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Nestor Aparicio

Another night of fun and good deeds at Ed Block Awards

It feels like it happens far too frequently as I age not-s0-gracefully, but I attended my 20th Ed Block Courage Awards Foundation dinner last night. And I missed the first 13 of them! It was great to see so many old friends last night and I also got to meet some new “friends” in the NFL. Here’s the evidence… [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbXP-fFEpY[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LWMpRIjnU[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhCMqIHPQ_A[/youtube]

Do you really care about this NFL money brawl?

I saw all of this coming three years ago in Palm Beach, Fla. at the NFL’s annual winter meetings amongst owners, NFL front office leaders and coaches. The owner’s voted to terminate the collective bargaining agreement, the words “uncapped year” become all the rage and here we are now at the fringe of a full-scale work stoppage, meltdown and the end of the world as we know it. I’ve spent a LOT of time over the past three years talking to virtually everyone I know in the NFL community about every facet of this negotiation in the hopes that I’d somehow be “expert” on what’s happening down in D.C. this week. I really thought that fans would be thirsty for what’s really happening behind the scenes and that somehow, there could be a happy ending behind the red, white and blue shield for 2011 football. Now that the witching hour has arrived it’s become very clear to me that the issues that are making the fight — percentages, salaries, trust, open books, medical insurance and a myriad of other arguments that have made 66 rounds of negotiating feel worthless — none of these are of any interest to most NFL

Back in Peter’s arms: When corporate media does business with Orioles the fans lose the truth

On Tuesday night we learned what we’ve known for months – Peter G. Angelos and WBAL Radio are going back into business together once again for the 2011 Orioles season and beyond. The old man finally gets his eternal wish – to be the king of the AM band on summer nights on a dying radio station that no one listens to anymore but cadavers and people in his age demographic who still think a “smart phone” is one with an answering machine. Funny, this is the same WBAL-AM 1090 that was also wrongfully denied media credentials the past few seasons and was considered persona non grata the nanosecond that John Angelos cut the CBS Radio deal four years ago with 105.7 FM and only after Bob Phillips squandered the longtime rights to the Ravens and allowed Ed Kiernan and the boys on TV Hill to swoop in for the purple roadkill for 98 Rock after the brand was built on the FM dial. It’s like jumping in and out of sleeping bags for both franchises and these two corporate monoliths as a formerly lucrative revenue stream – local radio rights – continues to dry up as sports fans go

You never know who you’ll see on Radio Row at Dallas Super Bowl

Despite the fact that we’re being inundated with “all things Pittsburgh Steelers” so far in Dallas this week, we’re off to a great start and hope that you’re enjoying our WNST.net full multimedia coverage of the biggest sporting event in the world from Super Bowl XVL. While we’re all sick as hell — and hoping not to spread any more germs — we’re off to a rousing start as we’ve been joined by many sportswriters, NFL players and other luminaries here on Radio Row as we broadcast live from 6 til 10 each morning and 2 til 6 each afternoon through Friday. By far, the highlight of Day 1 was the visit from Dallas resident Kenny Cooper, who was about as big of a sports “star” as Baltimore had in the 1980’s. As coach of the Baltimore Blast, the still-indefatigable Coops brought his British charm, wit and incredible coach’s intellect to our makeshift set on Monday. What a treat, catching up with Cooper and talking memories, especially for Drew Forrester who considers the coach his “second father.” All of the videos are coming to WNStv soon but you can now watch ALL of the proceedings in Dallas live via our

Hey MacPhail: Give Guerrero the money today and tell the fans whether your salary is driven by wins or profit

It’s Orioles FanFest Day and that means that MLB Commissioner-in-waiting Andy MacPhail would love nothing more than to make that “splash” announcement sometime after noon today. Perhaps they’ll even enter the 21st century today by texting out that they’ve managed to whittle down former Hall of Fame candidate Vladimir Guererro and have gotten him into an orange jumpsuit for another run at 4th place in the AL East. As my begging for free tickets on Facebook yesterday indicated — no, I’m not giving The PGA any of my money today — I’m still interested in the Orioles. One of the reasons I’m really interested is that at some point all of this is going to change. At some point, someone who is interested in winning for Baltimore will own, operate and fix the love of my life. So, today, much like my trip to Sarasota back in November and our week of broadcasts in March from down in Florida is about “hope.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-bldNihn68[/youtube] It’s not the dumb, orange Kool Aid-drinking hope that somehow Peter Angelos will change. (By the way, I’m hearing he’s changing for the worse, not the better these days as he’s disappeared from the social scene. Meanwhile,

