Men acting and performing like children

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Man, did Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association ever knock it out of the park with the fifth MLB Little League Classic Sunday afternoon and evening in Williamsport, Pa. For the Baltimore Orioles, the game itself was cause enough for celebration as they beat the Boston…

Boog bobblehead is nice, but c’mon …

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The theme for the entire past weekend at Oriole Park at Camden Yards was Boog Powell on the occasion of his 81st birthday, which was Wednesday, Aug. 17, and Boog Powell Bobblehead Night to commemorate it on the following Saturday night. To the casual baseball fan, or even to the…

Watching a game with Cubs fans

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Several years ago while on the bucket-list visit to Wrigley Field, a seemingly neutral fan told me what the difference was between Cubs fans on the North Side and White Sox fans on the South Side in the wonderful city of Chicago, a city that takes its baseball, and all…

Flacco was ‘Joe Cool’ … until he got paid

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Three-and-a-half weeks from now when the Baltimore Ravens visit the New York Jets somewhere in New Jersey for the season-opener, an old friend may well be there to greet them. Joe Flacco, the one-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, who led the Ravens to the title in 2012-13, then would…

New ballparks born; old ones never die

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The Maryland Stadium Authority wants to build a $70 million ballpark in Hagerstown so the city can gain another professional baseball team in 2024. The ballpark would be built on a parcel of land on Baltimore Street and the MSA has bought a laundromat, a Washington County government building and…

On Aug. 15, I needed to know your name

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports High school fall sports practice has been underway here for area teams in Maryland and West Virginia for some time now, with West Virginia’s entire schedule beginning a week or so before Maryland’s. Monday, however, was August 15 and, seemingly from the beginning of time, without fail, that was the…

Greatest winner? Try greatest period

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports First of all, bravo! to the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association for collaborating on the permanent league-wide retirement of the jersey number 6 in honor of the late Bill Russell, 11-time league champion for the Boston Celtics, civil rights activist, mentor to NBA players until his final day,…

Rose by any other name would smell as stench

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports For several years I have referred to the National Football League as #NFLTheTVShow, having recently added AndSportsBook to the hashtag. I have begun to reconsider that addition and will likely lose it and just stick with TheTVShow, because that is what the NFL is first and foremost. While it is…

A new season of championship TV is here

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Don’t look now, but #NFLTheTVShowAndSportsBook is well underway. Training camp has been going on for a couple of weeks or so, “Draft Day” the movie has been on a couple of times (which is always fun in a Watch a Train Wreck way), the Hall of Fame Game (which is…

They tell us much more than just baseball

MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports The baseball world has spent the past week mourning the death and celebrating the life of the legendary Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, as well it should. The smooth, soothing sound of his voice was baseball and the standard he established in the booth calling a sporting…