A perusal of McCrossin’s bio doesn’t hint at any immediate connection to the O’s, but for what it’s worth there’s also a Boston Red Sox cap on his shelf. Uni-philes like myself will recognize the American League 100th anniversary patch, so we know it’s a jersey from 2001. Looking at the ’01 roster, it’s unclear as to who this may have been a gift from. Maybe McCrossin is just a big Ripken fan, but perhaps this was a gift from Lancaster, PA native and O’s reliever John Parrish (the only PA native listed)? Any enterprising readers with the answer should let us know in the comments.

*By the way, Claude Giroux looks like a Canadian version of Nick Backstrom. It’s all starting to make sense.

In another strange HBO/Baltimore related development, I was watching the trailer for the upcoming HBO series “Angry Boys” when I noticed a familiar face. Yep, that’s WJZ’s own Denise Koch. And yes, she is doing a story about a gay skateboarding sensation. Fans of Chris Lilley’s brilliant earlier work (“Summer Heights High”) will not be surprised at this particular story arc.

Anyway, Lilley’s work, including “Angry Boys,” has always been more or less 100% Australian, produced and shot down under and shown on T.V. there before it comes out on HBO (“Angry Boys” premiers on New Year’s Day in the states). How the heck did the woman who has read the news for 25 years in our home town get on the series (which is her only IMDb credit)? I have no idea.

Never fear, I’ve emailed Denise and I’m sure addressing this wonderful juxtaposition has moved to the top of her holiday to-do list.

UPDATE: An email from Denise Koch explains:

A friend of mine is a cousin of the casting woman for this. She’s in Australia but asked if I’d tape a little scene for them so I agreed. Didn’t actually believe it would ever come state-side but…shows what I know. I am not familiar with the other work although I clicked through it from time to time. Funny you should recognize me!

Thus concludes this thrilling saga. Consider my curiosity indulged. Thanks Denise!

As dopey as it seems, I get tired of this paradigm from time to time. Even as a semi-professional sports complainer, sometimes I feel like everyone is overlooking what a great time it is not only to be a sports fan, but to live in Baltimore and love sports. It goes without saying that there are real things in life to be thankful for, sure, but we don’t write about them here. Take a moment and lose the cynicism, and think about what you love about being a Baltimore sports fan. Here’s my list.

All-World Talent
On a given weekend, I can drive within an hour and see three of the greatest players to ever play their respective positions in their sports. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Alex Ovechkin are generational talents. The will be remembered and lauded well beyond their playing careers and well outside of their respective area codes. What’s more, they’ve played their entire careers in the Baltimore/D.C. area and given their curent contracts, they will retire locally as well. After their careers are over, I know I will regret the times when I took having these athletes in my daily life for granted. Regardless of age, injury, or ebbs in performance, all three are special talents that any team in their sport wish they had.

Great Facilities
Getting off the couch and actually going to a game is a tougher and tougher sell for me. If I do though, I relish the fact that I don’t live in a market with cavernous 1970s coliseums and dingy ballparks. You can’t talk about ballpark aesthetics without mentioning Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which will celebrate its 20th season this upcoming year. When I meet a baseball fan from out of town, this is one of the first things they bring up to me, either relating a story of their visit to Camden Yards or musing on how they’d like to visit it some day. Having a familiar and beautiful place to watch a game is something to hang our hats on, considering that the on-field product hasn’t been worthy of much more than a patch of dirt in over a decade. M&T Bank may not be the JerryDome, but it’s a great clean place to watch an NFL game. It’s a huge facility while feeling intimate, and it’s modern-looking without being an eyesore. Also worth being thankful for is the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center and Nationals Park.

Having An NFL Team, Period
For all of my childhood and most of my adolescence, I was more or less obsessed with the NFL. This is a pretty impressive feat considering Baltimore did not have a team. I’m thankful that if and when I have kids, they’ll have the opportunity (or be forced) to be a Ravens fan essentially from birth. Some things you can’t force, and while I love the Ravens and support them entirely over other NFL teams, I’ll never truly be able to irrationally support them. Something was missed in those formative years when I was drawing sketches of Jim Kelly and collecting Refrigerator Perry trading cards. I wish I had the connection with the Ravens that I do with the Orioles and Capitals, who I’ve been following since before I could ride a bike. Now, I’m thankful just to have a franchise, given that there are eight cities in the United States larger than Baltimore that don’t have NFL teams.

