When it rains it pours; ask New York

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ Thankfully for New York sports fans there was one of the most exciting and entertaining U.S. Opens in recent history to keep them awake. Not much else sports-wise, though, has gone well for the City that Never Sleeps, beginning in late March when the Mets’ lights-out closer Edwin Diaz injured…

Two of three: Not bad, but not so good

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports The Baltimore Ravens opened their season with a 25-9 win over the Houston Texans in front of a loud and boisterous sellout crowd at M&T Bank Stadium. The Orioles were in Boston and in the process of losing their three-game series-finale to the Red Sox (hey, can’t win ‘em…

Orioles as good as their next game

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ The Baltimore Orioles are 88-51 with 23 games to go and stand in first place of the American League East. For the Orioles fan, life is good, but it sure ain’t easy. This winning thing is everything it’s cracked up to be and, in Baltimore, it has a chance to…

Both teams should play to their styles

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Maryland and West Virginia … Well, the Terps won their 18th consecutive home-opener on Saturday, beating Towson, 38-6, while the Mountaineers fell to Penn State, 38-15, in front of over 100,000 fans and a national television audience. The Terps’ defense looked pretty good against the Tigers as it should…

Anyone still sorry Maryland left the ACC?

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ College football began in earnest Labor Day weekend with Week 1 of the 2023 season (Two weeks ago when games were played and the season actually began was referred to as Week 0 in case you were wondering or cared). So, naturally, the big news of the weekend hit the…

The best two weeks in sports are now

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports How about Thursday’s epic five-setter between Americans Michael Mmoh and John Isner, marking Isner’s emotional farewell to tennis? How about the coming of age and emergence of College Park’s Frances Tiafoe? Or how about Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in three sets and the tension that…

ACIT, Philly: It all started with hello

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ In the time I began attending the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament as an 11-year-old kid through the 2019 ACIT, the final one I covered for the Cumberland Times-News, two things stand out as the most impactful storylines of tournament history: The dominance of the DeMatha Catholic Stags, who won a…

Goodbye, dear old ACIT; we’ll miss you

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ I was told and I understood it could happen, and happen soon, but that there was a chance some adjustments could be made. Either way, the possibilities were not promising and nothing would come as a surprise. Yet when I woke up on Wednesday and checked the newsfeed first thing…

To beat the odds? Bet on Ty Johnson

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports­­ Former Fort Hill High and University of Maryland great Ty Johnson signed a one-year contract on Monday with the Buffalo Bills The sixth-round pick in 2019, Johnson had re-signed with the New York Jets in March, of course, after playing in all 17 games the previous season, but tore his…

ACC’s finding out: karma’s a witch

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Stanford, California and SMU are trying to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Stanford reportedly willing to join at no cost for the first several years. The ACC has taken multiple votes on the matter over the past week but no progress has been made toward flipping the one…