With latest win, Pittsburgh isn’t just our Daddy — but now our Granddaddy, too

These postseason losses are getting harder and harder for Baltimore to shake off. Like you, I awakened on Sunday to the sounds of silence. Like you, I spent the better part of Saturday night and all day Sunday and parts of the last two days trying to figure out and process just what the hell happened after 6 p.m. at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Drew, Glenn and I have a little tradition going now where we shoot the postgame “gut reactions” as we cross the Fort Pittsburgh Bridge back into the city and as we chatted that same sick, sinking feeling grabbed me as I saw the city and the bridges behind me as we pulled out of the city – we lost to Pittsburgh again and we have to wait another year (at least) and wait for the stars to align yet again to have a chance to vanquish our oppressors. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTWmmvvef4Y[/youtube] No matter the opponent, all of these postseason wins and losses take on memorable twists and turns but this recent vomiting of a 14-point, halftime lead to the dreaded Pittsburgh Steelers after blowing the home field advantage six weeks earlier on a blown assignment on Troy Polamalu

Confessions of a lifetime of hatred for Pittsburgh from a real Baltimore sports fan

It’s a big, emotional week of football in Baltimore and the reason it’s so significant is because of our civic desire to have another purple parade at the Inner Harbor and the sheer nausea we all feel in the pits of our bellies about the fact that at 8 p.m. on Saturday night this could be the worse loss of our lives all over again. Just like all of our January losses to the likes of Indianapolis and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and New York. Or, it can potentially extinguish the 40 years of domination from the city of Pittsburgh, but specifically the Steelers and their arrogant, obnoxious fan base here in the region. This is an epic throwdown between two cities that don’t like each other but a rivalry that is so embarrassingly lopsided that it makes the Roadrunner look like a winner. I’m up to my eyeballs in rattlesnakes throwing parties, organizing bus trips and running WNST.net – 12 hours of radio, the daily newspaper, text service plus all of our social media endeavors on Facebook and Twitter that truly is Baltimore’s best and most comprehensive sports coverage in the world. And for those of you who know me,

All Pittsburgh bustrips and major purple party on sale now!!!

With the Ravens moving on to Pittsburgh for a 4:30 p.m. AFC Divisional Playoff game this Saturday, WNST proudly continues out tradition of taking you to the game and planning the best purple pre-game parties on the planet. You can buy tickets for our bustrip ($350 all inclusive) or our Purple Playoff Pep Rally & Indoor Tailgate Party at the Pittsburgh Westin ($12) here now…

Are you headed to Kansas City? We have two great Saturday parties for you!

Are you going to Kansas City? We have two great purple pep rallies set for Saturday! As always, WNST.net has scouted the local terrain and we’ve put together two fabulous Miller Lite Purple Pep Rallies in Kansas City on Saturday. We’ll consider it a “day-night doubleheader” for all of the traveling fans of the Ravens who want to convene and have some Baltimore-style fun. You can buy tickets for the events in Kansas City HERE!!! Here are the details: Saturday 810 Zone Sports Bar Meet And Greet (11 a.m. ‘til 3 p.m.) We’ll gather at Kansas City’s No. 1 sports bar, The 810Zone, at Country Club Plaza for some pre-game food, cocktails, spirit in a great, friendly Midwestern environment. The folks at the 810 are owned by local radio station WHB-AM, who we consider our best radio friends in America. We’ll have a great buffet all afternoon and all of the games in the game room are included in the purchase price. MENU includes: Nacho Bar Cordon Bleu “Purple Balls” Wings done different ways Baked Ziti Pot Stickers Queso and chips Veggie and fruit tray Spinach Dip Many Miller Lite & cocktail specials as well ADMISSION: $15 in advance, $20

Yes, we’re doing a bustrip to Kansas City for Ravens playoff game

It takes a special individual to join us on these crazy adventures, but we are planning a once-in-a-lifetime Miller Lite Purple Playoff Roadtrip via bus to Kansas City this weekend. The trip is on sale here at WNST.net NOW… Here are all of the details on the trip, which is “priced to fly” considering that flying to Kansas City this weekend would cost almost $600 alone on Southwest Airlines: Sure, it’s a long ride but we’re doing our best to get you to Kansas City! KEEP COMING BACK HERE FOR MORE UPDATES ON THIS TRIP!!! PLANS ARE EVOLVING but this will be another great WNST.net classic! Our Miller Lite Purple Playoff Express will depart Baltimore at 5 a.m. Friday from White Marsh with a stop at I-70/Security at 5:30 a.m. and we’re off to Kansas City for three days of fun and adventure. We’ll have parties planned for Saturday and you’ll have a full day to recoup and enjoy your stay in the Country Club Plaza area, a beautiful area of Kansas City. We will depart for Baltimore immediately following the game on Sunday afternoon for Baltimore. We will return home sometime mid-morning on Monday. Trip includes: Snacks and Miller