The Internet
As terrible as the people on the Internet can be, I’m truly not sure how I consumed sports before it. Growing up, we had a half hour sports show on the Sunday night news, and three or four pages in the sports section of the Sun every day. If you were lucky, you could figure out when “This Week in Baseball” was on T.V.  The culmination of those entities was a set of limited facts, stats, and opinions from the same four dudes. Now, to a fault, literally everyone has an opinion or something to share. Don’t get me wrong, they’re mostly crap, but there is no better way for a fan base and the team and those who cover the team to connect. It’s a weird climate, where everyone is an expert, and therefore nobody is an expert. It allows this site to exist. It’s allowed me to meet like-minded people and people I hope to never see in a dark alley. It’s a strange, wonderful place that you could spend 24 hours a day reading about Baltimore sports alone and still not get t the end of it all. Taking the good with the bad, I still would choose the world with the web versus one without it.

Being Hungry
Is there nothing more obnoxious than Boston sports right now? Or New York sports in the 2000s? Can you imagine how empty those Boston fans feel now they they’ve won essentially everything possible in a single generation? We don’t have to feel that. We still have something to be hungry for. Actually, we have plenty to be hungry for, which is a great thing. The Ravens have been too good for too long not to get another title shot before the Ray Lewis era is over. The Orioles, Redskins and D.C. United have too rich a tradition not to get back to the top eventually. The Capitals have come too close too many years in a row not to have you salivating for another shot at the Cup after the brief hope in 1998. The Terps football and basketball programs are rebuilding from square one, fighting their way from the bottom up in the aristocracy of big time college-sports. There is no resting on laurels for any of our local teams or it’s fans. We have something to be hungry for. We have reasons for hope and cautious optimism. We look forward rather than back. If you love as many of the area teams as I do, you have lots of irons in the fire. The future isn’t guaranteed to be great or even good. But we have hope.

I’m thankful for everything on this list and so much more. I’m thankful for watching sports in HD from a safe and happy house. I’m thankful I got to grow up in Maryland and have so many great built-in allegiances. And, of course, I’m thankful to share them with you.

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report.  He is currently working on a novel about college football.  Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore or visit his web site at davegilmorejr.com

While browsing ESPN Soccernet on Friday night, I came across this MLS news rundown, which mostly discusses the United situation, and suggests that a move to Baltimore could come as soon as next season. D.C. United don’t want to play in RFK any longer, and it seems that MLS are fairly discontent with the situation as well. The article discusses the construction of a soccer-specific venue in the Camden Yards area, but it seems that M&T Bank Stadium would be the most likely candidate for United if they decide to relocate.

The bigger question than the stadium one, however, is the one of whether an MLS franchise in Baltimore is a smart decision. If the team did move to Baltimore, would it be a logical move for the club and its fan base?

Obviously, Baltimore is a city that has a strong soccer community. The Blast have generated more buzz and a bigger fan base than any other indoor soccer franchise over the past two decades. Additionally, youth soccer is huge in the metro area, and Baltimore is home to several of the top youth club organizations in the country. The top-level European teams that have hosted friendlies at M&T Bank Stadium (Inter Milan, Manchester City, AC Milan, Chelsea) have played in front massive, passionate crowds of more than 70,000 people.

While it wouldn’t be one of the fancy “soccer-specific stadiums” that seem to be all the rage these days, M&T would be a solid home for a franchise, especially as a short-term solution while a long-term solution would be built. It’s versatile, as shown by the multitude of events constantly occurring at the stadium; the NCAA Lacrosse Championships, a U2 concert, the international soccer friendlies in 2009 and 2010, and football championships at the high school and youth levels. Yes, it might be considered a hassle during the short period that the NFL and MLS schedules overlap, but the multi-use capability of the stadium is one of its most valuable strengths.

Would Baltimore sports fans support a D.C. United team if they move to Charm City?

Now, we look at the other side of the argument. D.C. United is one of the original MLS franchises, and has done well in the nation’s capital, both on and off the playing field. Additionally, Baltimore has a metro population that is almost exactly one half of Washington’s, which is always a very important component to consider when thinking about attendance and economic potential of a franchise. Not to mention, Baltimore’s public transportation system lags far behind Washington’s in terms of convenience and overall scope.

The killer might be the fact that Baltimore is a football-crazy city. We all notice it each Sunday, and it’s evidenced by the fact that every post before this one today here on BSR has been about the Ravens. Once the NFL season starts, about 70% of the soccer franchise’s fan base would become disinterested, regardless of the team’s record. While it may seem like a moot point now, considering how poorly their games are attended, the Orioles pose a serious problem as well. They’ve been a Baltimore fixture the last 60 years, and the emergence of an MLS franchise which plays their games from March to October would cause obvious butting of heads. Some fans may end up choosing one team or the other to support, and both franchises would suffer if that were the case. It would surprise me if Peter Angelos does not make a comment on this situation in the coming months.

