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10. Blocktoberfest feat. Stroke 9 (Saturday outside 1st Mariner Arena); Several Species: The Pink Floyd Experience (Saturday 6pm Pier Six Pavilion); Gotye (Sunday 6:30pm Merriweather Post Pavilion); Switchfoot (Wednesday 8pm Rams Head Live), Needtobreathe (Thursday 8pm Rams Head Live), Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls (Friday 8:30pm Rams Head Live); North Mississippi All-Stars (Thursday 7pm Recher Theatre); Old Man Brown (Friday 8pm 8×10 Club); Powerman 5000 (Saturday 7pm Baltimore Soundstage); BoDeans/Levi Lowrey (Wednesday & Thursday 8pm Rams Head on Stage); Los Lobos (Monday 7:30pm Birchmere); Wallflowers (Wednesday 8pm Black Cat); Pat McGee Band/Ari Hest (Friday 8pm Strathmore); David Gray (Sunday 8pm Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric); Blondie (Monday 8pm State Theatre); Mumford & Sons “Babel”, Green Day “Uno”, Lupe Fiasco “Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap” and No Doubt “Push and Shove” available in stores/on iTunes (Tuesday)

Holy crap. Stroke 9 is still a thing? Effing A, I’m all in…

Frank Turner is so freaking underrated…

It’s not a question of whether or not you love the Wallflowers. It’s just a question as to whether or not you’re willing to admit it…

I was sent a copy of the Mumford record last week, I love it. Did you see their performance of “Below My Feet” on SNL? Chills.

9. Margaret Cho (Tuesday 6pm & 9pm Rams Head on Stage); Lewis Black (Thursday-Saturday 8pm Warner Theater); JB Smoove (Friday & Saturday Magooby’s Joke House); “The Avengers” and “Family Guy Volume 10” available on Blu-Ray/DVD (Tuesday); “Looper” out in theaters (Friday); Baltimore Book Festival (Friday-Sunday Mt. Vernon Place); Maryland Renaissance Festival (Saturday & Sunday Revel Grove); Living Classrooms Foundation “Maritime Magic” (Friday 7pm Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park)

HOLY HELL I WANT TO DO NOTHING BUT WATCH THE AVENGERS ALL NIGHT EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK IT’S SO FREAKING AMAZING OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD AND I WANT TO DO ALL OF IT WHILE EATING SHAWARMA!!!!

Seriously though, I’m kinda all in on shawarma…

Let’s all go for shawarma!

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We are a week out for the 2012 games in London and I just don’t see the buzz. What has changed? Why has it changed? Does it really matter? Let’s be honest, when the Olympic games are held in a time zone that is not conducive for the viewing times of Americans, it seems not to matter. Back in the 70’s and 80’s the network that would televise the games would save all of the popular events for primetime on tape and with no real-time reporting of the Internet, and other mobile devices, it played live. Remember, in 1980, the hockey game between the United States and Soviet Union was played at 5PM in the afternoon, and shown in prime time. Most people thought they were seeing it live. The only people that knew what happened were the 8000 in the arena. If this game had been played today, we would have known the outcome and probably seen the highlights. Getting closer to us, Michael Phelps will be swimming all of his events in the morning or afternoon. Being that he is one of the poster boys of the Olympic games this year, you know that NBC is going to hold that footage until their evening programming. I know most will still watch, but is it ‘must see’? It will be interesting to see if NBC shows any of their ’go to’ events, swimming, or gymnastics live on the alternate stations they have.

The David versus Goliath mentality of the games for the United States is no longer applicable. You always knew that most of the other countries paid their athletes, but our athletes were considered ‘true’ amateurs. Again, the ‘Miracle on Ice’ hockey team represented the real love of the Olympics. Not only were we barely 15 years from the ‘cold war’, but also we had a bunch of college kids, and Mike Eruzione against the Soviet Union team with all the professional players. It was a perfect storm, David versus Goliath, with social implications. The games will never be that way again as I guess the United States has to utilize professionals so that they can stick their chest out, but is that the point. The first ‘Dream team’ of 1992 was fun, and was a curiosity, but unless you are a hardened NBA junkie, are you going to watch many of the games?

What made the games special was the fact that you really did not know these people until the two weeks in the summer or winter. Most of the sports represented were not made for Wide World of Sports, so you never got to see the athletes until the games. Did you know ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard before the 1976 Games in Montreal? Probably not, unless you were a huge boxing enthusiast; even then, maybe not. Athletes like Teofilo Stephenson, the Cuban boxer who won 3 Olympic gold medals and never turned professional, made the games special because the only time you would see him would be in that 2-week span. Could you imagine the media coverage if he were fighting today?

The uniqueness of the Olympics has been spoiled by the oversaturation of the athletes.

Whatever it is, are the games on your viewing docket from July 27-August 12, or is it the Orioles, reruns or nothing at all?

(By the way, the modern pentathlon includes pistol shooting, fencing, 200 meter freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3-mile cross-country run. I had to look this one up!)