Yes, we’re doing a bustrip to Kansas City for Ravens playoff game

It takes a special individual to join us on these crazy adventures, but we are planning a once-in-a-lifetime Miller Lite Purple Playoff Roadtrip via bus to Kansas City this weekend. The trip is on sale here at WNST.net NOW… Here are all of the details on the trip, which is “priced to fly” considering that flying to Kansas City this weekend would cost almost $600 alone on Southwest Airlines: Sure, it’s a long ride but we’re doing our best to get you to Kansas City! KEEP COMING BACK HERE FOR MORE UPDATES ON THIS TRIP!!! PLANS ARE EVOLVING but this will be another great WNST.net classic! Our Miller Lite Purple Playoff Express will depart Baltimore at 5 a.m. Friday from White Marsh with a stop at I-70/Security at 5:30 a.m. and we’re off to Kansas City for three days of fun and adventure. We’ll have parties planned for Saturday and you’ll have a full day to recoup and enjoy your stay in the Country Club Plaza area, a beautiful area of Kansas City. We will depart for Baltimore immediately following the game on Sunday afternoon for Baltimore. We will return home sometime mid-morning on Monday. Trip includes: Snacks and Miller

Here’s what I think about Derrek Lee

The signing today of Derrek Lee is a classic Orioles move. End of the year. Low dollars. Low risk. It gives the team an aging, qualified first baseman, who will be a nice fit on a potential 4th-place, 75-win team. He’s another Kevin Millar at this point in his career. Lee will hit .254 with 18 HR and 65 RBI. Big freaking deal. Peter Angelos just put $10 million back in his pocket that he didn’t give to Adam Dunn. Once again: Angelos wins in the pocket and the fans have a lousy baseball team and the city sits empty all summer. I’ve seen it for too long. Happy New Year, Orioles fans. Buck Showalter now once again has the worst first basemen in the AL East to try to win with.

As purple Festivus season is upon us, alas the real Grinch continues to be Peter G. Angelos

It’s been 51 months now since the initial “Free The Birds” campaign that we launched at WNST.net in “Year Nine of The Black Cat” and motivated more than 2,000 other brave souls who said “enough is enough” to Peter Angelos and the losing and nasty ways of the Baltimore Orioles. The holiday results are in yet again for another sad orange offseason and I’m feeling pretty confident — as is Las Vegas — that the Baltimore Orioles will not be a playoff team in 2011. And the real reason the team won’t win this year is the same as last year and the year before that: they won’t (or can’t) spend all of the millions of dollars they have managed to extract from this community via their incredibly wealthy and lean “regional sports network” called MASN. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in direct profit that was allegedly to be spent on improving the baseball team for the community to enjoy. But instead of the $150 million payrolls that were promised to “compete with the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox,” that previously earmarked U.S. money donated by Middle Atlantic cable subscribers is in

A Dear John letter…

Dear John: It’s Pittsburgh week here and we’re finally on the cusp of getting to the promised land of having some home “Festivus” games in January. And it’s all come down to this: if we win this week and vanquish the Steelers, who have been our oppressors as a community since 1971, we’re probably going to have a week off to watch the playoffs on TV and then have some home cooking. And maybe some folks will even bring those ridiculous purple towels back for another meeting with the Steelers here in Baltimore in January. But if we lose – and let’s be honest – we’ve NEVER won this kind of game at home on your watch – we’ll be back on the road to Jacksonville or Indianapolis or San Diego or Kansas City for Week 1 of the playoffs. That is, if we even get there at all, because we all know nothing is automatic in the NFL. This is an open letter and I think this is going to be a trial way of communicating and writing what I think about what you’ve done and what you’re doing here as the leader of the 53 Mighty Men. I

The biggest story in Charlotte wasn’t on the field — it was in the stands!

It’s been an interesting couple of days of meltdowns, chill outs and re-energizing the batteries for me since the wild weekend in Charlotte when our Baltimore fans essentially went down there and took over the entire city. After a 48-hour marathon of parties, beer drinking, tailgates, football and bus rides my plan on Monday was to do as little as Andy MacPhail for a day and I can honestly say I failed. Even when I wasn’t trying, I STILL got more done than the Orioles did on Monday and Tuesday. But seeing the “old media” coverage of the magnificence of the events in Carolina was almost laughable given how many miles I put on the tread seeing Baltimoreans of all walks of life come to life in Charlotte on Saturday and Sunday. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I’ll show you what I’m seeing and when I see it. This is what I saw Saturday night: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA0xYf3IeQk[/youtube] It really occurred to me as I perused the field from the 20-yard line and saw thick swaths of purple throughout the teal building and everywhere in concourses and stands that Sunday was a transcendent day for Baltimore fans and sports.

