DeCosta, 41, who has served as the Ravens’ Director of Player Personnel the past three years, joined the franchise in an entry-level position in 1996. He moved his way up through the personnel ranks, first as an Area Scout, then as Director of College Scouting, and was subsequently promoted to Director of Player Personnel in 2009.

DeCosta works closely with Executive Vice President/General Manager Ozzie Newsome to oversee both the college and pro scouting departments. During his tenure as the scouting director, the Ravens drafted Pro Bowlers OLB Terrell Suggs (’03), DT Haloti Ngata (’06), G Ben Grubbs (’07), G Marshal Yanda (’07), FB Le’Ron McClain (’07) and RB Ray Rice (’08).

“When we extended Eric’s contract earlier this year, we changed his title to Assistant GM,” Newsome said. “As Eric continues to grow in the personnel department, he is becoming a vital part of the decision-making process.”

Entering his 13th season with the Ravens, Douglas, 35, has served as the team’s Area Scout Southeast since 2009. From 2003-07, he evaluated players in the Northeast, and in 2008, scouted the entire East Coast. Douglas played a key role in scouting and evaluating first-round pick QB Joe Flacco – the Ravens’ all-time leading passer – and Rice, the two-time Pro Bowler.

Additionally, Douglas has organized and coordinated the team’s post-draft rookie free agent signing process, which over the past several seasons has produced standout players such as LB Jameel McClain, LB Dannell Ellerbe and WR LaQuan Williams.

“Joe is so deserving of his promotion to national scout,” DeCosta stated. “He’s a top evaluator and communicator, and he’s been loyal to the Ravens over the years. In his expanded role, he’ll be scouting players across the country, which only makes us better. We are very excited for Joe.”

Blackburn, 29, joined the Ravens as a Player Personnel Assistant in 2007 after serving one year as a graduate assistant at Butler University coaching cornerbacks. He has spent the past five seasons working with Baltimore’s scouting staff in a number of roles, including preparing advance scouting reports of upcoming opponents, analyzing free agent prospects for pro personnel, scouting draftable collegiate players at multiple schools and helping coordinate in-season free agent workouts/visits.

In his new position as an Area Scout, the 2004 graduate of DePauw University will scout prospects at schools in the Northwest, Southwest and Midwest regions.

“We are looking forward to working with David in his new role as an Area Scout,” Director of College Scouting Joe Hortiz said. “He has done a great job the past five years working in both our pro and college departments, and he has received a well-earned promotion. David has a strong understanding of the type of player and person we look for in a ‘Raven.’ We’re confident he’ll give us another good set of eyes and ears to continue identifying the prospects we value.”

The Ravens also announced that Mark Azevedo has assumed the title of Area Scout Southeast, formerly held by Douglas. Azevedo, 30, was named an Area Scout in 2010, focusing the majority of his attention on schools in the Southeast, Southwest and Midwest regions. He originally joined the Ravens as a Player Personnel Assistant in 2005 and will now shift his primary responsibilities to the Southeast.

Additionally, Kenny Sanders, who spent the past two seasons interning in the team’s scouting department, has been hired as a Player Personnel Assistant. A 2004 graduate of Gettysburg College, he was a three-year letterman while playing defensive back. A Baltimore native, Sanders, 30, prepped at the McDonogh School.

Ravens “20/20 Club” Graduates: Current Personnel Staff
DeCosta, Hortiz, Douglas, Azevedo and Blackburn are all current graduates of the Ravens’ “20/20 Club,” which includes members of the team’s personnel staff who started with the organization as young personnel assistants and grew into evaluators with more input. The term “20/20” refers to hiring 20-year-olds for $20,000. According to Newsome, however, “The guys actually started when they were a little older than 20 and for more than $20,000, but that’s what we call them.”

Name                        Joined Ravens       Current Title
George Kokinis (Cle.)      1991                 Senior Personnel Assistant
Eric DeCosta                    1996                 Assistant General Manager
Joe Hortiz                        1998                 Director of College Scouting
Chad Alexander              1999                 Assistant Director of Pro Personnel
Joe Douglas                     2000                 National Scout
Mark Azevedo                2005                 Area Scout Southeast
David Blackburn             2007                 Area Scout

No one replied.

Not one person saw the e-mail and said, “Damn, we do owe the fans an explanation…”

Until late last night, that is.

Someone (and I’ll confess here that the e-mail I received came in from an address that shielded his/her identity — so it’s entirely possible that this person is a fraud…but they did reference the e-mail that I sent, so I assume they’re legit) reached out to me with this explanation and…well…I’ll just post it here and let you see it for yourself. You won’t believe it.

Without going into any detail so as to protect my identity, I will simply say I’ve worked for the Orioles for the better part of 10 years. I wanted to respond to your e-mail of earlier today and give you some much needed insight into the common practices of ticket sales in the world of sports. Despite what poison you’ve tried to spread around, we do know what we’re doing here. Yes, there is a limit to how many student tickets we’re willing to sell on a Friday night. That’s done in connection with the sponsor (AT&T), as they’re involved in the promotion both conceptually and financially. We limit the number of tickets sold because we have to draw the line somewhere or else we might have 20,000 people lined up at the window wanting six dollar tickets. Obviously we couldn’t stay in business very long if we just let all 20,000 of those people in for six bucks. But you don’t get that. Yes, there have been some long lines at the windows for the Friday home games this year, but that’s because a lot of those students would rather stay in the bar until the first pitch is thrown and then they come over to the ballpark for the game. Is it our fault those students didn’t get to the stadium in time for the first pitch? And further, a lot of them just up and leave in the 6th or 7th inning and wander around the Eutaw Street area and cause problems. These are things you don’t see because you’re not here dealing with the problems.

