Ravens: Back to the future
While you're waiting to find out for sure whether Ben Roethlisberger is going to play against the Ravens on Sunday night at M&T Bank Stadium, feel free to take a look at my column for Saturday's print edition, which already is up on the Web site. Check it out right here. Don't get your hopes up too high. Big Ben is listed as probable and he has been practicing, so you have to figure on him being out there on Sunday night. I'm not sure that's the best thing for his long-term well-being, but he's one of those players who would go out there on a broken leg. Loosely related historical trivia: The great Lo

Happy Thanksgiving
Let's just stipulate right here that we're all most thankful for our friends, family and the people who defend our safety and liberty at home and abroad. That way, I can get back to making wry observations that occasionally cause a huge political backlash on the blog. Fortunately for you, I'm going to try to stick to sports (and a little history) today. The other thing I'm most thankful for today is that the Founding Fathers had the foresight to create a special football holiday in the middle of the week. Don't know how they knew, since football wouldn't be created for another century or so and television wouldn't be invented for another half-century after that, but that's the beauty of th

Orioles: Liz gets a new start
One more thing I'm thankful for this holiday season. Radhames Liz is going to get a chance to prove himself with another organization. Liz was plucked off waivers by the San Diego Padres this afternoon. I don't know if he'll be getting a break in the standings next season, but at least the weather will be better. The Orioles now have a space open in the 40-man roster, which I suppose could mean somebody is headed this way, or could just mean they are clearing some room in case they take somebody in the Rule 5 draft. The O's also announced that left-hander Chris Waters has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the Triple-A roster, so there's still a chance he'll turn up on the Orioles ros

Glad you didn't take it personally
This is so much fun, I'm thinking of starting a political blog on the side. With one off-hand comment -- which was a bit of a joke within a joke -- at the end of an unrelated item I managed to anger both the "Birther" people and the anti-birther people who have happened upon the blog today. When you have the most strident people on both sides of an issue mad at you, I think that means you're doing something right. Happy Thanksgiving in advance. Here's the thing I'm most thankful for this week: That we live in a country where you have the right to make a joke about the most powerful politician on the planet and people have the opportunity to criticize you or applaud you for it in a public

Orioles: Another minor move
Some of you are already commenting on this, so I thought I'd post a link to Jeff Zrebiec and Dan Connolly's story about the signing of journeyman left-handed reliever Mike Hinckley. It's a minor move, but looks like it might be a decent minor move. Hinckley's recent Triple-A numbers are pretty good and he has held lefties to a .161 batting average over his 28 major league appearances. While we're doing some housekeeping here, congratulations to former bench coach Dave Jauss for catching on with the New York Mets in the same capacity he held with the Orioles.