It’s nice to be able to tune into the Nats again

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports While watching the Washington Nationals play the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, it occurred to me that just two weeks into this new baseball season I have already watched more Nats games on the suddenly poorly-run and poorly-owned MASN Sports Network than I did in the last 10 seasons. Not that…

Maybe no fire, but there is always smoke

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The Washington Commanders, that zany, madcap organization of #NFLTheTVShow misadventure, denied several not so zany or madcap allegations of financial impropriety in a letter sent Monday to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. According to the Associated Press, the 105-page letter including testimony, emails and other documents came as a response…

Weekend of like, didn’t like, don’t get

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The world of sports on an Easter weekend, right? While you weren’t in church, what did you see over the weekend that you liked or, maybe, didn’t like? What did I like? For beginners, it was another great spring weekend in College Park. The Maryland men’s lacrosse team, ranked No.…

As Baltimore as a glass of cognac

“A hot dog at the ballpark is better than steak at the Ritz.” — Humphrey Bogart, Brooklyn Dodgers fan   MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Monday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards it was a case of two being even better, and since you asked, a loaded chili cheese dog, a classic frank with ketchup,…

Opening Day at Camden Yards? Oh, yeah …

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports When last we met, we discussed the most memorable Opening Day experiences of my life as a baseball fan. Every Opening Day is memorable, of course, for various reasons, the biggest one being it marks a day and a moment of renewal – a renewal of hope for a new…

Opening Day with the president

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Every Opening Day is different; every one of them is special. Some stay with you longer than others do and some are but a distant memory. The essence of Opening Day itself, however, lives in you forever. From 1981 until 1997, my friends and I made our annual pilgrimage to…

Opening Day promise sparse, but it’s here

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Opening Day is Thursday, which is, of course, a very good thing. The Washington Nationals visit the refurbished and upgraded New York Mets, as Buck Showalter makes his MLB managerial return for New York, and the Pittsburgh Pirates host the St. Louis Cardinals, with both games being Thursday in the…

Don’t kry for K, America

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports It’s going to take quite some time for the national buzz for that one to die down, as North Carolina’s 81-77 victory over Duke in Saturday’s national semifinals was everything you’d expect a Carolina-Duke game to be and much, much more. But then, that’s pretty much how all of those…

$ee no evil, hear no evil, $peak no evil

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Roger Goodell, the “commissioner” of #NFLTheTVShow, reiterated on Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings that Dan Snyder, the billionaire owner of the Washington Commanders, is not and would not be involved in the day-to-day business of the team for the “foreseeable future” given the investigations of widespread workplace misconduct within…