The post The Olympic Games: Do we Really Care Anymore? appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Fans who have been anticipating Mayweather’s comeuppance, at the hands of Manny Pacquiao or anyone else, had better relish this moment, as it appears that a bid in the clink has done what no opponent has been capable of. Prison, it seems, has gotten the best of Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Technically, according to the Associated Press report, Mayweather’s attorneys have asked for either a release from protective custody into general population or to have him released to home confinement. Obviously the reasons for keeping Floyd in PC in the first place are sound and not going away, so essentially the best option if a judge will consider an alternative is home confinement. Maybe this is Mayweather’s way of saving face. Maybe it’s his equivalent of a low blow or eye gouge that allows a fighter a respectable reason to end a fight that they had already given up hope in.

In boxing terms Mayweather has barely made it into the championship rounds as the request for emergency intervention was filed on day 11 of a jail sentence that Mayweather wore like a badge of honor for the months leading up to his incarceration. After all, for all of his championship exploits and their spoils Mayweather has built an impressive and monumental brand, but he can’t buy street cred. Money Mayweather’s lack thereof really seems to bother him. As a result he’s quick to point out a “tough upbringing”, to partner with guys like 50-cent, to attack Manny Pacquiao with a tirade of racist taunts, to take “pro-black” shots at Jeremy Lin and to celebrate his own impending incarceration. Now he’s paying the piper.

As it relates to building street cred, and 87-day jail sentence is laughable even before the recipient starts tapping out on day 11. Furthermore an 87-day stint for beating up your girlfriend, in front of your kids no less is shameful and the degree to which Mayweather celebrated it despicable. So now the world-class athlete withers in a jail cell unable to muster the survival instinct to drink some tap water and do some push ups, and he’s asking for the mercy of the court. And the sad truth is, he’ll probably get it. But in the grand scheme of things Mayweather really doesn’t “get it” and likely never will.

Everywhere else in society, because of his prolific gifts in the ring and his uncanny ability to generate hype and controversy, he doesn’t have to “get it”. But for now, in the cold reality of a laughably short bid in the cozy confines of protective custody, Floyd is at least getting his. For the fans who have been waiting for that…enjoy it, because it may never happen in the ring. Floyd after all, has another special talent that he’s displayed throughout the years. It’s the ability to protect his undefeated record by never fighting an opponent capable of beating him. Floyd’s record is ripe with impressive names, but a closer look reveals that all were beaten down and past their primes before being sacrificed to Mayweather. Maybe now we can see why.

The prison system isn’t your typical Mayweather hand-picked opponent, and it appears to be getting the best of him.

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Jennifer Frawley, Sugar’s daughter, said his wife, Suzanne, was by his side when he died at Northern Westchester Hospital. Sugar also had been battling lung cancer.

“Just his intelligence and his wit and his sense of humor,” Frawley said when asked what she will remember about her father. “He was always worried about people. He was always helping people.”

Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. According to the hall’s website, Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including “The 100 Greatest Boxers Of All Time.” He also appeared in a handful of films, including “The Great White Hype” starring Samuel Jackson.

“Around ringside, it’s not going to be the same with Bert not there,” said Jack Hirsch, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Sugar was born in Washington, D.C., in 1936. He graduated from Maryland and went to law school at Michigan. He passed the bar in his hometown and worked in advertising in New York City before he got into writing in the 1970s.

“Bert was obviously a showman in the way he did things outwardly, very flamboyant, but in quiet moments I found him to be an extremely modest individual,” Hirsch said.

Frawley said arrangements for a memorial service are still pending and anyone wishing to honor Sugar should make a donation to the boxing hall.

“He was really a brilliant man,” she said.

The post Longtime Regular WNST Guest, Iconic Boxing Analyst Bert Sugar Dead at 75 appeared first on We Never Stop Talking Baltimore Sports.

Juan Manuel Lopez

Slow your roll JuanMa. You just got your butt whipped by a 31-year old journeyman in Orlando Salido (38-11-2) for the second straight time, in your home country, by merciful stoppage. That you stood in the ring post-fight and declared yourself dominant after losing is only slightly less farcical than the fact that 2 of 3 judges had you ahead by 2 pts. with the 3^rd judge seeing it even. Regardless, Lopez could barely stand, much less fight, after being pasted in the 10^th round. Still, Lopez pushed the envelope even further by declaring referee Roberto Ramirez Sr. had a gambling problem that was at the root of not only this stoppage, but also the stoppage of the last meeting between Salido and JuanMa by Ramirez’ son. Lopez needs to slow his roll, mind his manners and get back to work, because there’s still work to be done. Salido should rightly forget any talk of another rematch after beating Lopez twice in two tries and instead look ahead to bigger and better fights possibly against guys like Nonito Donaire or Adrian Broner. If those don’t work out, Lopez will always be there and so will fans’ interest. Lopez deserves credit for providing the other end of two great fights from Salido, and for his heart and determination in defining an early fight of the year candidate. But his post-fight antics were both uncalled for and plain wrong; for that reason JuanMa needs to slow his roll.

