize this. It is the knucklehead, the small man in need of attention, that needs to insert himself into such a situation. Ask yourself this, if the correct call was made - which was a no-call - would the Bengals have complained even a little bit? There was a game a few years back in Atlanta when a Falcons receiver obviously, really obviously, with arms extended and the defender stumbling backward, committed offensive interference on the deciding touchdown catch. Even on the replay the guys in the booth admitted the Falcons had gotten away with one. There was no league announcement after the game, however, and the Ravens didn't pursue it. The game on Sunday pitted two pro teams battling to the end and giving no quarter. And an officiating crew that from the beginning of the game to the end, let them play. There were injuries galore, there was sweat, effort and determination. Then one fool ruined it. Now his supervisors will either put their collective noses in the air "and let it go, or do the right thing. They can't turn back the clock, it's too late. All they can do is get rid of Mr. Patterson as a warning to other would-be-hometown-heroes. Some fool on Fox tried to provide cover for his former colleague. The networks do that now. They hire former referees to take up for the ones still employed when a controversial call is made. Rarely, if ever, do they disagree with the guy on the field, so you know you're not getting an objective opinion. In many ways football offciating it one big joke because there are, technically, penalties on every play. In Sunday's game the Bengals marched on their first possession. Near the goal line they were flagged for an obvious hold in the offensive line. I watched on the next play. Not only were there obvious holds, but the player flagged for the hold on the previous play doubled down on the next play. No call was made, and just for that the Bengals scored a rare TD. Their weak-armed quarterback was allowed enough time to step into his threw and complete it. Good for him. Comparing him and his arm to Flaccos is like comparing apples and oranges. It would be nice if an offensive coordinator came up with an system that fully utilized Flacco's abilities. Kubiak has a great plan and the Ravens are winning with it. But it doesn't capitalize on Flacco's arm. For the Ravens not to have scored a TD until the fourth quarter was disgraceful. I know that Kamar Akin dropped a TD pass. I know everybody thought he was ready for the pressure of being the go to guy on that play. I know the throw came out of the sun and was a tiny bit low, but Kamar - who will be a great receiver if given the chance - didn't have his hands right for the pass to begin with. He had both parallel to the ground and the ball just skidded across both. He needed to have his hands ready to make the catch. And for the record and while on the subject, why can't NFL fitness people come up with a regimen for skill players that addresses hamstring injuries. It, for the undereducated on the toic like myself, is absolutely amazing that a guy who has to be in great physical shape like Michael Campanaro, can pull a hamstring well into the second quarter, when you know he is warmed up. And, finally, Flacco and Torey have to get together and hash out the things that are keeping them from hooking up more often. Both of them are premier players - there are no better that their positions. And yet we don't get near enough from Torey and we hear that he isn't a great rout runner. Baloney. If he isn't running certain patters properly, change the patterns, don't avoid the receiver. Nobody tries harder in the game than Torey and Joe. Do this, dudes, OK? So here we are at the half-way point with a 5-3 record. Two of the losses are to a team that is not and will not be as good as you are. I believe Dean Pees is as good as it gets at his job. But there has to be a way to shut this Cincinnati team down. Their quarterback has weak arm. I know losing Jimmy Smith early was very tough. I know that Ladarius Webb still isn't at full strength. But our line and especially our linebackers are incredibly good. Everybody says the key is putting pressure on the QB. It's just like basketball. Put pressure on the ball and suddenly all of those marvelous passes evaporate.
The Ravens will be recorded as losing a game that they out-scored the Bengals, 30-27, not counting the extra point they weren't allowed to kick because of the dunderheads in pinstripes. Unless the NFL has totally succumbed to the PC police, they will eliminate a knucklehead like the one who made the awful call, and they will speak to the game official who didn't take matters into his own hands when the reputation of the game was directly threatened. If you're the captain of a ship and the man assigned to the watch tells you he just saw three mermaids, will you allow your ship to bash into the shoals or get another watchman?
Friday, October 24, 2014
Stunning Revelation: Obama Whitehouse Picking Targets In Anti-ISIS Air Campaign
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 24, 2014 - So mistrustful of the United States Military Services during the current war against ISIS, President Obama and his Whitehouse Political Functionaries are themselves telling the Pentagon who and what the Air Force can bomb and when they can bomb them, and, also, who and what they are not permitted to bomb. Thus, political appointees without military training are telling Air Force Pilots who they may bomb in the ISIS campaign and when they may bomb them, and these same ultra left political appointees are also instructing the pilots who and what they are not permitted to bomb.
The incredible spectre of this arrangement became clear about ten days ago when military observers on the ground noted how few air sorties were being flown against ISIS during the all out battle for Kobani, a city on the Syrian-Turkish border. Lightly armed but supremely dogged Kurdish Peshmurga militia are fighting a life and death battle to prevent ISIS from overrunning the city, but during the lead up to the battle, when ISIS had to traverse open ground to get near enough to Kobani for their artillery, only a few air strikes were called. This, despite the fact that ISIS forces were extremely vulnerable to such strikes. Only after the battle was well underway has the US stepped up the number of strikes. President Obama was, early on, saying publicly that Kobani was not an important location in the fight against ISIS. Military observers - even in the United States Military - openly disagreed, and the ferocity of the fighting on both sides belied Obama's statements. Finally, the message must have gotten through to whomever was calling the shots in the air campaign because the intensity and volume of airstrikes and other air missions, such as dropping supplies and even weapons to the Peshmerga, have dramatically increased in recent days.
Historically, a President approves a specific military campaign, then allows his trained military commanders to conduct the nuts and bolts of the conflict. But Obama and his ultra far left functionaries refuse to do this and instead are picking targets for the air strikes themselves. Sources have said that the degree of mistrust held by Obama's functionaries, and Obama himself, have led to this situation. Interviewed on Fox News on Friday morning, retired military officer Jack Kean quoted sources at the Pentagon with information about this situation.
The incredible spectre of this arrangement became clear about ten days ago when military observers on the ground noted how few air sorties were being flown against ISIS during the all out battle for Kobani, a city on the Syrian-Turkish border. Lightly armed but supremely dogged Kurdish Peshmurga militia are fighting a life and death battle to prevent ISIS from overrunning the city, but during the lead up to the battle, when ISIS had to traverse open ground to get near enough to Kobani for their artillery, only a few air strikes were called. This, despite the fact that ISIS forces were extremely vulnerable to such strikes. Only after the battle was well underway has the US stepped up the number of strikes. President Obama was, early on, saying publicly that Kobani was not an important location in the fight against ISIS. Military observers - even in the United States Military - openly disagreed, and the ferocity of the fighting on both sides belied Obama's statements. Finally, the message must have gotten through to whomever was calling the shots in the air campaign because the intensity and volume of airstrikes and other air missions, such as dropping supplies and even weapons to the Peshmerga, have dramatically increased in recent days.
Historically, a President approves a specific military campaign, then allows his trained military commanders to conduct the nuts and bolts of the conflict. But Obama and his ultra far left functionaries refuse to do this and instead are picking targets for the air strikes themselves. Sources have said that the degree of mistrust held by Obama's functionaries, and Obama himself, have led to this situation. Interviewed on Fox News on Friday morning, retired military officer Jack Kean quoted sources at the Pentagon with information about this situation.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Sports in Summary: Maryland Soccer and Football, Burnley, the Ravens and the Orioles
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 21, 2014 - On a weekend when Maryland's Soccer team beat a top five team again - probably assuring themselves a berth in the upcoming NCAA tournament - and Maryland's Football Team won its second Big Ten conference game in three tries, Burnley suffered a dispiriting home loss. The Ravens also won, and even though they remain below the radar at 5-2, and even though their opponent is in the middle of a disasterous campaign, the fact is that the Ravens moved into undisputed possession of first place in the AFC North on the eve of their weekend showdown with the second place Bengals in Cincinnati. It was also the first weekend since the first one in April that baseball fans faced without Oriole baseball.
Just 16 days ago, on October 5, Maryland's soccer team was 3-5-2 and had just lost an overtime match at Northwestern. It appeared that the unthinkable was occurring: an NCAA soccer season in which the University of Maryland was no factor. The Terps, it appeared, had a decent defense but no offense at all. And what's worse, they were terrible when the game was on the line. They had been beat by Michigan State at home and did not seem to be able to do anything right. The one thing they had going for them was their amazing coach, Sascho Cirovski. It might just be that he was all the very young Terps needed to turn it around. Two weekends ago the Terps routed Big Ten Leader Penn State, 4-0, in College Park. Then, on Sunday, they scored an impressive and convincing 2-1 win over No. 5 Indiana in Bloomington. Suddenly, Maryland is back in the National Picture. Their record is now, 7-5-2 (3-2-1 in the Big Ten) with an important non-league game against Santa Clara on the horizon this Saturday night at Ludwig Field. After the Indiana win, Cirovski said on the team web site that "The team was extremely connected and competed on every play. It’s clear that we are on an upward trend and the adversity we faced in the beginning of the year is paying dividends for us now. It was extremely important for us to get a road win and to do that at Indiana is extra special.”
