Monday, March 13, 2017

Lots of Snow Imminent; Terps Win a Doubleheader and Get an NCAA Basketball Berth

BALTIMORE, Maryland, Monday, March 13, 2017 - It's 2:33 pm on Monday here in Baltimore, and on a bitter cold late winter day on the Atlantic Coast, there's more than a little bit of news.  

A lot of buzz concerns the weather.  A major winter storm is said to be on the way, with some weather wizards saying Baltimore and its immediate vicinity could get up to a foot of snow, while points just north, like Philadelphia, New York and Boston, will have an actual blizzard.    At Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport, the snow total for the entire winter, so far, is 0.7 inches; i.e., less than one inch.  Here where I live, the total is around three inches, but you get the point.  

My personal memory tells me that in winters where there is little snow, the temperatures tend to be all over the place. This winter is like that.  There were unusually warm snaps, but also some very cold snaps. One followed the other with little time in between.  Just last weekend the temperature one day was 70 degrees, while the next day the high was in the 30's. The cold snap now in progress has been around a lot longer than the usual for this particular winter.  But this late in the winter - the official beginning of spring is only days away - the stabilizing effect is going to be minimal.  No matter how much falls, it won't last, at least not in this neck of the woods.

Schools around here are already cancelled, some of them, anyway.  They're already putting stuff on the roads.  But Obama stood up and walked away.  (That's a joke)

There is other news.  The Russian Ambassador, it has been revealed, met countless times with the Clinton campaign during the recent presidential campaign.  Senator McCain, who of late has been on one of his liberal jags, said over the weekend that he "insists" that Trump reveal the evidence he has that Obama wired Trump towers.  No disrespect for the Great Man, but who died and made him emperor?  Obama has already put a claim in for that position (That's not really a joke; it's more of a satirical remark, if you take my meaning.).

Sports: Maryland took a doubleheader from Bryant on Sunday in cold College Park.  The Terps have now won 8 straight games to improve to 9-5; this after a 1-5 start.  They stole ten bases in the doubleheader, giving them 33 for the season.  Amazingly, that is 5 more than they were able to steal all of last season.  The better news is that the games give evidence that their starting pitching is starting to stabilize.  Taylor Bloom went 7 strong innings in the opener without giving up an earned run.  He got the win to even his mark at 2-2.  Tyler Blohm, the freshman who has emerged as the Terps' No. 3 starter, went six innings in winning the nightcap. He is a solid 3-1 and looks like Maryland's Sunday Starter in Big Ten Series games.  The Terps continue to get strong offensive performances from Marty Costes and Zach Jancarski.  The two combined to go 6-7 in the opener on Sunday.  In the nightcap, Kevin Smith hit a decisive double to plate two runs during Maryland's three-run fourth inning.

The Terps took the opener, 9-2, and won the second game, 4-0.  Maryland is now, as we said, 9-5 overall and play at North Carolina on Tuesday evening.

The Maryland basketball team received a 6 seed in the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness.  After finishing poorly, some feared the 24-8 Terps would get left out of the tournament.  Instead, the Terps were seeded higher than 4 of the 7 Big Ten Schools which received bids.

The Terps are in the West regional and will play Xavier on Thursday evening at 6:50 pm.  The game will be televised on TNT.

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