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You probably couldn’t hit a baseball and get it to land on top of the outfield fence if you were given 10 million tries — OK, you might be hard-pressed to hit a baseball that far in the first place — but in the Bronx on Friday night, Boston’s Kevin Youkilis hit a game-changing triple that will be on blooper reels for years to come. I can’t explain the play in a way that will do it justice — other than the fact that Johnny Damon got owned trying to make the catch — so you’re just going to have to watch the clip to see what happened.

Slowly but surely, MMA (mixed martial arts) is taking the country, and Baltimore, by storm.

Where would you like to see MMA bouts take place in the state?

What do you like about the sport? Is it too barbaric?

What do you think the appeal of MMA is?

To learn more about MMA, visit Mark Chalifoux’s blog at baltimoresun.com

I know it’s Independence Day weekend and all, but two very American “sporting events” can’t top a very British one in this weekend’s list, but don’t worry, you don’t have to choose. You can watch all of them, if you’re not too busy cramming food into your face at a barbecue, that is. Read the rest of this entry »

Gross.

It’s Fourth of July weekend, a weekend where we get together to commemorate the efforts of our forefathers, who selflessly fought for our independence. We show our appreciation and our patriotism in many ways.

We grill up a ton of heart-clogging American food. We slam down cans of the finest light beers America has to offer. We play horseshoes or cornhole — also known as beanbag toss to those who aren’t from naïve Midwestern states. We set off illegally purchased fireworks while listening to Bruce Springsteen. Can it get more American than that? Hardly.

But before we lather on the sunscreen and throw on the red, white and blue, we partake in a growing Independence Day tradition: We watch a bunch of fat guys and a freak of nature from Japan shove piles of greasy hot dogs down their throats as quickly as possible.

I’m not quite sure this is what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had in mind. Read the rest of this entry »

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a new target: Baltimore. Specifically, the Baltimore Ravens.

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From today’s b the paper…

What the heck is going on around here? At the midway point of the 2008 season, Major League Baseball has been sucked into a bizarre, alternate universe, where a perennial doormat is a dark horse to win the American League East, a notorious, unlikable malcontent is keeping pace with A-Rod and Joe Mauer and the hometown Baltimore Orioles surprisingly aren’t that terrible.

Something’s not right here. I’m about to crawl into a bomb shelter for the next four months until the World Series is over, just in case. Read the rest of this entry »

The beautiful stadiums sit just 35.51 miles apart, and the fan base that was once united for a generation under the orange umbrella of Orioles baseball is now forever divided.

This weekend, for the first time since the Washington Nationals got their sparkling new ballpark in southeast D.C. in Anacostia, the region’s baseball fans collided with a true view toward the future. No more “rented” teams from Montreal playing in a stadium that is a half-century old. This time, the Orioles fans going south down Interstate 295 got to see the real future of a potential rivalry between Baltimore and Washington that truly hasn’t been seen by this generation of fans.

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Seattle’s young hurler, Felix Hernandez, doesn’t get to swing the bat very often, but earlier this week he stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded against Johan Santana, one of the top three pitchers in baseball. He made it count, sending the ball over the rightfield fence. Too bad he got injured later in the game, striking another blow to the hapless Mariners. What’s the best play you saw all week?

From today’s b, the paper

I’ve been sitting home watching the Orioles games from Wrigley Field in glorious MASN HD the past three days, including Thursday’s pasting of the Cubs.

For once, I’m a grateful Orioles fan. I’m happy they’re marketing the team, selling a few tickets the past few weeks, getting people downtown to stimulate the city (even in the midst of a few murders three blocks from my home this week), winning some games and making their hardcore fans happy. I’m grateful that they’ve made it an interesting season for all of us.
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Watching yesterday’s Euro 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey, it struck me when, before the match, one player from each side was handed a microphone and spoke out against racism in the world.

I don’t speak German or Turkish, so I don’t know exactly what was said — ESPN could have done a better job with an interpretation or, at least, a summary of the statements — but I applaud the action. Here in the “great melting pot,” it’s easy for us to get wrapped up in our own race-relations issues (Don Imus, for one, doesn’t need a reminder about that after this week), but racism knows no boundaries, and it has been around a lot longer than the U-S-of-A.

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