Here are the up-to-the-minute soccer standings in the Big Ten:
1. Penn State: Big Ten: 4-2-0, 12 points, .667 pct; overall: 10-2-1, .808 pct
2. Michigan State: Big Ten: 3-1-1, 10 points, .700 pct; overall: 9-2-2, .769 pct
3. Maryland: Big Ten: 3-2-1, 10 points, .583 pct; overall: 7-5-2, .571 pct
4. Ohio State: Big Ten: 3-2-0, 9 points, .600 pct; overall: 5-5-3, .500 pct
5. Northwestern: Big Ten: 2-1-2, 8 points, .600 pct; overall: 7-2-4, .692 pct
6. Michigan: Big Ten: 2-1-2, 8 points, .600 pct, overall: 4-6-2, .417 pct
7. Indiana: Big Ten: 2-2-1, 7 points, .500 pct; overall: 8-2-3, .731 pct
8. Rutgers: Big Ten: 1-4-1, 4 points, .250 pct; overall: 4-8-1, .346 pct
9. Wisconsin: Big Ten: 0-5-0, 0 points, .000 pct; overall: 2-9-2, .231 pct
points are awarded as follows: 3 for each conference win, 1 for each conference tie
In football, the Terps fell behind Iowa by 14 points, then ran off 24 unanswered points en route to a convincing 38-21 victory. Will Likely intercepted a Hawkeye pass and ran it back 45 yards for one of the touchdowns Maryland scored, and the remarkable wide-out Stefon Diggs caught nine passes for 130 yards and another of the touchdowns, as the Terps recorded their first-ever Big Ten home victory. The Terps are now 5-2 overall in this 2014 season, and 2-1 in the Big Ten. This puts the Terps in third place in the Big Ten East Division, behind Ohio State and Michigan State, who play each other this coming weekend. The Terps now embark on a two-game road trip, playing this Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin at the Badgers, and next Saturday in University Park against Penn State. Here are the up-to-the-minute Big Ten standings:
EAST DIVISION
Michigan State: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 3-0; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-0
Ohio State: overall: 5-1; Big Ten: 2-0; Vs. Big Ten East: 2-0
Maryland: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Penn State: overall: 4-2; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Michigan: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Rutgers: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-2
Indiana: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 0-3; Vs. Big Ten East: 0-2
WEST DIVISION
Minnesota: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 3-0; Vs. Big Ten West: 2-0
Nebraska: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 2-0
Iowa: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-0
Northwestern: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 2-2; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-2
Wisconsin: overall: 4-2; Big Ten: 1-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-1
Purdue: overall: 3-5; Big Ten: 1-3; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-2
Illinois: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 0-3; Vs. Big Ten West: 0-3
Updated through all games of October 18
In the United Kingdom, meantime, Burnley suffered a real downer of a loss. The Claret were at home against West Ham, and, what's more, Danny Ings was back on the pitch for the first time since early September. The final score is misleading. Ings almost immediately scored - in the 8th minute - but an "Assistant" referee called the Claret offside (they were not) and took the goal away. Remember that. Without that boneheaded call, Burnley would've been ahead, 1-0, at the break. Such a result would've forced West Ham to go an all-out offensive in the second half, opening themselves for counter-attacks. West Ham then scored two goals early on in the second half, before George Boyd scored for the Claret. Boyd's goal should've tied the score, and at that point, both sides, and certainly West Ham, would've played for a tie. But instead, Boyd's goal only pulled Burnley within one goal. Burnley hardly needs Assistant Referees making awful calls to take goals off the board.
The Ravens went back to work Sunday against hapless Atlanta and their once-great QB, Matt Ryan. Falcon fans and other smug NFL hooters once laughed when Raven fans said Joe Flacco was the better of the two quarterbacks. They don't laugh at all, anymore. One week after he threw five touchdown passes on the road in Tampa, Flacco returned home to pick apart the Falcons. The final score was 29-7, and combined with the Colts' decimation of the Bengals put the Ravens in first place in the AFC North. The up-to-the-minute standings look like this:
1. Baltimore Ravens: 5 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties, .714 pct
2. Cincinnati Bengals: 3 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie, .583 pct*
3. Pittsburgh Steelers: 4 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties, .571 pct
4. Cleveland Browns: 3 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties, .500 pct
*In calculating win percentage for a team with a tie on its record, count the tie as one-half of a win and one-half of a loss. Thus, the Bengals record when figuring win percentage is 3.5 wins and 2.5 losses, which figures out to .583.
The Ravens have given up fewer points (104) than any other team in the NFL. Only three teams have scored more points than the Ravens, who have 193 points, those teams are the Colts (216), the Packers (199 points) and the Cowbodys (196 points). Strangely, the Bengals and Steelers are on the negative side of the points parade. The Bengals have scored 134 points and given up 140 points; and the Steelers have scored 154 points and given up 162 points. The Browns, in last place in the division, have scored one more point than they have given up. The AFC North is the only division in the league with all of its teams at .500 or better. Were the Browns in the NFC South, they'd be tied for first. What all of this means is that the Ravens are pretty darn good, so far. What the standings look like after the Bengal game is quite important. What they look like in two weeks, after the Bengal and the Steeler game, is even more important. Obviously, if the Ravens sweep those two road games, their season will be in just fine shape.
The Baltimore Sun was filled with articles over the weekend telling the Orioles what they need to do in the off-season to make it into next season's World Series. The cold reality for the Birds is that a lot of other teams will be bidding against them for their two most coveted free agents: Nelson Cruz and Andrew Miller. The Orioles have a few advantages with both. In the case of Cruz, they were the only team interested in signing him last winter when he was just coming off a substance suspension. The Orioles and their owner, Peter Angelos, paid Cruz $8 million for 2014. Since Cruz led the AL in home rums and runs batted in, he'll get offers for a lot more this off-season. Miller, also, has a lot to commend himself to suiters. He was awesome for the Orioles, especially in the playoffs when he was all but unhittable. What will work hard against the Birds and for Miller is that most of the teams that will compete with the Birds want to make Miller their closer. This observer makes the wild and unsupported prediction that the Orioles will resign Cruz but not Miller. I wish it were the other way around, even though I would dearly want both.
The other Oriole free agent of note will be Nick Markakis. The Orioles and Markakis have a mutual option for next season at $17.5 million. The club has let it be known that they will decline the option in hopes of working out a more economical multi-year deal. So Markakis will test the market, most observers agree.
In going after both Cruz and Miller the Orioles will have to bear in mind that they are on the cusp of several other key players becoming free agents, including Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and Chris Davis. They have made long-term deals with J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones. The club also has options on Darren O'Day and Wei-Yin Chen that they almost certainly will exercise. They also have one on catcher Nick Hundley that they probably won't, even though they want to keep him in the organization.
Just 16 days ago, on October 5, Maryland's soccer team was 3-5-2 and had just lost an overtime match at Northwestern. It appeared that the unthinkable was occurring: an NCAA soccer season in which the University of Maryland was no factor. The Terps, it appeared, had a decent defense but no offense at all. And what's worse, they were terrible when the game was on the line. They had been beat by Michigan State at home and did not seem to be able to do anything right. The one thing they had going for them was their amazing coach, Sascho Cirovski. It might just be that he was all the very young Terps needed to turn it around. Two weekends ago the Terps routed Big Ten Leader Penn State, 4-0, in College Park. Then, on Sunday, they scored an impressive and convincing 2-1 win over No. 5 Indiana in Bloomington. Suddenly, Maryland is back in the National Picture. Their record is now, 7-5-2 (3-2-1 in the Big Ten) with an important non-league game against Santa Clara on the horizon this Saturday night at Ludwig Field. After the Indiana win, Cirovski said on the team web site that "The team was extremely connected and competed on every play. It’s clear that we are on an upward trend and the adversity we faced in the beginning of the year is paying dividends for us now. It was extremely important for us to get a road win and to do that at Indiana is extra special.”
