Maryland-WVU: Like the old days

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports It felt like the old days when college football was played almost exclusively on sunny Saturday afternoons in front of large enthusiastic crowds just happy to be there to root on their school or their favorite team. It was West Virginia and Maryland renewing their once-annual border-state rivalry in…

Maryland-WVU: It’s personal

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports If you’re a Maryland fan, it’s West Virginia week. If you’re a West Virginia fan, you pretend like it’s no big deal — just another game on the schedule, not unlike the way Duke basketball used to say they felt about Maryland “Not our rivals” basketball. But, okay ……

Ty Johnson in the house; he intends to stay

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports I remember it as though it were yesterday. An article I had written about Fort Hill High School’s Ty Johnson receiving an offer to play football for the University of Maryland had appeared in that morning’s Cumberland Times-News. As I sat down at my favorite spot in my favorite…

Save your Hyde

MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Break up the Birds, right? You can’t stop the Baltimore Orioles. You can only hope to contain them. ‘Dem ‘O’s, hon, won their second straight game on Thursday, beating the Los Angeles Angels, 13-1, on a hot, steamy Chesapeake Bay afternoon in front of a sparse, but comfortable New…

Baltimore is for streakers

Baltimore professional sports has long been known for streaks – both good and bad. For instance, it all started in 1956, when John Unitas, of the Baltimore Colts, who remains the prototype for the modern-day NFL quarterback, passed for a touchdown in 47 consecutive games. That likely doesn’t sound like a big deal to many…

Those things don’t grow on trees

It’s never been a secret that I have no personal rooting interest, not to mention any kind of interest, in the fortunes of the Washington Nationals. While it is appropriate for our nation’s capital to have a Major League baseball team, it is just as appropriate and fair to remember there were two very legitimate…

Goodbye, farewell, so long, vaya con dios …

Our long national nightmare is over. That is, Birdland’s long national nightmare is over (at least one of them, anyway) — Chris Davis has finally gone away. The one-time slugging first baseman, who led all of baseball in home runs and RBI, announced his retirement late last week just one year shy of completing his…

The 10 best baseball movies ever made

In preparation for Major League Baseball’s “Field of Dreams” game, Tony C. and I took the opportunity to talk about our favorite baseball movies. Here are mine in order of preference: 1. A League of Their Own (1992): An absolutely beautiful film from the late Penny Marshall, from the music of Carole King and Madonna…

Mr. Graham …

There was a strong Maryland State Police presence at Adams Family Funeral Home last Thursday beginning with the large print at the front of the room of the handsome man in uniform, Richard John “Dick” Graham, who had passed away at age 85. Mr. Graham served in the Maryland State Police for over 26 years…