Live from New York: Sports Media & Technology coming to life…

I’m live in New York at the Sports Business Journal Sports Media & Technology Conference. You can follow all of the correspondence from this event on Twitter at #sbjsmt. For those of you who hate reading about sports “business” or anything more than the latest drama regarding the Ravens’ secondary, this will bore you. But for those of you who REALLY follow WNST and are sophisticated about my personal growth as a new media zealot (and hopefully, one day, a guru) this will be compelling information. Needless to say, I love to learn and I love sports and I love sports media and I love technology. So this is right up my alley. I’ll be breaking my observations up into segments from the panels of the day. You can see the various panels and topics here… I’ll be blogging all day and adding to this piece and I hope you enjoy some of the conversations and observations. ********* Big screen vs. small screen and where is cable TV headed? We’re all paying for cable TV becaue that’s what we’ve always done.
But what will that look like in three years? Or five years? We’ve all seen and felt the myriad of

Are you going to Carolina this weekend? Join our WNST Purple Pep Rallies

The size of the party crowd kept growing – hence the delay – but WNST.net is poised to host the biggest Purple Pep Rally we’ve ever thrown for any road trip in our history in Charlotte this weekend. Based on the overwhelming amount of interest we needed to find a space big enough to handle all of the purple fans traveling from Baltimore and we’re proud to announce two awesome parties — one on Saturday night at Whisky River at The Epicenter of Charlotte and a Bojangles/Miller Lite picnic tailgate just two blocks from the stadium on Sunday. IF YOU WANT TO BUY TICKETS FOR THIS WEEKEND, CLICK HERE… If you are already booked on the WNST Miller Lite Roadtrip to Carolina your party passes are INCLUDED in our package. There will be no party at the Tilted Kilt in Charlotte — our group outgrew the space there and we had to move the party to a bigger location! I’ve never, ever seen this volume of interest or email for parties. I think half of Baltimore is headed to Charlotte this weekend! These events WILL sell out so please plan to join us and sign up early!!! TICKETS TO BOTH

My Sarasota report: Falling in love with the Orioles and spring training all over again…

I made a fatal yet beautiful mistake this weekend. My mother in law has a place near Sarasota area and my wife and I used the mini-bye weekend to “visit Sarasota” just like all of the ads I saw on MASN all summer said. And you know what? I fell in love with the concept of the Orioles and spring training and Sarasota once again. A proud franchise, steeped in tradition and local lore with the likes of Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken never saw a training facility like the one that is quickly getting erected off 12th Street in Sarasota. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-bldNihn68[/youtube] I walked around. I checked it out and I dreamed the dream of the orange Kool Aid. No doubt it’s a personal source of pride for the lovely Janet Marie Smith as she once watched Oriole Park at Camden Yards rise above the ashes of a dusty industrial wasteland six blocks west of the shining Inner Harbor 20 years ago. She is now overseeing this long-overdue re-working of the Orioles ways of spring and much like her predecessors, she’s abruptly stopped returning phone calls and emails from WNST.net. Work for a thug,

Hey Baltimore sports fans, it’s Twitter not Spitter

The game is all set for Thursday night and I’m all set to jump a plane to Birmingham, Alabama and make my usual drive through the lovely eastern part of the South toward Atlanta for another Georgia Dome visit and a Thursday night date with Matt Ryan and my old pal Mike Smith’s Falcons. Now that Le’Ron McClain has been found innocent by Park Avenue, I suppose we can move the topic from “spitter” to “Twitter”. If you are NOT “on Twitter” (as they say) let me make an impassioned plea for you to try it tomorrow night and follow along (or just follow from the front page here at WNST.net or in our LIVE CHAT) and see all the fun you’re missing by not getting completely caught up in the mobile fun of gameday with feedback. Over the last 18 months, WNST.net has moved from a “little radio station” into the most-viewed and relevant Baltimore sports media site in the new media space. Come see what all of the fuss is about tomorrow night when we crush the coverage of the Falcons-Ravens game. Along with Chris Pika and Glenn Clark, we’ll be in Atlanta. Thyrl will be at HighTopps

Ray Lewis past, present and future: Will he be a Ray of Light in the future?

The really interesting part of watching all of this Baltimore football history unfold around me in so many ways is watching us all age. I don’t think there was a person in the stadium Sunday that didn’t have some anchor to identify emotions that are tied to the 2000 Ravens and what that Super Bowl did for the spirit and soul of our community during 2001. And there was no one in the crowd who wasn’t 10 years younger and wasn’t thinking about pulling out whatever Whiskey Joe’s memories or whatever emotional bond we all have to Jan. 28, 2001. These stories and memories have surfaced with a variety of interesting and fun comments on Facebook this week but all of this Super Bowl XXXV frivolity – and apparently the Ravens had one whopper of an internal party on Saturday night with all sorts of interesting “fallout” – has made us all misty