Here are the up-to-the-minute soccer standings in the Big Ten:
1. Penn State: Big Ten: 4-2-0, 12 points, .667 pct; overall: 10-2-1, .808 pct
2. Michigan State: Big Ten: 3-1-1, 10 points, .700 pct; overall: 9-2-2, .769 pct
3. Maryland: Big Ten: 3-2-1, 10 points, .583 pct; overall: 7-5-2, .571 pct
4. Ohio State: Big Ten: 3-2-0, 9 points, .600 pct; overall: 5-5-3, .500 pct
5. Northwestern: Big Ten: 2-1-2, 8 points, .600 pct; overall: 7-2-4, .692 pct
6. Michigan: Big Ten: 2-1-2, 8 points, .600 pct, overall: 4-6-2, .417 pct
7. Indiana: Big Ten: 2-2-1, 7 points, .500 pct; overall: 8-2-3, .731 pct
8. Rutgers: Big Ten: 1-4-1, 4 points, .250 pct; overall: 4-8-1, .346 pct
9. Wisconsin: Big Ten: 0-5-0, 0 points, .000 pct; overall: 2-9-2, .231 pct
points are awarded as follows: 3 for each conference win, 1 for each conference tie
In football, the Terps fell behind Iowa by 14 points, then ran off 24 unanswered points en route to a convincing 38-21 victory. Will Likely intercepted a Hawkeye pass and ran it back 45 yards for one of the touchdowns Maryland scored, and the remarkable wide-out Stefon Diggs caught nine passes for 130 yards and another of the touchdowns, as the Terps recorded their first-ever Big Ten home victory. The Terps are now 5-2 overall in this 2014 season, and 2-1 in the Big Ten. This puts the Terps in third place in the Big Ten East Division, behind Ohio State and Michigan State, who play each other this coming weekend. The Terps now embark on a two-game road trip, playing this Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin at the Badgers, and next Saturday in University Park against Penn State. Here are the up-to-the-minute Big Ten standings:
EAST DIVISION
Michigan State: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 3-0; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-0
Ohio State: overall: 5-1; Big Ten: 2-0; Vs. Big Ten East: 2-0
Maryland: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Penn State: overall: 4-2; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Michigan: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-1
Rutgers: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 1-2; Vs. Big Ten East: 1-2
Indiana: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 0-3; Vs. Big Ten East: 0-2
WEST DIVISION
Minnesota: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 3-0; Vs. Big Ten West: 2-0
Nebraska: overall: 6-1; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 2-0
Iowa: overall: 5-2; Big Ten: 2-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-0
Northwestern: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 2-2; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-2
Wisconsin: overall: 4-2; Big Ten: 1-1; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-1
Purdue: overall: 3-5; Big Ten: 1-3; Vs. Big Ten West: 1-2
Illinois: overall: 3-4; Big Ten: 0-3; Vs. Big Ten West: 0-3
Updated through all games of October 18
In the United Kingdom, meantime, Burnley suffered a real downer of a loss. The Claret were at home against West Ham, and, what's more, Danny Ings was back on the pitch for the first time since early September. The final score is misleading. Ings almost immediately scored - in the 8th minute - but an "Assistant" referee called the Claret offside (they were not) and took the goal away. Remember that. Without that boneheaded call, Burnley would've been ahead, 1-0, at the break. Such a result would've forced West Ham to go an all-out offensive in the second half, opening themselves for counter-attacks. West Ham then scored two goals early on in the second half, before George Boyd scored for the Claret. Boyd's goal should've tied the score, and at that point, both sides, and certainly West Ham, would've played for a tie. But instead, Boyd's goal only pulled Burnley within one goal. Burnley hardly needs Assistant Referees making awful calls to take goals off the board.
The Ravens went back to work Sunday against hapless Atlanta and their once-great QB, Matt Ryan. Falcon fans and other smug NFL hooters once laughed when Raven fans said Joe Flacco was the better of the two quarterbacks. They don't laugh at all, anymore. One week after he threw five touchdown passes on the road in Tampa, Flacco returned home to pick apart the Falcons. The final score was 29-7, and combined with the Colts' decimation of the Bengals put the Ravens in first place in the AFC North. The up-to-the-minute standings look like this:
1. Baltimore Ravens: 5 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties, .714 pct
2. Cincinnati Bengals: 3 wins, 2 losses, 1 tie, .583 pct*
3. Pittsburgh Steelers: 4 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties, .571 pct
4. Cleveland Browns: 3 wins, 3 losses, 0 ties, .500 pct
*In calculating win percentage for a team with a tie on its record, count the tie as one-half of a win and one-half of a loss. Thus, the Bengals record when figuring win percentage is 3.5 wins and 2.5 losses, which figures out to .583.
The Ravens have given up fewer points (104) than any other team in the NFL. Only three teams have scored more points than the Ravens, who have 193 points, those teams are the Colts (216), the Packers (199 points) and the Cowbodys (196 points). Strangely, the Bengals and Steelers are on the negative side of the points parade. The Bengals have scored 134 points and given up 140 points; and the Steelers have scored 154 points and given up 162 points. The Browns, in last place in the division, have scored one more point than they have given up. The AFC North is the only division in the league with all of its teams at .500 or better. Were the Browns in the NFC South, they'd be tied for first. What all of this means is that the Ravens are pretty darn good, so far. What the standings look like after the Bengal game is quite important. What they look like in two weeks, after the Bengal and the Steeler game, is even more important. Obviously, if the Ravens sweep those two road games, their season will be in just fine shape.
The Baltimore Sun was filled with articles over the weekend telling the Orioles what they need to do in the off-season to make it into next season's World Series. The cold reality for the Birds is that a lot of other teams will be bidding against them for their two most coveted free agents: Nelson Cruz and Andrew Miller. The Orioles have a few advantages with both. In the case of Cruz, they were the only team interested in signing him last winter when he was just coming off a substance suspension. The Orioles and their owner, Peter Angelos, paid Cruz $8 million for 2014. Since Cruz led the AL in home rums and runs batted in, he'll get offers for a lot more this off-season. Miller, also, has a lot to commend himself to suiters. He was awesome for the Orioles, especially in the playoffs when he was all but unhittable. What will work hard against the Birds and for Miller is that most of the teams that will compete with the Birds want to make Miller their closer. This observer makes the wild and unsupported prediction that the Orioles will resign Cruz but not Miller. I wish it were the other way around, even though I would dearly want both.
The other Oriole free agent of note will be Nick Markakis. The Orioles and Markakis have a mutual option for next season at $17.5 million. The club has let it be known that they will decline the option in hopes of working out a more economical multi-year deal. So Markakis will test the market, most observers agree.
In going after both Cruz and Miller the Orioles will have to bear in mind that they are on the cusp of several other key players becoming free agents, including Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and Chris Davis. They have made long-term deals with J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones. The club also has options on Darren O'Day and Wei-Yin Chen that they almost certainly will exercise. They also have one on catcher Nick Hundley that they probably won't, even though they want to keep him in the organization.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
The Unmitigated Evil That Is ISIS; and While We are on that Subject, Whither Putin?
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 13, 2014 - There are no words in the English Language, or any other Language, that does justice to the totality of pure evil that is ISIS. In 2014, they rape. They pilage. They plunder. They murder. They torture. They humiliate publicly. They are narcissistic, absolutely narcissistic. They display no mercy or compassion even though many of their victims have never come across them before. In other words, they have no grudge or articulable dispute with them. Former United States Special Envoy to Iraq, Paul Bremmer, said in a televised interview today that other terrorist groups are pledging allegiance to the caliphate being formed by ISIS. How sick must the Taliban and Al Qaeda be to swear allegiance to such depraved men? What do they imagine of a god who condones such debauchery? Bremmer also said that ISIS troops are now coming to within rocket range of the Bagdad Airport. Things are looking increasingly grim for hope of preventing ISIS from conquering Iraq's largest city. Meanwhile, Christian women are being sold into slavery, many after being raped and tortured. There is no limit to the evil these maggots are willing to engage in.
We are told that young people from around the world are rushing to the Middle East to join ISIS. Governments should assume that anyone leaving their homes on such a fantasy are sick and in dire need of expedited and long-term institutionalization. Maryland, for instance, maintains a facility for housing the criminally insane at Patuxent. I humbly suggest opening an ISIS wing.
More disturbing is the reality that ISIS is determined to export their brand of criminal insanity to these United States, and to Western Europe, meaning England, France and Germany. I believe that the book of Revelations speak to this. If it doesn't, it should.
New polls show that Americans - despite a stated desire to keep our soldiers out of foreign fights - believe more and more that our elite soldiers will have to go to Iraq and Syria to eliminate this evil menagerie. But Obama is hell bent against it. I do, however, believe there is a chance that election day pressures may force him to alter his stand. If he hasn't changed by election day, it is hard to imagine what will cause him to change.
When evil this open marches on the Earth, good men either respond and stop it, or get a full taste of it when such evil knocks on their door. Mr. President, they are ready to knock on our door,
While ISIS and its debauchery fill news cycles worldwide, Russian Strongman Vlad Putin continues to pilage and plunder the Ukraine. A commercial airline was shot out of the sky by one of his surrogates. Eastern Ukraine cities are now ruled by lawless cut throats claiming an allegiance to Putin. Putin smiles and openly supplies them with weapons and ammunition. Where hardware alone isn't successful, he sends in his troops. Our President's response is very similar to his response to ISIS. He will not send arms to the Ukrainian Government because he doesn't want them to think they can fight with Russia. Yet we provide them with no alternative. Putin will not peacefully agree to leave Ukraine alone. He turns his hackers lose on Ukraine, Nato and the United States. The Ukraine government has no way of helping its own citizens, who grow understandably restless as their civilization is taken over by lawlessness, shelling, fighting and all the other spinoffs of semi-guerilla warfare.
