GOOD NEWS: The Yankees did not win the World Series.
BAD NEWS: The Marlins did. Not that there aren't some great stories on this year's Florida team, but honestly, can anyone other than a world class roto-geek name more than six players on the Marlins' roster. This is a team with no discernible identity and a serious charisma deficiency, but they beat the Yankees, so we like 'em anyway.

GOOD NEWS: This year's Maryland Million day at Laurel was a smash success with record breaking attendance and betting handle. The feature race was about as thrilling a contest as you could ever hope to see as the front-running Presidential Affair held on valiantly in the final strides before being nosed out by the defending champion, Docent. Wonderful day. Great event.
BAD NEWS: Thoroughbred racing in Maryland is dying a slow and very painful death. With slot machines propping up purse money at tracks in Delaware, West Virginia and soon in Pennsylvania, Maryland is clearly competing on an uneven playing field. And if the moralists in Annapolis continue to block any and all slots initiatives, Maryland racing simply doesn't have long to live. How a state that supports and promotes an endless variety of lottery games and keno can stand in opposition to slot machines at race tracks remains a puzzle to me.

GOOD NEWS: A national audience got to see Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez for the reckless punk he is when he threatened the Yankees with beanballs by pointing to his head during that hotly contested American League Championship Series.
BAD NEWS: Pedro actually took a bad rap for his altercation with Yankees coach Don Zimmer. Zim had no business out on the field in the first place, and when you take a swing at somebody, no matter how old you are, you deserve whatever you get. As it turned out, all he got was pushed out of the way, and his tearful news conference the following day struck me as completely absurd and unjustified.

GOOD NEWS: Kyle Boller experienced a breakthrough in the Ravens' loss to the Bengals. Down by 24 points in the fourth quarter, there was nothing left to lose and nothing left to fear, and so Brian cut the kid loose. It was the first time Boller has ever thrown without fear of failure since turning pro, and he showed some flashes of true brilliance. Then, with that experience under his belt, he came back a week later against Denver and, despite playing with a banged up left shoulder/arm, turned in what was arguably his most efficient game of the year.
BAD NEWS: The kid still has a lot to learn and will make more than his share of mistakes while doing it.

GOOD NEWS: The Naval Academy may actually have a winning football team this year. Their victory over Air Force (ranked 25th in the nation going in) was as big a win as the Navy program has had in many moons, and in all the world of collegiate sports there are no kids more deserving of success than the young men and women who play for our service academies. They are truly the best and the brightest.
BAD NEWS: Army is horrible (which I guess is really good news for Navy).

GOOD NEWS: Todd Heap is the best tight end in the NFL.
BAD NEWS: Without him (like if he were to get hurt) the Ravens would be average at best.

GOOD NEWS: The weather turned out to be significantly better than forecast for the Baltimore Marathon. In fact, it was just about dead-perfect for distance running.
BAD NEWS: Only 3,000 runners took part in this year's marathon, and until they fix the course, this event is just not going to get any better. If there's one thing that a runner going 26.2 miles does not want to see as he rolls by the 13-mile mark, it's any sign of the start/finish line. That can be a very deflating sight, and it's something that you never have to contend with on the big-time courses.

GOOD NEWS: Recent revelations concerning the widespread use/abuse of the designer steroid THG should finally cast the light of truth on the dirty little secret of big time sports in the twenty-first century.
BAD NEWS: Major League Baseball will probably still find some way to avoid instituting an effective drug testing system for its players. The simple truth is that some players want to keep doing the drugs so they can keep hitting all those home runs and keep making all that money. The owners want the players to keep doing the drugs so they'll keep hitting all those home runs and people will keep paying all that money to come out to the ball park. And the paying customers want players to keep doing the drugs so they'll keep hitting all those home runs because most fans are just too stupid to understand anything more complex than a ball going over the fence.

And so it goes.

John Buren