Ray Lewis past, present and future: Celebrating the Ray of today

People still ask me every day of my life what Ray Lewis is like and if I don’t put forth any other theories about No. 52 over the next few days just know this: he is very complex and leads a complicated and very full life with tons of responsibilities and obligations that I wouldn’t care to list or profess to know a whole lot about. But I’m convinced there’s no time for “down time” being Ray Lewis circa Nov. 2010. And I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t want to trade places in life with him. Because I really don’t think it’s easy being Ray Lewis. First, I’m not around the team six days a week anymore. Because I’m running this awesome web and new media company that occupies every waking moment of my existence these days and I because I have the great Glenn Clark to chase the team every day as Baltimore’s best Ravens beat reporter, I only encounter Ray Lewis twice a week – on Wednesday during media day and Sunday after the games in the locker room. Despite my 15 years of ups and downs with him, I’m just another guy with a microphone and a

Ray Lewis past, present and future: Is it safe to say the Ghost of Ray has passed?

I was sitting in a Canton restaurant six weeks ago doing a WNST.net sales presentation and out of the corner of my eye I caught a purple flash. There, larger than life was the familiar sight of Ray Lewis coming down on Darren Sproles on the San Diego turf last fall on all of the flat screens at once in a jarring HD highlight reel, then pounding more running backs, belting quarterbacks and creating that beautiful purple havoc that we’ve grown to love to watch on Sunday afternoons in Baltimore. The volume was down but it didn’t take me long to realize that Steve Sabol and a series of former Ravens coaches were doing a roundtable conversation about the career of Ray Lewis and I realized this was the NFL Films special that was shot in Orlando back during the NFL Owners Meetings that I attended. It was the same day when I spent time with all of these same people – Jack Del Rio, Mike Smith, Marvin Lewis, Rex Ryan, Mike Singletary – for a coffee table conversation book I’m working on about the lineage of Baltimore coaching and leadership. In case you missed any of the segments on

State of Baltimore Sports Media Fall 2010 Update: WNST.net continues to grow beyond radio and into web dominance

One of the few joyful benefits of being the “independent” voice in Baltimore sports is that we never have to kiss anyone’s derriere or ask for permission to speak the truth or make our point. We’re afforded the rarest commodity in American media today – “free speech” – and most days that ain’t even close to being free. And now that our newest product, “The WNST Morning Newspaper” powered by Blue Sky Factory and presented by Toyota, is reaching nearly 15,000 of you every morning I thought I’d take a little time during the bye week to update everyone who cares about us here at WNST.net with a “state of the local media” report. With another successful Ravens season reaching the halfway point – and I stand on the side of the room that is delighted with 5-2 for Halloween — it’s always a good time to take stock in where we are as a company and where we’re heading in the future as Baltimore’s measurable sports media leader on the web and in mobile at WNST.net. We’re not doing a lengthy survey this time around with a “State of Baltimore Sports Media” update, but I do want to thank

Bench Flacco for Bulger? Are you people on dope?

In the era of the internet, it doesn’t take long to ferret out the bitchers, moaners, whiners, complainers and bridge jumpers on a fall NFL Sunday afternoon. Being the social media zealot that I am, it’s easy to feel the temperature of the never-ending Baltimore “barstool” here at WNST.net during our Purple Haze live chats as well as all over Facebook and Twitter during games. For an old fart like me, it’s quite compelling (if not entertaining) to gauge the shaky and ever-changing morale of the purple fan base during each possession, each drive and each success and failure by the Ravens. To say Sunday’s performance by Joe Flacco was a hot button would be an understatement. I could only hope that the Orioles 14-year free-fall would have such relevance and concern to the Baltimore sports community. Sure, Flacco stunk. He stunk early and often and looked bewildered at different points during the first half of a 5-for-18, 23-yard first half. The second half started with a solo burst of offensive success as Flacco led the team into the Bengals’ end zone on the initial drive but in the end it wasn’t good enough as he threw four interceptions in

Is Mark Sanchez really a fruitcake? We’ll find out tonight as Ravens visit Jets

If you don’t watch Hard Knocks on HBO, you won’t get the humor in the headline but I have a hunch you will be watching tonight as eight months of sports silence in Baltimore and a revenge game on national TV for Jets coach Rex Ryan should whet your appetite for the deliciousness of the next 17 weeks and beyond. Tonight, the Ravens finally play football. For real… I have been quite silent this summer as the Orioles have continued to tank it en route to a last-place finish but today I recommit to telling you what I think during the football season. I’ve been busy 24 hours a day building the new WNST.net that many of you are enjoying daily via our many means to reach you: the Morning Newspaper, text service, Facebook, Twitter, AM 1570, this very website at WNST.net, etc. The Orioles are winning and no one is watching while the Ravens have been dormant since that dark night in Indianapolis eight months ago but have once again captured the imagination not only of the local marketplace but they’ve become the national media darlings and are expected to be in Dallas in early February by many pundits.