What should Obama do about Putin and ISIS? There are, of course, no simple answers. There are short and long term strategies, all of which are anethamas to him. He wants to smile and whisper in their collective ears about how they are supposed to act pursuant to his elitist model of international behavior. The idea that people like Putin and groups like ISIS think his ideas are gibberish appalls him, and, once appalled, he stops thinking and acting. And here we - USA Citizens - are left; Obama won't act like leaders are supposed to act because Putin and ISIS won't act like he wants them to act. God help us!
We are told that young people from around the world are rushing to the Middle East to join ISIS. Governments should assume that anyone leaving their homes on such a fantasy are sick and in dire need of expedited and long-term institutionalization. Maryland, for instance, maintains a facility for housing the criminally insane at Patuxent. I humbly suggest opening an ISIS wing.
More disturbing is the reality that ISIS is determined to export their brand of criminal insanity to these United States, and to Western Europe, meaning England, France and Germany. I believe that the book of Revelations speak to this. If it doesn't, it should.
New polls show that Americans - despite a stated desire to keep our soldiers out of foreign fights - believe more and more that our elite soldiers will have to go to Iraq and Syria to eliminate this evil menagerie. But Obama is hell bent against it. I do, however, believe there is a chance that election day pressures may force him to alter his stand. If he hasn't changed by election day, it is hard to imagine what will cause him to change.
When evil this open marches on the Earth, good men either respond and stop it, or get a full taste of it when such evil knocks on their door. Mr. President, they are ready to knock on our door,
While ISIS and its debauchery fill news cycles worldwide, Russian Strongman Vlad Putin continues to pilage and plunder the Ukraine. A commercial airline was shot out of the sky by one of his surrogates. Eastern Ukraine cities are now ruled by lawless cut throats claiming an allegiance to Putin. Putin smiles and openly supplies them with weapons and ammunition. Where hardware alone isn't successful, he sends in his troops. Our President's response is very similar to his response to ISIS. He will not send arms to the Ukrainian Government because he doesn't want them to think they can fight with Russia. Yet we provide them with no alternative. Putin will not peacefully agree to leave Ukraine alone. He turns his hackers lose on Ukraine, Nato and the United States. The Ukraine government has no way of helping its own citizens, who grow understandably restless as their civilization is taken over by lawlessness, shelling, fighting and all the other spinoffs of semi-guerilla warfare.
What should Obama do about Putin and ISIS? There are, of course, no simple answers. There are short and long term strategies, all of which are anethamas to him. He wants to smile and whisper in their collective ears about how they are supposed to act pursuant to his elitist model of international behavior. The idea that people like Putin and groups like ISIS think his ideas are gibberish appalls him, and, once appalled, he stops thinking and acting. And here we - USA Citizens - are left; Obama won't act like leaders are supposed to act because Putin and ISIS won't act like he wants them to act. God help us!
Monday, October 13, 2014
Sports On the Weekend: Lost in USA Headlines is Poland's Shocking 2-0 Win Over World Champion Germany; Maryland Routs Penn State; Orioles Still Have Time to Win ALCS; Ravens Play Like They Always Should in Routing Tampa
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 13, 2014 - It's hard to imagine a bigger upset. Germany is only months away from a stylish and convincing victory in the World Cup, the first European side to win the Cup on South American soil. On the other hand, Poland once again failed to qualify for the World Cup. Move the calendar forward to Saturday, October 11 in Warsaw. Over 57,000 Polish soccer fans filled the National Stadium to see the match between the two nations, with the winner taking over first place in Group D of the Qualifying Divisions for the European 2016 Championship Tournament.
While a few of the German heroes from the World Cup side were missing, most were on the pitch for the match, including scoring machine Thomas Muller and Championship Game Hero Mario Götze. Polish stalwart Robert Lewandowski, who set up the second Polish goal in the 88th minute with a deft pass to Sebastian Mila, said his teammates respected Germany too much at the start of the match. Within a short period of time, however, the Polish side realized they could play with Germany and set about acoomplishing something Poland had never done: defeat Germany in international competition. In fact, the last six times the two nations competed Poland had not scored. Poland broke on top in the 51st minute on a header by Arkadiusz Milik. Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny played all the way in the nets for Poland and recorded the unlikely shutout. Poland is now tied for the Group D lead with six points, the same as Ireland. Germany is in third place with three points.
On Tuesday, Poland collides with Scotland while Germany plays co-Group D leader Ireland. Last spring, Scotland defeated Poland in a friendly match in Warsaw, 1-0.
Another surprising soccer result from the weekend - at least when you look at how the season has started for the two teams - was Maryland's rout of powerful Penn State. Perennial power Maryland has struggled greatly out of the gate this season, and even with the key win Sunday sports only a 5-5-2 overall record, and 2-2-1 in the Big Ten. Penn State is now 10=1=1 overall, and 4-1 in the conference, and the Nittany Lions remain in first place. Here are the up-to-the-minute soceer standings:
1. Penn State: Conference: 4-1-0, .800 pct; Overall: 10-1-1, .875 pct
2. Michigan: Conference: 2-1-2, .600 pct; Overall: 4-5-2, .455 pct
3. Indiana: Conference: 2-1-1, .625 pct; Overall: 8-1-3, .792 pct
4. Michigan State: Conference: 2-1-1, .625 pct; Overall: 7-2-2, .727 pct
5. Maryland: Conference: 2-2-1, .500; Overall: 5-5-2, .500 pct
6. Ohio State: Conference: 2-2-0, .500 pct; Overall: 4-5-3, .458 pct
7. Northwestern: Conference: 1-1-2, .500 pct; Overall: 6-1-4, .727 pct
8. Rutgers: Conference: 1-3-1, .300 pct; Overall: 3-7-1, .318 pct
9. Wisconsin: Conference: 0-4-0, .000; Overall: 2-8-1, .227 pct
The Terps got two goals from Mael Corboz and one each from Alex Shinsky and Tsubassa Endoh. Corboz scored first in the 12th minute, his fourth goal of the season. He scored his second goal in the 31st minute, and the Terps took that lead to halftime. Shinsky and Endoh scored in the second half. Maryland returns to the pitch Wednesday night at Ludwig Field against Lehigh. The next Big Ten game is Sunday, at 2 pm in Bloomington against Indiana. To say it is a key game for the Terps is the ultimate understatement. If the Terps are to be a factor in the Big Ten race they must win at Indiana. Otherwise, they are doomed to the second division in a race even Big Ten writers figured they would win.
Another team with their season on the line is the Baltimore Orioles. They lost both of the initial games of their American League Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals in Baltimore. Both were nailbiters and in both they faded late and lost. The bullpen, the pride and joy of the Oriole hierarchy, has given up key runs in both games. While Andrew Miller has been tremendous, both Zach Britton and Darren O'Day have been shadows of their regular season selves. In both games, the Oriole starting pitchers gave up a barrage of runs that, somehow, the offense battled back from. And then, incredibly, the bullpen gave Kansas City the lead back. That just should not have happened.
My objection is that Kansas City just isn't that good. They have a line-up of banjo hitters that we are treating like the Bronx Bombers of 1927. Babe Ruth is not in the Kansas City line-up. Pitchers, get these bums out, now, while there is still time. And the line-up needs to know this: Detroit beat these guys. When they shot ahead of the Tigers, the Tigers collected themselves and got thel division lead back. The Royals are here because they won the wild card game from Oakland. They should not be ahead in this series. The Orioles can still win. I cannot imagine them being swept. I hope the comeback starts tonight.
As for the Ravens, they played yesterday like they should play every weekend. Joe Flacco can be that good every Sunday. We have talent at wide receiver that is as deep as it is good. Marlon Brown didn't even play yesterday and when all is said and done he might be the best receiver of the lot, if it isn't Torrey Smith. T. Smith looked like he should always look. He has the best hands in the NFL. And even without Ray Rice, we are deep and talented at running back. The defense, especially the linebackers, get better every week. The Ravens, though, have to believe in themselves as much as I do. Otherwise, yesterday was just a mirage.
While a few of the German heroes from the World Cup side were missing, most were on the pitch for the match, including scoring machine Thomas Muller and Championship Game Hero Mario Götze. Polish stalwart Robert Lewandowski, who set up the second Polish goal in the 88th minute with a deft pass to Sebastian Mila, said his teammates respected Germany too much at the start of the match. Within a short period of time, however, the Polish side realized they could play with Germany and set about acoomplishing something Poland had never done: defeat Germany in international competition. In fact, the last six times the two nations competed Poland had not scored. Poland broke on top in the 51st minute on a header by Arkadiusz Milik. Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny played all the way in the nets for Poland and recorded the unlikely shutout. Poland is now tied for the Group D lead with six points, the same as Ireland. Germany is in third place with three points.
