Author: Maryland Sports - Jan

Maryland Sports - Jan

Scenes from O’s Opening Day 2014

Hope springs eternal on Opening Day, so the adage goes.  Anything is possible. Even sunshine. After an interminable winter and two days of the dreaded wintery mix, Monday dawned with bright skies, moderate temps and a brisk breeze.  Spring and the Orioles are back.

Even before the faithful flock to Camden Yards, Opening Day is underway.  The grounds crew, led by Nicole McFayden, makes sure every blade is in place and every basepath smoothed to perfection.  Hard to imagine after the mercurial weather of the past few weeks, but the field looks perfect long before the morning interviews begin.
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The C&O Canal Trail Gets a New Detour

We’ve been waiting for this news over two years, since the late Senator Robert Byrd announced he scored some stimulus dollars to refurbish the Knobley Mountain tunnel and trestle to connect the small railroad town of Carpendale, West Virginia, with the nearby C&O Canal path just south of Cumberland.

The realization that this dream was now a reality did not come from a press release or newspaper article, but with old-fashioned on-site reporting.

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The Anacostia Connection

The small (1.5 mile) segment of the 36 mile Anacostia Tributary Trail System from Bladensburg Park to the Anacostia wetlands has been a long time coming.   Since then, this segment of a system that follows stream beds from Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties with access to Maryland’s $9.2 million 50-acre Anacostia Wetland Mitigation Project, has gained some heavy-duty, highly visible support – on both sides of the creek.

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Zombie Jamboree — the Latest in 5K Fun

My oldest son, whose idea of exercise is strumming his guitar, recently informed me he was in “training” for a 5K race this fall.  I could not have been more shocked if he was auditioning for the Sugar Plum role in our local Nutcracker.

So it was with immense curiosity I looked up Run For Your Lives, a 5K obstacle course race where you combine physical challenges and sloppy terrain with dodging the zombies who are out to eat your brain.

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Seeing Red

There was a spirited discussion yesterday about the value of hosting a Capitals exhibition game in Baltimore. No one disputed that it was a pretty cool thing to do, but there was a question of the financial impact. Was it indeed a “million dollar” hit?

While there are numerous economic indicators beyond ticket sales and admission taxes, the one I’ve always found most reliable is both visual and palpable, and best measured in the hospitality community.

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