So there you go. Of course, we still don’t know what the policy is for “Student Night”. It’s like a government secret. What, exactly, is “subject to availability”? Do you have to be one of the first 100 people in line to get the $6.00 discount? One of the first 500? Do you have to be there by no later than 10 minutes after the first pitch in order to receive the discount?

No one knows…because, for some bizarre reason, the Orioles aren’t willing to tell anyone what the policy is.

But that’s only part of the issue.

I was stunned to see the explanation offered in the e-mail: “What if 20,000 students were lined up and wanted to buy six dollar tickets?”

Yeah, boy, that sure would suck, wouldn’t it?

(Please see next page) 

In this the era of the “LOOGY”, the closer and many other specialized bullpen roles, is it still beneficial for the home team to bat last at all?

It seems that we’ve simply accepted that it’s to the advantage of the home team to know how many runs they’ll need in the bottom of the 9^th inning or in extra frames. It also though seems reasonable to say that the team batting in the top of the 9^th or extra innings is simply playing for one more run than the home team has at the time (in extra innings this would always be one). Teams leading going into the bottom of the ninth, or on the road in extra innings usually win anyway. It’s hard to say that under the typical urgency of the 9^th inning, trailing teams find much security, if any, in knowing how many runs they’ll need to win.

The real question is does the benefit of “the hammer” outweigh the advantage that a visiting team enjoys on the road in a tie game because of the impact of the closer role?

Tied in the ninth inning, home managers, used to the formulary approach to back end bullpen management, suddenly find themselves in uncomfortable territory left to decide which inning is the right time to deploy the closer and protect the tie. Once the closer is spent, if the home team fails to score in the bottom of the inning, the home manager has to decide whether to trot the closer out for an extra inning of work, or to go to the parts of the bullpen not already spent en route to the closer. Usually by then the set-up (8^th inning) guy has been in and out as have a specialist or two, leaving the manager with middle and or long relievers to dig in after that.

The visiting manager on the other hand will usually dig into the middle and long relief corps before spending the closer. Maybe that practice makes them more vulnerable at an earlier time than the home team by contrast (and only by an inning), but if the visitors survive the back end of the bullpen (an inning or two usually) the advantage would seemingly shift to them. At that point if the visitors can put up a single run in the top half of any inning, they’d have to like their chances of converting that run into a win with their closer coming on to protect it.

Road teams are also spared having to pitch the final inning (to its completion at least) of losses, sparing them wear and tear on the bullpen in losing efforts. Home hitters are also robbed of bases and RBI on walk-off hits that aren’t homeruns. Obviously shifting these benefits to the home team wouldn’t change much as teams “enjoy this luxury” for 81 road games per year already.

Flipping the top and bottom of innings would give home fans more chances to see their own closer under the games most dramatic circumstances, but baseball would lose the walk-off win for the home team. Given the propensity of baseball players to injure themselves celebrating, shifting the walk off to the road might quell the celebration just a bit and spare more Kendrys Morales type injuries.

With the win, Stevenson (18-4) improved to 13-1 at home this season and advanced to its third national semfinal in four NCAA Tournament appearances. The team is also one win shy of the school record for wins in a season set in 2010.

The win also sets up a third meeting between the Mustangs and rival Salisbury for the third time this season. Sunday’s game will mark the ninth meeting between the schools in the last three seasons and the third in last four in the NCAA Tournament.

For Reid, he now has 19 goals in five games in the NCAA Tournament, breaking the school record held by Richie Ford who had 15 in eight games.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 4-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and held an 8-3 advantage at the half. In 22 games this season, Stevenson has outscored its opponents 131-57 in the first half, including 80-27 in the second quarter.

Reid scored four of his five goals in the first half, including three in-a-row to end the second quarter.

Denison (15-2), who suffered both of its losses this season at Mustang Stadium, pulled within four on Alex Hardt’s 37th goal of the season with 10:56 remaining in the fourth quarter. Both teams would exchange goals over the next two minutes before the Mustangs finished the game by netting the final three to send the team to its third semifinals.

Freshman Stephen Banick (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte) finished with four goals while senior Nick Rossi (Lutherville, Md./Towson) had two goals and one assist and sophomore Chris Dashiell (Salisbury, Md./Parkside) had one goal and two assists.

Senior Justin Lea (Elkridge, Md./Mount Saint Joseph) also scored two goals.

Senior Ian Bolland (Mountain Lakes, N.J./Mountain Lakes) totaled 11 saves to lead the defense while junior Kyle Fendlay (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) and junior Peter Green (Hereford, Md./Hereford) each had three caused turnovers.

Hardt finished with three goals to lead the Big Red while Cory Couture had two goals and one assist. Nick Petracca was credited with 15 saves.

Sunday’s semifinal game time between Stevenson and Salisbury will be announced on Thursday.