On Tuesday, Poland collides with Scotland while Germany plays co-Group D leader Ireland. Last spring, Scotland defeated Poland in a friendly match in Warsaw, 1-0.
Another surprising soccer result from the weekend - at least when you look at how the season has started for the two teams - was Maryland's rout of powerful Penn State. Perennial power Maryland has struggled greatly out of the gate this season, and even with the key win Sunday sports only a 5-5-2 overall record, and 2-2-1 in the Big Ten. Penn State is now 10=1=1 overall, and 4-1 in the conference, and the Nittany Lions remain in first place. Here are the up-to-the-minute soceer standings:
1. Penn State: Conference: 4-1-0, .800 pct; Overall: 10-1-1, .875 pct
2. Michigan: Conference: 2-1-2, .600 pct; Overall: 4-5-2, .455 pct
3. Indiana: Conference: 2-1-1, .625 pct; Overall: 8-1-3, .792 pct
4. Michigan State: Conference: 2-1-1, .625 pct; Overall: 7-2-2, .727 pct
5. Maryland: Conference: 2-2-1, .500; Overall: 5-5-2, .500 pct
6. Ohio State: Conference: 2-2-0, .500 pct; Overall: 4-5-3, .458 pct
7. Northwestern: Conference: 1-1-2, .500 pct; Overall: 6-1-4, .727 pct
8. Rutgers: Conference: 1-3-1, .300 pct; Overall: 3-7-1, .318 pct
9. Wisconsin: Conference: 0-4-0, .000; Overall: 2-8-1, .227 pct
The Terps got two goals from Mael Corboz and one each from Alex Shinsky and Tsubassa Endoh. Corboz scored first in the 12th minute, his fourth goal of the season. He scored his second goal in the 31st minute, and the Terps took that lead to halftime. Shinsky and Endoh scored in the second half. Maryland returns to the pitch Wednesday night at Ludwig Field against Lehigh. The next Big Ten game is Sunday, at 2 pm in Bloomington against Indiana. To say it is a key game for the Terps is the ultimate understatement. If the Terps are to be a factor in the Big Ten race they must win at Indiana. Otherwise, they are doomed to the second division in a race even Big Ten writers figured they would win.
Another team with their season on the line is the Baltimore Orioles. They lost both of the initial games of their American League Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals in Baltimore. Both were nailbiters and in both they faded late and lost. The bullpen, the pride and joy of the Oriole hierarchy, has given up key runs in both games. While Andrew Miller has been tremendous, both Zach Britton and Darren O'Day have been shadows of their regular season selves. In both games, the Oriole starting pitchers gave up a barrage of runs that, somehow, the offense battled back from. And then, incredibly, the bullpen gave Kansas City the lead back. That just should not have happened.
My objection is that Kansas City just isn't that good. They have a line-up of banjo hitters that we are treating like the Bronx Bombers of 1927. Babe Ruth is not in the Kansas City line-up. Pitchers, get these bums out, now, while there is still time. And the line-up needs to know this: Detroit beat these guys. When they shot ahead of the Tigers, the Tigers collected themselves and got thel division lead back. The Royals are here because they won the wild card game from Oakland. They should not be ahead in this series. The Orioles can still win. I cannot imagine them being swept. I hope the comeback starts tonight.
As for the Ravens, they played yesterday like they should play every weekend. Joe Flacco can be that good every Sunday. We have talent at wide receiver that is as deep as it is good. Marlon Brown didn't even play yesterday and when all is said and done he might be the best receiver of the lot, if it isn't Torrey Smith. T. Smith looked like he should always look. He has the best hands in the NFL. And even without Ray Rice, we are deep and talented at running back. The defense, especially the linebackers, get better every week. The Ravens, though, have to believe in themselves as much as I do. Otherwise, yesterday was just a mirage.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Kobani in Serious Danger of Falling to ISIS. Is Turkey Its Next Target?
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 7, 2014 - Despite a courageous stand by resident Kurdish fighters, the Syrian City of Kobani, sitting within eyesight of the Turkish border, is in imminent danger of being overrun by ISIS Terrorists,. Major media reports say that the ISIS flag can be seen flying from several buildings in Kobani, and The Guardian says fighting in parts of the city is door-to-door. Sporadic USA air strikes have done little to ward off the massive ISIS attack. The strategically located city will allow ISIS to connect major power holds on both sides of Kobani, as well as providing the Terrorists with a staging area to launch attacks on Turkey.
Yesterday we reported here that the Kurdish defenders were under-manned and under-armed. ABC reported this morning that one Kurdish defender threw out his arms and screamed, "Where is the rest of the world?"
There is no clear word on whether ISIS intnds to attack Turkey. According to Powerline Blog, and a post by John Hinderaker two days ago, the Turkish defense minister, Ismet Yilmaz, has said publicly that NATO has a plan in writing for the action it will take if Turkey is attacked by ISIS. Even President Obama cannot walk away from that because the United States is a founding member of NATO and is bound by treaty to come to the assistance of any NATO member that comes under military attack.
Some speculate that ISIS will not enter Turkey so that it might keep the USA out of the fight. On the other hand, the group is so insane that it might invade just to force the hand of President Obama when it knows he does not want to get involved.
Yesterday we reported here that the Kurdish defenders were under-manned and under-armed. ABC reported this morning that one Kurdish defender threw out his arms and screamed, "Where is the rest of the world?"
There is no clear word on whether ISIS intnds to attack Turkey. According to Powerline Blog, and a post by John Hinderaker two days ago, the Turkish defense minister, Ismet Yilmaz, has said publicly that NATO has a plan in writing for the action it will take if Turkey is attacked by ISIS. Even President Obama cannot walk away from that because the United States is a founding member of NATO and is bound by treaty to come to the assistance of any NATO member that comes under military attack.
Some speculate that ISIS will not enter Turkey so that it might keep the USA out of the fight. On the other hand, the group is so insane that it might invade just to force the hand of President Obama when it knows he does not want to get involved.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Hell Spills Up and Around Kurdish Town
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 6, 2014 - In the Middle East, ISIS attacks a peaceful town on the border between Syria and Turkey. The town itself is Kurdish. It is called Kobani. It is Kurdish forces, about 2,000 to 3,000 of them, that are defending it. Fox says that the Kurdish forces are being assisted by family and friends, and that the defense force is not well-armed. On Sunday, the Kurds took a page from the ISIS playbook and used a suicide bomber against the terrorists. Today, Fox says the ISIS flag is flying on two sides of Kobani, one day after Iraq vowed that Kobani would not fall. They said this because the Iraqis believed a third army would intervene to help in the defense of the town. This third army sitting up on the hill, watching, for now, is the Army of Turkey. Turkish Tanks, with their turrets aiming at the town - or is it through the town to the oncoming ISIS insurgents? - sit side-by-side, idle now that they have taken up these positions. Fox reports that the Turks inside the tanks are reluctant - for now - to become involved in the fighting. Even if that is so, however, it is clear to all that they soon will be intimately involved in all of the hostilities. The reason, of course, is that the battle is about to spill into Turkey. The rest of the world keeps hoping ISIS will go away. But the opposite is happening with stunning regularity. ISIS is ruthless. ISIS is committed to the institution of a world-wide Fundamental Hard-line Islamic Caliphate. And do not go looking into any text book for a picture of what kind of world would exist if ISIS and their like are running the government. It will be so hard-line, so extreme, that it will be as if civilization had fallen back to a time surviving for the next 24 hours was the aim of every human. Stark, hopeless, ruthless, bleak, depressing, blood-curdling; a horror movie come to life.
Fox also said today that USA forces are operating Apache Helicopters in close air support of Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces. But no USA air power or helicopters are in the fight at Kobani because such forces would have to be based in Turkey. And even though Turkey is a NATO member, it has declined to enter the fight against ISIS or even allow western forces to use its land as a base for deploying into Iraq and Syria.
You know the story by now on why the United States and other Western nations are not pouring troops into the fight. The United States, by and through President Obama, is using air power to assist a skidish and terrorized Iraqi army that cuts and runs at the first sign of trouble. The few times they stand and fight, they are slaughtered. The Kurds are not afraid. They fight for their own home towns, their own families, and their own possessions. Their problems are two-fold: they don't have enough soldiers and they don't have enough weapons. They need the American Military to deploy with them. But Presiden Obama will not allow that.
For now, President Obama concedes that ISIS is a legitimate threat. But in doing so, he also ruled out ground forces from this country getting into the fight. And he has made no long term commitments about even the air power. While he says he is trying to mount a world-wide consortium against ISIS, he is having trouble getting participants because the USA itself is making such a limited commitment.
On this October 6, 2014, the story remains this: ISIS grows by the day. It's reach grows by the day. It's army grows by the day. It's ability to fight sophisticated battles with western armies growns by the day. It's willingness to massacre and terrorize is open and obvious. ISIS seems not to care how they are portrayed by the western media or even its enemies.