Peter King gives a Football 101 Tweetup at Amicci’s

A big thank you to all of the local football zealots who braved the raindrops and joined us at Amicci’s in Little Italy tonight for our first-ever, official “Tweetup.” Our gracious host Peter King of SI.com held court for two hours of banter, beer drinking, football chatter, storytelling and laughs. Oh, and it’s Amicci’s — so you know the food didn’t suck! Too much to tell you about but here’s a brief video clip of the beginning of what was an illuminating and entertaining session of NFL insider information: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrE8CtCm7pU[/youtube]

Great pasta and great football talk with Peter King at Amicci’s today

If the rain has you down today, please come indoors with us after 4 p.m. down at Amicci’s in Little Italy for our first-ever “Tweetup” with legendary Sports Illustrated writer and NBC personality Peter King. Peter loves Twitter (who doesn’t?) and he asked me a few weeks ago about doing a Tweetup in Baltimore because today is his very wet day to be in Westminster doing a SI.com postcard on the Ravens. The event is free, the food is spectacular and the football conversation will be legendary. All you need to do is be at Amicci’s between 4 and 6:30 for all of the Italian food, American football and cold beer and cocktails. I dare you to find a better happy hour in Baltimore today…

In lieu of American Idol, we give you Baltimore Sports Media Idol in the morning

I’m not sure whether it’s good news or bad news for Baltimore, but I’ll be filling in for Drew Forrester on the Morning Reaction three days this week and will be bringing along one of my favorite annual competitions — the “So you think you can do this better than me” competition for sports radio, media and the web. As many of you know, virtually every host or writer we’ve ever had at WNST has come to me in this very format — they’ve all come in with a dream of doing this for a living and some have survived, some have thrived and others have provided entertainment and comedy along the way. It really kinda IS like American Idol from my perspective, except the winner only gets $500 in WNST gift cards and merchandise. It’s not about the prize as much as it is the opportunity. But it’s hard to tell someone they suck when they just did three minutes of the worst sports radio I’ve ever heard and they think they’re Chris Berman. It’s also been rewarding in finding really cool people like last year’s winner Luke Jones, who has gone on to a hosting role here at

Here’s Buck…so where’s Peter?

As we watch the next press conference welcoming yet another Orioles manager to Baltimore amidst more rhetoric about the farm system, young players and how “tough” things are in the AL East, I’ll be wondering where the owner of the team is to take accountability for this 2010 meltdown. Now in their 13th year of nonstop losing one thing has remained constant — the man who is responsible for all of this civic tragedy, Peter Angelos, will be absent once again. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STRgnJzuHxc[/youtube] And once again, Angelos’ many employees in the media will be front and center to ask their newest co-worker, Buck Showalter, softball questions and lay-ups while the team flounders, the downtown business community decays and the team is 32-73. Today will once again illuminate the difference between the baseball team and the football team. When the Ravens hire, fire or take on water, owner Steve Bisciotti shows up for the press conference and sometimes painfully has to accept responsibility for failures at season’s end. Today, with the Orioles 13 years into a black hole, their owner Peter Angelos and his family will act the roles of cowards and  scarecrows — fingers pointed in every direction except the mirror

Sunday Morning thoughts…

While we await another day of Ravens training camp and ponder life without Domonique Foxworth, I’m actually thinking about Buck Showalter’s press conference tomorrow and how in the world he’s going to stand on a podium at The Warehouse after 13 years of losing and proclaim that he has answers for this colossal turd that is the Orioles circa 2010. * As much bad news as we’ve had from Westminster, it’s good to see Todd Heap back on field this morning. The tight end position, the depth and how Cam Cameron will use these guys with a better receiving corps will be worth following during camp and early season. * Had a blast at the Manchester City-InterMilan game last night. We’ll see if the lack of civic response will cost us World Cup games in 2022 when U.S. gets bid. We’ll know more on Dec. 3 when FIFA gives us the ball.

Let the search for Baltimore’s next sports media star begin now…

With WNST.net about to enter its 13th year of existence the changes we’ve made here are pretty apparent. As has been my mantra for more than three years, WNST – the “radio station” – has evolved into a thriving web company with tremendous reach and accessibility to Baltimore sports fans in a myriad of ways. We’re growing at WNST.net this summer and building a better user experience for the people who love Baltimore sports the most – you, the very person reading this blog and utilizing WNST.net for all of your local and national sports information. From our radio station’s original reach and the distribution of sports information on this website and the level playing field we enjoy on the web and with mobile information, we’ve managed to grow the company to become the No. 1 most-visited website in the marketplace for Baltimore radio and No. 4 overall, only behind BaltimoreSun.com, WBALTV.com & WJZ.com for daily traffic and influence (according to www.alexa.com). We now have more than 10,000 people every morning getting our all-new WNST Morning Newspaper. We have 5,600 people every day on our WNST Text Service. And our web numbers grow every single day in social media with

