So much for upsets. Jim Palmer had Cal Ripken on the ropes, but in the end No. 8 pulled out the seimfinal victory on Friday in our Toyota Live Web King of Baltimore Sports contest.
In our other semifinal, poor Brooks Robinson got clobbered by No. 19.
So there will be a week of live voting this week to decide the King winner: Johnny Unitas or Cal Ripken.
Voting will close at midday on Friday and we will announce WNST’s King of Baltimore Sports at 5 p.m. on Friday on WNST-AM 1570.
It will also occur during our 10th Anniversary show and party at Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards (our party is from 4 p.m. til 8 p.m.). If you are interested in attending our party on Friday, we do have a limited amount of tickets available.
Simply email rsvp@wnst.net now for a chance to win free tickets for Friday.
As for actual blog content, here’s my b column for today:
I promise to address the entire “arena issue” in a future column after I chat with everyone involved and figure out what the real “goals” are here for the project.
I’m a lifer Baltimoron and as much as the prospect of and NHL or NBA coming here sounds good from my “sports guy” perspective, there’s about zero chance of either happening. And certainly nothing substantive enough to justify building an arena in the hopes of luring one.
And an arena that has housed The Eagles, U2 and the Rolling Stones in the past five years certainly need no excuses for being “antiquated” when it’s only real tenants are a soccer team drawing 7,000 fans and the usual run of American Idols, Disney shows, ice shows, the circus and the occasional concert or motivational speaker.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg on my thoughts…
Despite their loss yesterday, the Tampa Bay Rays remain in sole possession of first place in the AL East. I’m no Bud Selig supporter or sympathizer, but as long as he can point to the standings and show miracles like this in early August he and the morons who run baseball can say “I told you so” regarding the balance of finance and power in MLB. A shame, because the game would be so much better overall if every team had a legitimate chance every year (see: NFL).
Alas, the Brett Favre saga has ended with No. 4 back on the soon-to-be-frozen tundra? Or has it? Gonna be a very, very interesting ride no matter what happens with the 2008 Packers. I’m thinking I’m going to go through a lot of popcorn watching this cinema play out every weekend.
We’re just three days away from our first taste of purple football. It’ll be interesting to see if the results of the Ravens’ “changing ways” translate to success on the field.
Lots of fun storylines and the local media has been getting very chippy with some of Harbaugh’s new “school of Andy Reid” policies regarding access. And some have even gone so far as to say “this isn’t the way Billick did it!” And they’re right.
But change means in more areas than one. Harbaugh also nixed the Ravens Wired shows that created revenue for the franchise. And here come the Patriots, fresh off a freakish Super Bowl loss in February await on Thursday night. Joe Flacco makes his debut. Ditto Harbaugh.
Like I said, we keep lots of popcorn in the Aparicio household these days.
I’d write something about the Orioles today, but when they go to the west coast it’s like they evaporate.
On Friday night I was a speaker at a parade in Towson as a family send off for local swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Huff. Funny how Carmelo Anthony, who played a spit away from the dais at Towson Catholic, wasn’t involved in the celebration? But we won’t forget when the next “Dream Team” gets major play over the next few weeks.
It was awesome to see the support for the local athletes and the enthusiasm for Team USA. Just four days ‘til the opening ceremonies.