And the issue is this: Is ISIS a real threat to people outside of Iraq and Syria? Is the threat the kind that Germany posed to the entire world in the 1940's and Communism poses everywhere now in the form of Communist China. Or are we talking about being a world-wide threat in the sense of sponsoring terrorists that can strike anywhere with impunity, but with a sponsor that cannot exert political control beyond Iraq and Syria?
Right now there is no consensus. I believe that if ISIS is not checked with equal force soon, it will take over Iraq and part of Syria. I believe it bash into other power-hungry Islamic groups and other Middle East nations which oppose it either publicly or privately. And I also believe they will be heard beyond the Middle East if they are able to gain firm political power in Iraq and part or all of Syria, they will vigorously seek power outside of their borders. All of this adds up to a Middle East more tortured and turbulent than it is today. If you add an ISIS-controlled Iraq/Syria, to a nuclear Iran and an increasingly virile Al Qaeda and you have a catastrophe waiting to happen. Israel will be in so real a danger that it would begin to be difficult to see how it would survive in its present form. Preventing this scenario will require a commitment firm enough to persevere through inevitable setbacks, both on the battlefield and in the political arena. God help us!
Fox also said today that USA forces are operating Apache Helicopters in close air support of Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces. But no USA air power or helicopters are in the fight at Kobani because such forces would have to be based in Turkey. And even though Turkey is a NATO member, it has declined to enter the fight against ISIS or even allow western forces to use its land as a base for deploying into Iraq and Syria.
You know the story by now on why the United States and other Western nations are not pouring troops into the fight. The United States, by and through President Obama, is using air power to assist a skidish and terrorized Iraqi army that cuts and runs at the first sign of trouble. The few times they stand and fight, they are slaughtered. The Kurds are not afraid. They fight for their own home towns, their own families, and their own possessions. Their problems are two-fold: they don't have enough soldiers and they don't have enough weapons. They need the American Military to deploy with them. But Presiden Obama will not allow that.
For now, President Obama concedes that ISIS is a legitimate threat. But in doing so, he also ruled out ground forces from this country getting into the fight. And he has made no long term commitments about even the air power. While he says he is trying to mount a world-wide consortium against ISIS, he is having trouble getting participants because the USA itself is making such a limited commitment.
On this October 6, 2014, the story remains this: ISIS grows by the day. It's reach grows by the day. It's army grows by the day. It's ability to fight sophisticated battles with western armies growns by the day. It's willingness to massacre and terrorize is open and obvious. ISIS seems not to care how they are portrayed by the western media or even its enemies.
And the issue is this: Is ISIS a real threat to people outside of Iraq and Syria? Is the threat the kind that Germany posed to the entire world in the 1940's and Communism poses everywhere now in the form of Communist China. Or are we talking about being a world-wide threat in the sense of sponsoring terrorists that can strike anywhere with impunity, but with a sponsor that cannot exert political control beyond Iraq and Syria?
Right now there is no consensus. I believe that if ISIS is not checked with equal force soon, it will take over Iraq and part of Syria. I believe it bash into other power-hungry Islamic groups and other Middle East nations which oppose it either publicly or privately. And I also believe they will be heard beyond the Middle East if they are able to gain firm political power in Iraq and part or all of Syria, they will vigorously seek power outside of their borders. All of this adds up to a Middle East more tortured and turbulent than it is today. If you add an ISIS-controlled Iraq/Syria, to a nuclear Iran and an increasingly virile Al Qaeda and you have a catastrophe waiting to happen. Israel will be in so real a danger that it would begin to be difficult to see how it would survive in its present form. Preventing this scenario will require a commitment firm enough to persevere through inevitable setbacks, both on the battlefield and in the political arena. God help us!
Sunday, October 5, 2014
The Showalter Advantage
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 3, 2014 - It would be tempting to proclaim that Buck Showalter's managing has been "Weaveresque," or something to that effect. His ability to out-fox and out-maneuver Tiger Rookie Skipper Brad Ausmus has been a huge part of the Orioles' two scintillating victories to begin their American League Divisional Series with the powerful, power-laden, playoff-savvy Detroit Tigers.
In the opener Thursday night, with the Tigers down by only one run in the bottom of the eighth, and with the Orioles having a runner at second base and one already out, Ausmus elected to replace Reigning Cy Young Award Winner Max Scherzer, even though he'd thrown just 96 pitches. To the horror of Ausmus and the Tigers, the bullpen he called upon in that eighth inning was torched, totally, by the determined Orioles. Before the inning was over, a tight nail-biter of a game - one Detroit trailed by a mere run - had morphed into a ridiculous blow-out; 4-3 became 12-3. It got worse for the Tigers on Friday afternoon. This time, Tigers sluggers made super quick work of usually stingey Oriole hurler Wei-Yin Chen. Trailing 2-0 after two innings, thanks to a Nick Markakis homer, the Tigers exploded for five runs in the course of only ten pitches. Those ten pitches produced five straight hits, including a three-run home run by J.D. Martinez and a solo blast by Nick Castellanos. The Orioles' 2-0 lead turned quickly to a 5-2 Detroit advantage. Funny thing is, Ausmus nightmare started to percolate here, even though the Tigers would continue for a time to score. We explain:
In the fourth inning, after Chen lost the touch that got him through three unscathed innings, and with his team now behind by three runs, Showalter summonsed to the mound Baltimore's very young flame-thrower, Kevin Gausman. Gausman is the Orioles' fifth starter even though he is just two years removed from Louisiana State. Two years ago, Gausman started for the Bayou Bengals on opening night against the University of Maryland. Friday, Gausman was called into the pressure cooker of the Major League Playoffs in front of 48,000 crazed Baltimore Oriole fans. He handled it very well, throwing three and two-thirds innings and scattering three hits while striking out five, Gausman gave the Orioles the breathing room they needed to come back. Many of his pitches were clocked at 96, 97 and 98 miles per hour. Everybody on the Orioles knows Gausman can attain such speeds, but they rarely see it when he starts a game since he figures to pitch six, seven or eight innings, and grapples with the issues every starter faces: pacing himself, holding back some strength. Friday, Showalter told him, in effect, to let it rip for as long as you can, and we'll come get you when you run out of steam. Gausman got the message. His pitches rippled with speed and movement and Tiger hitters who are rarely overmatched found themselves swinging late and catching wind.
Justin Verlander started Friday for the Tigers, but it wasn't the same Verlander that had won a Cy Young award. He survived into the sixth inning, but was touched up for three runs and six hits. After Detroit busted ahead in the top of the fourth, coaches on both sides told reporters that they believed it was critical for Verlander to throw a "shut down" inning in the bottom of the fourth. He couldn't do it. Adam Jones led off the inning with a solid single, and he moved to second on Nelson Cruz' ground out. Verlander struck out Steve Pearce, but allowed an RBI single by J.J. Hardy. Jones raced home, cutting the Detroit lead to 5-3, and getting the Oriole crowd back in the game. Ausmus removed Verlander after Cruz drilled a single to center to start the sixth inning. Anibal Sanchez replaced Verlander and got the Tigers out of the sixth without the Orioles' scoring. He also retired Baltimore in the seventh. He faced six hitters and retired six hitters. The game now moved to the eighth, and again it proved the Tigers' undoing. In the top of the inning Gausman finally appeared to tire. Tori Hunter walked to lead off, and Miguel Cabrera singled him to second. Victor Martinez followed with a booming double to straight away center. Hunter scored easily. But with no one out, Cabrera rumbled around third and received a stunning green light from Tiger third base coach Dave Thomas. Out in the far reaches of center field, Adam Jones was scraping the ball off the wall and firing a strike to Jonathan Schoop, the second baseman with the rocket arm. In one motion, Schoop caught the relay throw, wheeled around and fired it to catcher Caleb Joseph. Joseph tagged Cabrera out. Now the rest of the story. A lot of Tiger fans were incensed that Clark sent Cabrera. But he had virtually caught up to Hunter; there was only about seven yards between them. It was between third and home that Cabrera ran out of gas. While Hunter scored with total ease, not even sliding, not even a very good slide could save Cabrera. He was very out as well as being very out of gas. So instead of Detroit leading 6-3 with Victor Martinez at second and Cabrera at third and nobody out, they had one out, one on, and no more runs coming...for Detroit. For Baltimore, the fun was just starting.