Pat Knight

Slow down Pat Knight, and all of the story makers who have rewritten the history of Knight’s infamous and over the top indictment of his senior class just a few weeks ago. Knight got a lot of attention and harkened images of his famous father with a rant for the ages after a Feb. 22^nd loss to Stephen F. Austin in which he attacked a senior class that he had inherited rather than recruited as “the worst bunch of kids he’d ever been around”. His team responded with a 6-game win streak that has amounted to a Southland title and a trip now to the big dance, and now it seems that Knight and many revisionist historians have taken to praising the ugly rant and the subsequent result. What has conveniently found its way out of the rant highlights as we celebrate the result was Knight’s reference to drugs in addition to their other myriad of problems. It was a make or break play for Pat Knight, and to his credit and good fortune the “worst group of players he’s been around” found the character and fortitude to save their season…and possibly his ongoing employment and reputation. Before he breaks his arm patting himself on the back over the result, Knight needs to slow his roll and acknowledge that he was more dead wrong than astute visionary.

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AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — Tyrieshia Douglas eliminated fellow flyweight Christina Cruz from the first U.S. Olympic women’s boxing team trials with a 22-14 victory Friday night, avenging an earlier loss and advancing to the final.

Mikaela Mayer edged N’yteeyah Sherman 26-25 to stay alive in the lightweight division, setting up a rematch with Queen Underwood in Saturday’s final. Middleweight Tika Hemingway also avoided elimination, trouncing Raquel Miller 21-6.

Douglas will fight unbeaten Marlen Esparza in Saturday’s final, while Hemingway will meet 16-year-old sensation Claressa Shields for the second time in three days.

Heading into the final fights of a weeklong tournament, Douglas, Mayer and Hemingway must win Saturday to force winner-take-all finales on Sunday in the double-elimination tournament. All three expressed confidence in their ability to overcome earlier missteps during this physically taxing week.

“I feel good, I’m happy, and I’m taking this all the way,” Douglas said. “I’m not tired. That’s not happening.”

Friday’s three winners realize that they must figure out a way to earn two straight victories over unbeaten opponents who are coming off a day of rest. Esparza, Underwood and Shields can earn trips to China for the world championships in May with one more victory.

The Americans also must finish in the top eight at the world championships to earn a spot in the first Olympic women’s boxing tournament in London.

Douglas’ cornermen followed her to the ring holding a banner with her tricky first name misspelled on it, but she scarcely made another misstep. The 23-year-old flyweight who emerged from years of foster care in the Washington, D.C., area to become a world-class fighter markedly improved her game plan from her 20-15 loss to Cruz on Tuesday night.

Douglas’ aggressive game plan in their first bout left her open for too many shots from Cruz’s dangerous right hand. Although Cruz split Douglas’ upper lip with that same right hand in the rematch, Douglas moved with more purpose and broke down Cruz’s defense with a quick jab.

“She can’t handle a person who moves like me,” Douglas said. “I’ve come too far not to come out of this and win it all.”

Mayer got a bloody nose from her bout with Sherman, the 6-foot honor student from Kent State. Both fighters were certain they won the bout when Mayer’s hand was raised, but Sherman took her second straight hard-luck loss after Underwood beat her 25-24 on Thursday night.

“I was actually confident it was going to go my way, but amateur boxing, it can go either way,” said Mayer, the Los Angeles-area native who re-focused her life around boxing.

Although Mayer acknowledges the strain of a long week of competition is dragging on her. She still hasn’t washed her now-bloody singlet, preferring sleep over laundry.

“I’m not surprised, because I knew I have what it takes to be here, but I’m excited because this is everybody’s dream,” Mayer said. “This tournament really taught me to step up toward the end. I’ve never fought more than four times in a tournament. I’m definitely feeling it, but I don’t feel that bad.”

But Mayer keeps rolling: She survived a 23-18 victory over Tiara Brown on Thursday before edging Sherman. Mayer gave a tough fight to Underwood on Tuesday night, evenly battling the top-ranked lightweight except for a difficult second round in her 27-20 loss.

Mayer spent Friday icing and heating her sore muscles, and she’ll have to do it again Saturday.

“Queen has only had three fights, so we’ll see what sharpness versus rest will do,” Mayer said.

Hemingway had the easiest time Friday, controlling Miller’s attack and scoring regular points of her own. The Pittsburgh product entertained the crowd at the Northern Quest resort by throwing bolo punches while high-stepping and shuffling around her opponent in the final round, taunting Miller to come and get it.

“I was confident,” said Hemingway, who’s still steamed about the judges’ scores in her 23-15 loss to Shields on Thursday. “We just fought yesterday, and it was a really close fight.”

Shields also had an opinion about that fight: She thought her score was scandalously low, and she vowed to improve it if given a rematch with Hemingway, who used a physical style to attempt to knock the teenager off her game.

“I’m trying to be a (good sport), so I’ll just say I learned that anything is possible, and anyone is beatable,” Hemingway said. “Anyone who watched that fight can have an opinion, and we’ll see what happens next time.”

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