As evidenced, there are some definite pros and cons of an MLS franchise being relocated to Baltimore. Personally, I’d love it. I am never one to shy away from more sports, and I think it would be fun to be able to have what is a fast-growing league represented in my home city. I’m positive however, that other people feel differently, possibly even due to the fact that they simply don’t like soccer. As we say with most of these matters, it will turn into a wait-and-see kind of deal, and we’ll try to keep you informed over the coming months.

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Edgar Walker is a staff writer for BSR, mostly covering the Ravens and high school sports. Watch out for his upcoming weekly column, “The Saturday Special.” Edgar also contributes to Varsity Sports Network and Essex-Middle River Patch. Follow him on Twitter, as he tries to eclipse Ashton Kutcher in total followers.

Last time I hunted solely on eBay, but this time I thought it made sense to diversify and scour the less-beaten paths of the giant mall that is the Internet. As always, buyer beware.

Ravens 6-piece Family Decal Set ($4.79)
I’m not really sure when this happened, but someone should pinpoint the day that these car decals became popular and find out which butterfly flapped its wings to cause this from spreading. I’m anti-vehicle sticker in the first place, but this seems like a very odd ritual to just have icons for each person and animal in your family. “This is how many bags you’ll need, Mr. Highway Serial Killer!” Maybe it’s because I don’t have kids that this impulse escape me. How lame would it be to just put the dad and mom sticker on my wife’s Passat?

Ravens yarmulke ($18.95)
Can someone of the faith please email me and let me know if this is completely insane or completely acceptable? Perhaps this is the wrong time to ask, but doesn’t $19 seem a bit steep?

Sports Illustrated May 2nd, 1988 ($2.99)
This is the second greatest photo of Billy Ripken holding a bat in circulation.

Orioles pop-up hamper ($11.21)
These Orioles ones are always so sad to find. Every item seems to carry a greater significance and underlying message about what the Orioles have represented the last decade and a half. Soil away!

Maryland Terps etched crystal ball ($50.95)
Again with the physical metaphors! If Randy Edsall looks in this thing, what does he see, exactly? Because if we’re going to lose AT Temple on September 8th, 2012, I would like to know well in advance so I can find a new school to root for.

Donte Stallworth #18 Ravens Jersey – Black ($25.00)
This is a pretty great item if you want to commemorate Stallworth’s 2-catch 2010 season after he killed a guy with his car. I am so tempted to send an eBay question to the seller saying, “so…why are you selling?” The good news on this item is that returns are accepted within 7 days, so once you come out of your fugue state and realize you bid on a Donte Stallworth jersey, you should be able to return it.

Ravens something something dear god ($55)
Okay, perhaps some of our female readers (or writers) can help me out here. Perhaps this is just a bad photo, but this seems to be the worst fashion accessory I’ve ever seen. I had to look at it for a while and crane my neck, THEN read the description twice and ask aloud “what IS that?” This thing looks like some sort of therapeutic art produced from a facility that houses deranged Ravens fans. The seller has the audacity to say that the “total MSRP” on this is $125. The best part is this HAS A BID! Today, at some point, someone is going to own this thing. Please be on the lookout. If you don’t identify the person right away, just listen for the crazyperson blowing the whistle on their necklace.

Steve McNair #9 Pink Ravens jersey ($24.99)
Another one for the ladies. My theory is that someone wore this as one of the most offensive Halloween costumes of all time, and they are unloading it on eBay to wash their hands of it. Items like this should just be automatically mailed to third world countries along with those Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl XLV Champions t-shirts.

On to some non-eBay merch…

Baltimore Grand Prix commemorative Christmas Ornament ($10.95)
Aw, and you can customize it! Mine’s going to read “Danica.” This site puts a wildly positive spin on the BGP:

The Baltimore Grand Prix was a HUGE success! Ornaments & More is lucky enough to be located in the same city with this thrilling race. Many thanks to the people of Baltimore, Maryland for hosting this Indy Car race. If you were there, you will never forget the roar of the engines and the inches measured between cars on turn one.

What kind of Christmas ornament store IS this?! I’m surprised this one doesn’t read “$1.5 Million or best offer”. If the Grand Prix contract is terminated by the city, this really will be a collector’s item.