Ausmus said Sanchez could not have gone another inning. He is recovering from an injury and, except for a brief relief appearance in one of the last games of the season, had not pitched since early September. The 35 pitches he needed to mow down six Orioles without incident had finished him, said Ausmus. So Joba Chamberlain was called upon, though he'd been torched the night before by the Birds. So enchanted were the Howling Oriole Faithful at the prospect of facing the Mountainous Chamberlain, they greeted him with a standing ovation. Really: they actually did that. And with good reason. To his credit, the big right-hander with the full grizzly beard and long bushy hair, quickly retired Alejandro De Aza on an infield grounder. Next came no. 3 hitter Adam Jones. Chamberlain drilled him in the right leg with what appeared to be a fast ball. Cruz followed with a single to left, putting runners at first and second. In a wonderful at bat in which he fought off several pitches, Steve Pearce followed with a single into right-center field, scoring Jones and making the score 6-4 Detroit. Ausmus knows a brewing disaster when he sees it, and he saw this one with enhanced clarity. Out of the dugout he marched and called on Joakim Soria. It was not an enlightened choice. No, not at all. J.J. Hardy was the first hitter to face Soria, and the clutch-hitting shortstop coaxed a base-on-balls from the Tiger hurler. Now the Camden Yards diamond was FOB: full of birds. That gave Showalter the absolutely perfect opportunity to use the premier pinch swinger in the game, Delmon Young. Soria had more or less expected to see Young, and he recalled Young had gotten a hit off of one of his fastballs during a prior confrontation. So he threw a slider. What Soria should have remembered is that Young is a chronic first-ball swinger. Young was all over the slider, smashing it hard into the left field corner. Runs-a-plenty were pouring in on home plate. Crews, from third, scored in a jog. Starting from second base, Pearce ran hard and also made it home without trouble. The big question, of course, was Hardy. A student of the game, he got a tremendous jump on the batted ball from his vantage point at first base, and got a green light from Baltimore third base coach Bobby Dickerson to head home. In left field, J.D. Martinez bobbled the ball after it richocheted to him off the wall. But he hit the cutoff man and the throw from Ian Kinsler actually beat Hardy to the plate. But at the same time, it forced catcher Alex Avila up the line. Hardy went into a tremendous sweeping slide on the foul side of the plate, and Avila could not catch up to him as he reached out and tagged the plate on the way by. The Orioles now had four runs across, and a 6-3 deficit was now a 7-6 lead. Brad Brock, who had retired two Tigers in the 8th in relief of Gausman, picked up the win. Zach Britton, who mowed Detroit down in the 9th, got the save. Now the ALDS moves to Detroit with the home team in an 0-2 hole in the best of five series.
Ausmus had drawn heat prior to the playoffs for his pitching decisions late in the game. According to Jon Heyman of CBS, "Tiger relievers didn't stop too many folks all year, posting a woeful 4.29 ERA as a unit for the season. And for two games here in the American League Division Series, they have been nothing short of a disaster....Through two games Chamberlain has a 108.00 ERA, and Soria 45.00, though it's hard to say one has been better than the other. Either way, it's hard to imagine Tigers manager Brad Ausmus going back to them.
"If we get to the eighth inning with a lead on Sunday," Ausmus said afterward, "we'll have to find somebody."
Presumably somebody not named them," Heyman wrote.
Over at NBC, Matthew Pouliot said this:
"Yet Ausmus refused to try anything different. Maybe Soria hadn’t quite returned to form following the oblique injury, but Al Alburquerque remained criminally underused. Alburquerque had a 2.51 ERA this season, lowering his career mark to 2.82. He allowed two runs over 18 2/3 innings in August and September. He held right-handers to a .190/.281/.237 line and was still plenty respectable against lefties (.245/.311/.369). Yet his last three appearances this year came in games the Tigers lost a combined 28-9. He hasn’t pitched in the ALDS.
It’s not just the eighth inning, either. On two occasions against the Orioles, Aumsus has seemed to defer to his players against his better judgment. In Game 1, he started Davis in spite of a groin injury that had him looking more like a 40-year-old catcher than a fleet-footed center fielder. There’s no way Davis should have played (Davis started again today, then exited in the fourth because of his injury). In the sixth inning today, he sent Justin Verlander back out to the mound, only to pull him after a leadoff single (that should have been caught by Davis’s replacement, Ezequiel Carrera). If Verlander was one mistake away from coming out, why send him out to make that mistake?
Brad Ausmus’s flaw has nothing to do with intelligence. He just seems overly resistant to change. He doesn’t like tweaking his lineups: Rajai Davis has bigger platoon issues than any right-handed hitter in the game; he’s a quality leadoff man against lefties, but he really shouldn’t be starting against righties at all. Ausmus hits him ninth on a full-time basis regardless. Ian Kinsler had a .270 OBP in the second half, yet remained the everyday leadoff man. Ausmus decided it made more sense to win or lose with him..."
The point of all of this is that Showalter is making one brilliant decision after another. Ausmus is doing the opposite. Weaver, as brilliant and cunning as he was, as willing as he was to push everything to the edge if it would get him a win, never was as successful in the post-season as he was in the regular season. He managed in four World Series, but won only one, in 1970, against the Reds. His Orioles lost World Series against the Mets in 1969, the Pirates in 1971 and the Pirates again in 1079. He retired after the 1982 season, and even though it was largely his team in 1983, Joe Altobelli took them home. Showalter appears to have a plan to improve on that post-season Oriole record. He certainly has more freedom than Weaver in crafting a roster for the special circumstances of the post-season. He and Duquette are just as willing as Weaver and Cashen, Weaver and Dalton, Weaver and Peters were at picking up players in August and using them in October. If the Birds can emerge from this series, Showalter will deserve a good solid dose of the credit. His plan for the bullpen and use for the bullpen has been a recipe for victory. I'm in no way looking away from Duquette, who gets more than a little bit of credit for many of the points herein cited.
It was Showalter's use of the bullpen in the first game that set a pattern for the series so far. He seemed to know in advance exactly what he wanted to do with Miller, Darren O'Day, Tommy Hunter and Zach Britton. Playoffs are different than the regular season, and managers have to recognize that. Showalter is. Andrew Miller hardly ever pitched more than one inning for the Orioles. Now, in the playoffs, he has pitched more than one everytime in.
In the playoffs, Showalter's hook is a bit shorter with his starters, especially those like Chen, who run out of gas suddenly. How far can an advantage like Showalter take the Orioles? Can it overcome the fact that the Orioles are missing three All Stars? In a word: Maybe.
In the opener Thursday night, with the Tigers down by only one run in the bottom of the eighth, and with the Orioles having a runner at second base and one already out, Ausmus elected to replace Reigning Cy Young Award Winner Max Scherzer, even though he'd thrown just 96 pitches. To the horror of Ausmus and the Tigers, the bullpen he called upon in that eighth inning was torched, totally, by the determined Orioles. Before the inning was over, a tight nail-biter of a game - one Detroit trailed by a mere run - had morphed into a ridiculous blow-out; 4-3 became 12-3. It got worse for the Tigers on Friday afternoon. This time, Tigers sluggers made super quick work of usually stingey Oriole hurler Wei-Yin Chen. Trailing 2-0 after two innings, thanks to a Nick Markakis homer, the Tigers exploded for five runs in the course of only ten pitches. Those ten pitches produced five straight hits, including a three-run home run by J.D. Martinez and a solo blast by Nick Castellanos. The Orioles' 2-0 lead turned quickly to a 5-2 Detroit advantage. Funny thing is, Ausmus nightmare started to percolate here, even though the Tigers would continue for a time to score. We explain:
In the fourth inning, after Chen lost the touch that got him through three unscathed innings, and with his team now behind by three runs, Showalter summonsed to the mound Baltimore's very young flame-thrower, Kevin Gausman. Gausman is the Orioles' fifth starter even though he is just two years removed from Louisiana State. Two years ago, Gausman started for the Bayou Bengals on opening night against the University of Maryland. Friday, Gausman was called into the pressure cooker of the Major League Playoffs in front of 48,000 crazed Baltimore Oriole fans. He handled it very well, throwing three and two-thirds innings and scattering three hits while striking out five, Gausman gave the Orioles the breathing room they needed to come back. Many of his pitches were clocked at 96, 97 and 98 miles per hour. Everybody on the Orioles knows Gausman can attain such speeds, but they rarely see it when he starts a game since he figures to pitch six, seven or eight innings, and grapples with the issues every starter faces: pacing himself, holding back some strength. Friday, Showalter told him, in effect, to let it rip for as long as you can, and we'll come get you when you run out of steam. Gausman got the message. His pitches rippled with speed and movement and Tiger hitters who are rarely overmatched found themselves swinging late and catching wind.