Bruno Sammartino dinner is postponed

For all of you fellow 1970’s WWWF fans, I’ve got some good news and bad news. Earlier this week Bruno Sammartino’s wife had an emergency knee replacement and he called me two days ago and asked if we could reschedule the July 18th date to later in the year. Obviously, it’s disappointing that we’re going to move the date into the fall but at least we’re doing our best to make it happen. Candidly, ticket sales haven’t been what we anticipated but we’re still in a position to make the event happen even if it’s downscaled a bit. I want to give Bruno a week to get his wife’s rehab in place and we’ll look for an appropriate date in the Fall. Hope you understand and know that I’m JUST as excited as the many who’ve written me to say it’s a pretty cool and unique event. I’ve still never met Bruno and it’s been a thrill to just chat with him on the phone. If you know of some other wrestling friends who would like to attend the event we still have every intention of making this happen. We’ll get you more details when I can circle the wagons

Maybe now Cleveland will leave Art Modell alone?

I’m not an expert about much but Cleveland is something I know a lot about. As much as I like to have some fun with our cousins to the Midwest – it’s been a healthy rivalry ever since Art Modell stepped foot into Parking Lot D in Nov. 1995 – today a little piece of me is angry for them. It’s true – anger is to Cleveland what fake breasts and sunshine are to California. People in Cleveland are perennially angry. They hate the Browns. They hate Art Modell. They hate losing. They hate whoever is the quarterback of the Browns. They hate that they haven’t won a championship. They hate me. And this morning, for the first time since Modell brought us the Ravens, they have a right to be burning 23 jerseys and “M-F-ing” Lebron James into perpetuity. Sure, “King James” had the freedom to play wherever he wanted to play. Sure, Miami has prettier girls (although I always had a good time in Cleveland, wink, wink) and more sunshine and Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade and Pat Riley. But Cleveland held something intrinsic and legitimate that Lebron James sold away in one sentence last night, something that

Three on the 4th: What do Peter Angelos, Al Davis & George Steinbrenner have in common?

Well, since I’ve gotten your attention on the hot, sticky holiday here’s an amazing statistic that I think I sorta kinda knew, but could only be reminded of on the 4th of July. On July 4, 1929 BOTH Al Davis and Peter Angelos were born. Yes, same day, same year! And, just 365 days later, on July 4, 1930, Yankees tyrant George Steinbrenner was born. Three of the biggest jerks of their respective eras. Three sports owners. Three wealthy men. Three widely unpopular men. And currently, all three are in various states of illusion, disillusionment and/or failure in their communities to some degree. Of course, we could say that Steinbrenner — only after being banned and disgraced by his fellow owners — came out of the “dark ages” of the pinstripes with championships galore over the past 15 years. And, apparently his mental health is failing so we’ll try to be as tasteful as we can be about a guy who volumes of books were written about his eccentricities and temper over the years. But this is some “club” huh, these three wack jobs… Well just thought it was worth noting — other than comical efforts at public relations at

Dear Peter Angelos: When will you fix this disgrace?

At the risk of “piling on,” I’ve decided to throw my two cents into the blogosphere today to briefly (insert joke here) discuss the situation regarding the Orioles as they continue their West Coast horror tour where no doubt Adam Jones will be tweeting about how great it is to be in San Diego and how pretty the girls are. Yeah, well I was almost in San Diego, too this week. When I saw the schedule come out last year I looked to do a baseball trip to my favorite city in the U.S. and watch the Orioles play and needless to say I made a great decision avoiding the So Cal and the Bay Areas this June of 2010, especially considering the U2 show on Wednesday night in Oakland was cancelled. I also thought for a while I was headed to the World Cup in South Africa, but alas, duty calls here in Baltimore in the way of running WNST.net. I’m much happier to be headed to Harford County for the day to support soccer and my country, than to be watching this dreadful 18-48 baseball team in sunny San Diego over 7 a.m. eggs and bacon. I built

Pick a World Cup game and join WNST for a beer!

It’s with great enthusiasm for the World Cup, WNST.net announces the following viewing parties and soccer celebrations throughout the month of June. Join us for a cold beer and a cup of soccer cheer as the greatest event in the world commences with the USA in the middle of the action. Pick a game. Pick a date. Pick a barstool. Let’s watch some soccer and have fun in June!!! Friday, June 11 10 — South Africa-Mexico JOIN US AT SLAINTE IN FELLS POINT 2:30 – Uruguay-France Saturday, June 12 Baltimore County World Soccer Festival SEE ALL DETAILS HERE… 7:30 – South Korea-Argentina 10 – Argentina-Nigeria 2:30 – England-USA JOIN US AT GREENE TURTLE TOWSON FOR POST-EVENT BEGINNING AT 5 P.M. Sunday, June 13 7:30 – Algeria-Slovenia 10 – Serbia-Ghana 2:30 – Germany-Australia JOIN US AT SEAN BOLAN’S IN BEL AIR Monday, June 14 7:30 — Netherlands-Denmark 10 – Japan-Cameroon 2:30 – Italy-Paraguay JOIN US AT AMICCI’S IN LITTLE ITALY Tuesday, June 15 7:30 — New Zealand-Slovakia 10 – Ivory Coast-Portugal 2:30 – Brazil-North Korea JOIN US AT 7 WEST IN TOWSON Wednesday, June 16 7:30 – Honduras-Chile 10 – Spain-Switzerland 2:30 – South Africa-Uruguay JOIN US AT GREENE TURTLE IN