Tudor Electric Football set – Ravens vs. Redskins ($100)
I can see why people who are just really into sports kitsch love these tabletop electric football sets. I remember discovering one of these in my attic when I was about 11 and could not contain my excitement. It was amazing. Keep in mind this when football video games weren’t much better than Tecmo Bowl, so my brain hadn’t been completely fried. My dad gleefully explained to me how it worked, and showed me what happened when you plugged it in and turned it on. “So, they just buzz around, huh? Hmm, so how do you pass the ball? Oh, I see. And, what happens when the guy just spins in a circle? Ah. Okay, well, cool.” I really hope this guy got a hundred bucks for this. Look at that little Trent Dilfer under center. That’s art, baby.

Ravens tix for?
I really hope when he says “wheel horse” he means a tractor.

55″ LG LED TV a week old and 2 free Ravens vs Cincy tickets ($875)
If you buy this dude’s TV, he’s going to give you his Ravens tickets. I’m not totally sure how that math works out, but more power to him.

I think we’ll end there for this time. Just a fair warning if you go searching terms like “Ravens” on Craigslist: never underestimate the creepiness of Craigslist. Apparently, in the “hookups” section, people often include things like “Go Ravens!” and “Ravens beat the Steelers!” in their posts to either a) prove their posting is not spam, or b) they just really like the Ravens, or c) both. Some things you can’t unsee. Search wisely, folks.

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report.  He is currently working on a novel about college football.  Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore or visit his web site at davegilmorejr.com

“Of all the people that email me, the Ravens fans are the most irrational, which is strange in itself because they just got the team like what, 13, 14 years ago? . . . I get these emails like ‘you hate the Ravens, you intentionally pick against against us’ . . . but they’re very sensitive about Flacco. They don’t like any inference that he’s not good.”

-ESPN’s Bill Simmons on The B.S. Report podcast, October 31st, 2011

When a Raven fan reads the above statement from the most prominent voice in the sports world, how can one not look within one’s self and see if the Sports Guy’s jibes ring true?

To cross over some classical literature on you, doth the Raven protest too much?

The statement Simmons makes speaks to a few points, all of which stem from an underlying notion that the Ravens of the Flacco era are pretenders. Sheep in wolves’ clothing. Poseurs in purple.

I can’t completely fault Simmons for feeling this way. Assuming the veracity of his statement about the amount of emails he receives from self-identified Baltimore fans, how could he not find the fan base a little sensitive? There might be a legitimate slant to how often Simmons picks for or against Baltimore historically in his Friday NFL picks column, but I have neither the time nor interest in digging through those tomes. We can look at Simmons’ ESPN Pick’Em entry to examine a small and recent sample size. The upshot of those records is that Simmons has picked (with the spread) for the Ravens 4 times and against them 3 times in 2011. He’s been right on them 3 times and wrong 4. In other words, at least as far as 2011 is concerned, Simmons would be better off if he had a worse opinion of the Ravens (as would many NFL pickers). It seems as though in recent history, the tin foil hat-wearing emails Simmons has purportedly received from Raven fans have been unwarranted.

The second point he makes in his podcast centers around quarterback Joe Flacco. This is the more specific and damning evidence that something may be rotten at 1 Winning Drive. If the Ravens, and their fans, were so content with no. 5 under center, why is there such a rush to apologize and leap to his defense when four and a half of his seven games so far have been terrible? Deep down, are Ravens fans (at least the ones who email Bill Simmons’ AOL account) afraid that Flacco will be exposed as a mediocre quarterback and thus, one who can’t lead a team to a Super Bowl?

As someone who was born and raised in Baltimore, I’ve noticed a culture of provinciality that exists among many Baltimore sports fans. I get the sense, and this isn’t meant to be an insult, that a lot of Ravens fans don’t pay attention to non-local media. If you fall into this category, let me assure you that it isn’t just Bill Simmons who thinks that Flacco is a pretty average (at best) signal-caller. This opinion is the norm outside of 410 and 443 area codes, not the exception.

I guess I point this out to let you Flacco apologists off the hook a little bit. There’s no need to email The Sports Guy or any other media personality and protect your quarterback. Whether it’s true or not, the popular notion is out there that Flacco is a problematic solution to the essential question befalling every Super Bowl contender. Fervent defense of Flacco only raises further questions, and reinforces the point of those who suspect that Flacco might be closer to Kerry Collins in his prime than say, Ben Roethlisberger*.

It should go without saying that there is now a healthy segment of Raven fans who might be starting to agree with Simmons. It should also go without saying that Simmons” observations are from the emails he receives and the people he talks to (though, to my knowledge, none of his regular cronies are Ravens fans). There’s an old saying in sports talk radio that the calls you get represent 1% of the listeners, that is, there will always be a vocal minority. Maybe the sensitive Flacco defenders don’t represent the larger fan base. However, they do represent some portion of it, and by so aggressively defending a person they’ve never met, it’s a pretty decent bet that there’s some fire behind that smoke.