Justin Verlander started Friday for the Tigers, but it wasn't the same Verlander that had won a Cy Young award. He survived into the sixth inning, but was touched up for three runs and six hits. After Detroit busted ahead in the top of the fourth, coaches on both sides told reporters that they believed it was critical for Verlander to throw a "shut down" inning in the bottom of the fourth. He couldn't do it. Adam Jones led off the inning with a solid single, and he moved to second on Nelson Cruz' ground out. Verlander struck out Steve Pearce, but allowed an RBI single by J.J. Hardy. Jones raced home, cutting the Detroit lead to 5-3, and getting the Oriole crowd back in the game. Ausmus removed Verlander after Cruz drilled a single to center to start the sixth inning. Anibal Sanchez replaced Verlander and got the Tigers out of the sixth without the Orioles' scoring. He also retired Baltimore in the seventh. He faced six hitters and retired six hitters. The game now moved to the eighth, and again it proved the Tigers' undoing. In the top of the inning Gausman finally appeared to tire. Tori Hunter walked to lead off, and Miguel Cabrera singled him to second. Victor Martinez followed with a booming double to straight away center. Hunter scored easily. But with no one out, Cabrera rumbled around third and received a stunning green light from Tiger third base coach Dave Thomas. Out in the far reaches of center field, Adam Jones was scraping the ball off the wall and firing a strike to Jonathan Schoop, the second baseman with the rocket arm. In one motion, Schoop caught the relay throw, wheeled around and fired it to catcher Caleb Joseph. Joseph tagged Cabrera out. Now the rest of the story. A lot of Tiger fans were incensed that Clark sent Cabrera. But he had virtually caught up to Hunter; there was only about seven yards between them. It was between third and home that Cabrera ran out of gas. While Hunter scored with total ease, not even sliding, not even a very good slide could save Cabrera. He was very out as well as being very out of gas. So instead of Detroit leading 6-3 with Victor Martinez at second and Cabrera at third and nobody out, they had one out, one on, and no more runs coming...for Detroit. For Baltimore, the fun was just starting.
Ausmus said Sanchez could not have gone another inning. He is recovering from an injury and, except for a brief relief appearance in one of the last games of the season, had not pitched since early September. The 35 pitches he needed to mow down six Orioles without incident had finished him, said Ausmus. So Joba Chamberlain was called upon, though he'd been torched the night before by the Birds. So enchanted were the Howling Oriole Faithful at the prospect of facing the Mountainous Chamberlain, they greeted him with a standing ovation. Really: they actually did that. And with good reason. To his credit, the big right-hander with the full grizzly beard and long bushy hair, quickly retired Alejandro De Aza on an infield grounder. Next came no. 3 hitter Adam Jones. Chamberlain drilled him in the right leg with what appeared to be a fast ball. Cruz followed with a single to left, putting runners at first and second. In a wonderful at bat in which he fought off several pitches, Steve Pearce followed with a single into right-center field, scoring Jones and making the score 6-4 Detroit. Ausmus knows a brewing disaster when he sees it, and he saw this one with enhanced clarity. Out of the dugout he marched and called on Joakim Soria. It was not an enlightened choice. No, not at all. J.J. Hardy was the first hitter to face Soria, and the clutch-hitting shortstop coaxed a base-on-balls from the Tiger hurler. Now the Camden Yards diamond was FOB: full of birds. That gave Showalter the absolutely perfect opportunity to use the premier pinch swinger in the game, Delmon Young. Soria had more or less expected to see Young, and he recalled Young had gotten a hit off of one of his fastballs during a prior confrontation. So he threw a slider. What Soria should have remembered is that Young is a chronic first-ball swinger. Young was all over the slider, smashing it hard into the left field corner. Runs-a-plenty were pouring in on home plate. Crews, from third, scored in a jog. Starting from second base, Pearce ran hard and also made it home without trouble. The big question, of course, was Hardy. A student of the game, he got a tremendous jump on the batted ball from his vantage point at first base, and got a green light from Baltimore third base coach Bobby Dickerson to head home. In left field, J.D. Martinez bobbled the ball after it richocheted to him off the wall. But he hit the cutoff man and the throw from Ian Kinsler actually beat Hardy to the plate. But at the same time, it forced catcher Alex Avila up the line. Hardy went into a tremendous sweeping slide on the foul side of the plate, and Avila could not catch up to him as he reached out and tagged the plate on the way by. The Orioles now had four runs across, and a 6-3 deficit was now a 7-6 lead. Brad Brock, who had retired two Tigers in the 8th in relief of Gausman, picked up the win. Zach Britton, who mowed Detroit down in the 9th, got the save. Now the ALDS moves to Detroit with the home team in an 0-2 hole in the best of five series.
Ausmus had drawn heat prior to the playoffs for his pitching decisions late in the game. According to Jon Heyman of CBS, "Tiger relievers didn't stop too many folks all year, posting a woeful 4.29 ERA as a unit for the season. And for two games here in the American League Division Series, they have been nothing short of a disaster....Through two games Chamberlain has a 108.00 ERA, and Soria 45.00, though it's hard to say one has been better than the other. Either way, it's hard to imagine Tigers manager Brad Ausmus going back to them.
"If we get to the eighth inning with a lead on Sunday," Ausmus said afterward, "we'll have to find somebody."
Presumably somebody not named them," Heyman wrote.
Over at NBC, Matthew Pouliot said this:
"Yet Ausmus refused to try anything different. Maybe Soria hadn’t quite returned to form following the oblique injury, but Al Alburquerque remained criminally underused. Alburquerque had a 2.51 ERA this season, lowering his career mark to 2.82. He allowed two runs over 18 2/3 innings in August and September. He held right-handers to a .190/.281/.237 line and was still plenty respectable against lefties (.245/.311/.369). Yet his last three appearances this year came in games the Tigers lost a combined 28-9. He hasn’t pitched in the ALDS.
It’s not just the eighth inning, either. On two occasions against the Orioles, Aumsus has seemed to defer to his players against his better judgment. In Game 1, he started Davis in spite of a groin injury that had him looking more like a 40-year-old catcher than a fleet-footed center fielder. There’s no way Davis should have played (Davis started again today, then exited in the fourth because of his injury). In the sixth inning today, he sent Justin Verlander back out to the mound, only to pull him after a leadoff single (that should have been caught by Davis’s replacement, Ezequiel Carrera). If Verlander was one mistake away from coming out, why send him out to make that mistake?
Brad Ausmus’s flaw has nothing to do with intelligence. He just seems overly resistant to change. He doesn’t like tweaking his lineups: Rajai Davis has bigger platoon issues than any right-handed hitter in the game; he’s a quality leadoff man against lefties, but he really shouldn’t be starting against righties at all. Ausmus hits him ninth on a full-time basis regardless. Ian Kinsler had a .270 OBP in the second half, yet remained the everyday leadoff man. Ausmus decided it made more sense to win or lose with him..."
The point of all of this is that Showalter is making one brilliant decision after another. Ausmus is doing the opposite. Weaver, as brilliant and cunning as he was, as willing as he was to push everything to the edge if it would get him a win, never was as successful in the post-season as he was in the regular season. He managed in four World Series, but won only one, in 1970, against the Reds. His Orioles lost World Series against the Mets in 1969, the Pirates in 1971 and the Pirates again in 1079. He retired after the 1982 season, and even though it was largely his team in 1983, Joe Altobelli took them home. Showalter appears to have a plan to improve on that post-season Oriole record. He certainly has more freedom than Weaver in crafting a roster for the special circumstances of the post-season. He and Duquette are just as willing as Weaver and Cashen, Weaver and Dalton, Weaver and Peters were at picking up players in August and using them in October. If the Birds can emerge from this series, Showalter will deserve a good solid dose of the credit. His plan for the bullpen and use for the bullpen has been a recipe for victory. I'm in no way looking away from Duquette, who gets more than a little bit of credit for many of the points herein cited.
It was Showalter's use of the bullpen in the first game that set a pattern for the series so far. He seemed to know in advance exactly what he wanted to do with Miller, Darren O'Day, Tommy Hunter and Zach Britton. Playoffs are different than the regular season, and managers have to recognize that. Showalter is. Andrew Miller hardly ever pitched more than one inning for the Orioles. Now, in the playoffs, he has pitched more than one everytime in.
In the playoffs, Showalter's hook is a bit shorter with his starters, especially those like Chen, who run out of gas suddenly. How far can an advantage like Showalter take the Orioles? Can it overcome the fact that the Orioles are missing three All Stars? In a word: Maybe.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
A Poem
BALTIMORE, Maryland October 1, 2014 -
Poem No. 5
I wish your face was still in my sight.
I wish the looks upon it had lingered.
Love, those looks linger in my mind,
Probably forever
Life’s lessons never leave us unscathed
You knew that I had fallen recklessly.
And latched like hardened steel upon what was you
.......I could not pull back
Even as you apparently slipped loose
Life’s lessons never left me unscathed
The world moves on with or without me
The wretched find their lair
The lost bequeath the things they want saved
While the rest of us flail mordantly on
Poem No. 5
I wish your face was still in my sight.
I wish the looks upon it had lingered.
Love, those looks linger in my mind,
Probably forever
Life’s lessons never leave us unscathed
You knew that I had fallen recklessly.
And latched like hardened steel upon what was you
.......I could not pull back
Even as you apparently slipped loose
Life’s lessons never left me unscathed
The world moves on with or without me
The wretched find their lair
The lost bequeath the things they want saved
While the rest of us flail mordantly on
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