Sadly, Bob Haynie departs WNST after 10 years

It is with great sadness that WNST announces a mutual professional parting of the ways with longtime midday host Bob Haynie. The past two years of economic downturn have created a lack of funding and specific sponsorship for Bob Haynie’s radio show here at WNST-AM 1570. It’s a financial reality that we need sponsorship dollars to make any programming or content viable here at WNST. And our listeners – and now our readers and our community at WNST.net – are the people who are the ultimate arbiters of our success by supporting our local sponsors who count on the business to support their families. The bottom line: despite our love of Bob and his excellent radio show, sponsorship to Bob Haynie’s radio show on WNST was down significantly and despite our best efforts to change that in partnership with Bob, we couldn’t reach terms on an arrangement moving forward. When you, as the reader of this blog or this site, actually financially support the local businesses you see here, the employees of WNST get to keep their jobs and feed their families doing sports media with us. We don’t talk about it much – actually we probably don’t say it

I’ve got World Cup Fever and I want you to catch it

Because I have nothing better to do than sit around and dream up ways to have fun around the clock, sometimes even I can come up with a good idea. My vision was seeded from my time in Europe four years ago for the Germany World Cup and now we’ve put together a day of soccer joy that we’re hoping will be the best event we’ve ever been associated with in Baltimore. One Saturday, June 12th in conjunction with ASG Sports and the Towson Chamber of Commerce, we’re throwing the biggest red, white and blue soccer festival anywhere in the area to root on the US as they tackle England in the first game of the 2010 World Cup. I’ll be posting some of my videos and stories from my experiences at the previous World Cup. And if I can’t be in South Africa for the kickoff of this one, at least I’ll be with thousands of Baltimore-area soccer lovers who all want to have a great time and celebrate the event together in a beautiful public square watching the game with a Miller Lite and a lawn chair. Here are all of the details: As a FREE celebration of

With Nats-Orioles series looming, we get more stupid comments from Peter Angelos

It’s another interesting spring weekend for the local baseball aficionados in the area who bring their civic report cards as well as a copy of the MLB standings with them to the ballpark. The Baltimore Orioles are once again visiting the Washington Nationals and this time one set of fans finally cares about the vaunted “Beltway Series” that Peter Angelos swore over and over would never happen. And it’s not Baltimore… Angelos, while sitting with me at The Barn in 1997 and then again various times in the ensuing years, opined that the “Baltimore vs. Washington rivalry” would never happen in my lifetime. Today, with the Nationals beginning to flourish in the NL East in their sixth year of existence and Angelos pocketing upward of $40 million per year off of the transaction, the owner of the Orioles finally spoke out. Angelos was asked in a rare appearance in the daily fish wrap this morning about whether the “rivalry” would ever catch on to be local Hatfields and McCoys. His response: “You never know. It’s kind of early to say if that will happen.” Actually, Mr. Angelos, it’s been six years. The Ravens won a Super Bowl for Baltimore in

Less than 2,000 “real fans” attend Orioles game last night

The Orioles announced the crowd at 9,299, which is almost laughable if you were a witness to the scene of about 1,500 who actually came down to Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night to observe the two worst teams in Major League Baseball. Thankfully, a picture taken during the 2nd inning at 7:20 p.m. EST is worth a thousand words so here you go: Somewhere, Claude Brochu and the folks with Montreal Expos swag in Quebec don’t feel so lonely anymore. The Orioles have truly become the embodiment of the Montreal Expos. We literally had more Free The Birds people back in September 2006 than there were “real Orioles fans” last night in ballpark. For the record, I’d estimate the Free The Birds crowd last night at about 75 throughout the evening at Phillips Harborplace. It was alarming for many of the folks who don’t come downtown very often to see how desolate and deserted the downtown streets are before and after the games. There is no traffic. There are no street vendors. There are no traffic cops. It’s like there’s no game being played at all. Here’s a video of my evening at Camden Yards last night: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4120mYH0vY[/youtube]

A Dear John letter…

Dear John: It’s Pittsburgh week here and we’re finally on the cusp of getting to the promised land of having

Sunday Morning thoughts…

While we await another day of Ravens training camp and ponder life without Domonique Foxworth, I’m actually thinking about Buck

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