The Sports Guy might poking a sore spot, but it’s sore for a reason.

*I know, I know. I’m just comparing 6’5″ quarterbacks here. Save your comments about the Steelers for later in the week.

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report.  He is currently working on a novel about college football.  Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore or visit his web site at davegilmorejr.com

Back in early July, before Hensley came to the blog, there was a short but excellent post by James Walker on “Five ways Joe Flacco can silence critics.” It seems like nobody ever revisits these summer football articles. How does the reality of October match up to what we thought in July? I thought I’d take a trip back and find out.

“No. 1 Flacco must beat Pittsburgh and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger”
Flacco has thrown up two bona fide duds of games (Tennessee and the Jets) but the opener against Pittsburgh was certainly not one of them. As a leader of the team, Flacco beat the Steelers 35-7 and started the year in great form at 1-0. As a quarterback, Flacco won the duel against Roethlisberger as well. While Big Ben racked up more yards (due in part to the Steelers playing from behind), Flacco hit his receivers for three touchdowns and zero interceptions, compared to one touchdown and three INTs on Big Ben’s end. Flacco posted a higher completion percentage (58.6%) than Roethlisberger (53.6%). Throw in the fact that Roethlisberger lost two fumbles (bringing his personal turnover count to 5 on the day), and you can easily chalk this one up as a win for Flacco. Obviously, a lot of Roethlisberger’s struggles can be attributed to a great performance by the Raven defense, but if you insist on comparing quarterbacks head to head, you will never be able to isolate them from their defenses. Until November 6th in Pittsburgh, the critics are silenced in this regard.

“No. 2: Flacco must perform well in the playoffs”

Joe Flacco has completely failed in this regard in 2011. That underachiever hasn’t even completed a single pass in the playoffs this season. I kid, of course. However, in order to succeed as a playoff quarterback, you actually need to get your team into the playoffs. Leading the Ravens to a 4-1 start certainly couldn’t have hurt in addressing this criticism.

“No. 3: Thrive against the AFC North”

I was very curious about this point, because it seems as though this is the type of criticism in the NFL that gets bandied about without anything to back it up. Perception guides the fact that certain teams or players own others because of a few memorable clashes, when in reality, the numbers tell a different story. So, I wanted to know for sure where Flacco stacks up in terms of performance against divisional opponents. I took Flacco and his two peers’ (Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer) game logs since Flacco entered the league in 2008. I cleared out everything that wasn’t a divisional regular season game. What we are left with is largely a confirmation of perception. Take a look at the four quarterbacks and their average performances in division (and a version of Flacco that only plays non-division games, for comparison):

It’s clear that Roethlisberger owns divisional opponents on a statistical basis and, of course, in the win-loss tallies. You can account for a lot when it comes to divisional winning against non-divisional winning, so it would be unfair to attribute wins and losses just to Flacco, Palmer or Roethlisberger. From 2008 to present, once could argue that the AFC North has been a better than average  division. Flacco completing more passes, turning the ball over less, and winning more games out of division should make sense. Still, this brings home to roost argument number one against Flacco. To answer the criticism that he’s not as good as Roethlisberger, he simply needs to approach Big Ben’s numbers against common opponents.

“No. 4: Bring back the deep ball”

I took a long, statistical look at Flacco’s numbers to assess criticism number three above. For number four, I’m going to keep it very simple: Joe Flacco leads the NFL in yards per completion with 14.2. Until that changes, Flacco has a solid argument in his favor on this one.

“No. 5: Win a Super Bowl”
The most tired argument about quarterbacking one can make is The Dan Marino Corollary (known in some circles as The Jim Kelly Principle). The idea that a quarterback can be great without winning the last game of the season is debated year in and year out. I view number five on this list as more of an automatic A than a requirement for a “passing” grade. Winning a Super Bowl would certainly be an automatic mute button for the likes of LaMarr Woodley, at least for the immediate future. Still, this thinking seems to fade in the long term. Just ask Eli Manning. Or Dan Marino. Ultimately, reason does win out. Nobody is going to argue that Trent Dilfer is a better quarterback than Dan Marino. When his career is done, Flacco will have a much stronger case in any argument if he has a ring. Consider this a work in progress.

Dave Gilmore lives in Baltimore and writes “The Win Column” for Baltimore Sports Report.  He is currently working on a novel about college football.  Find him on Twitter @dave_gilmore or visit his web site at davegilmorejr.com