Baltimore is known to be a sports crazy city. Baltimore locals are even considered to be one of the best sports fans in the country. Among the most popular sports in Baltimore include football and baseball. Sports fans in the city love to hear the latest sports stories in the city’s major sporting events, and with that, we’re giving you the latest sports news in Baltimore.
Anthony Caruso III wrote an interesting article in The Capital Sports Report about the Baltimore Raven’s move to release their team safety, Eric Weddle. Learn more about this news below.
The Baltimore Ravens have released safety Eric Weddle. He spent the last three seasons with the franchise.
Weddle signed with the Ravens after beginning his career with the San Diego Chargers. He had one-year left on his contract for $6.5 million.
He said in September, he did not want to play for another team. Weddle said he would walk away and retire than relocating his family once again.
According to Spotrac, the Ravens save $7.5 million by making this move.
The 34-year-old Fontana, California native has played the last 12 seasons in the league. He spent nine of those seasons with the Chargers.
This past season, he started all 16 games with the Ravens. He had 68 tackles, including two tackles for a loss, and four quarterback hits.
Weddle also had 1.0 sacks and three pass deflections.
In his final regular season game with the Ravens, Weddle had one tackle against the Cleveland Browns in a 26-24 win. His best game of the season came in Week 5, also against the Browns, where he had eight tackles, including one tackle for a loss, one quarterback hit, and a sack. See full post here…
This is actually an interesting move by the Baltimore Ravens, considering that Weddle has spent the last three seasons with the Ravens franchise. He also had some great games with the Ravens; the most memorable one where he had eight tackles. His departure is a huge loss to the team’s competitiveness.
Next on our list is local basketball, with St. Frances winning the Catholic League crown. Glenn Graham featured this event in his article at The Baltimore Sun. More details about this finals game below.
St. Frances Wins Baltimore Catholic League Crown on 3-Pointer at Buzzer
Image Source: Steve Ruark / For The Baltimore Sun
In the fourth quarter of the 48th Baltimore Catholic League basketball championship game Tuesday night, St. Frances junior point guard Adrian Baldwin did just about everything to keep the Panthers close against St. Maria Goretti.
And when it was time to close out the victory, the All-Metro standout was there again in the biggest way.
With the game tied and nine seconds left, the ball found Baldwin and he did the rest, finding space along the left side of the court and hitting an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer, pushing the Panthers past the Gaels, 71-68, at Loyola Maryland’s Reitz Arena.
Baldwin finished with 25 points, eight assists, seven steals and six rebounds to be named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Joining him on the All-BCL tournament team were teammate Jamal West, who scored 28 points and added nine rebounds Tuesday, St. Maria Goretti’s Abdou Tsimbila and RJ Blakney and Mount Saint Joseph’s James Bishop.
It’s the second straight BCL championship for the Panthers (36-5) and their league-record ninth overall, adding to their Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference crown Feb. 24.
Asked what his mindset was when the game was tied with nine seconds left, Baldwin was quick with his response.
“We’re going to win it. We’re going to win it,” he said.
“This is a great experience,” he added. “I’m just happy right now and don’t know what to say right now. We just won back-to-back championships and made history.”
St. Maria Goretti (28-7), which got 17 points from Blakney and 15 points and 12 rebounds from Tsimbila, led for most of the game, taking a nine-point lead in the second quarter and a 10-point lead late in the third quarter. Click here to read the rest of this post…
Good to see these young guys doing their best efforts to win basketball games, making it an even more dramatic finish with an off-balance buzzer-beating 3-pointer. For the winning team, this is an even greater experience.
Moving on to our last featured Baltimore sports news is from our Baltimore Orioles team in the major league baseball. Nick Stevens wrote about the team in his article at Fansided about the Orioles being in an unfamiliar situation at shortstop. Learn more about this interesting story below.
Baltimore Orioles: An Unfamiliar Situation At Shortstop
A lot of questions remain surrounding the shortstop position for the Baltimore Orioles, an unfamiliar situation for fans.
Who will be the starting shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles on Opening Day? That’s a pretty difficult question to answer, at the moment. Two Rule 5 draft picks and an 11-year MLB veteran with a career on-base percentage well under .300 are the current top options, with a few utility players sprinkled in, to make spring training a bit more interesting.
This is new territory for fans of the Orioles, who really haven’t had to worry about who will man the shortstop position.
Since the Baltimore Orioles took the field for the first time in 1954, at least 20 different players have started Opening Day at each position on the field, except for one position. In 65 seasons of Orioles’ baseball, only 17 men have had the honor of having their name inserted as the starting shortstop in an Opening Day lineup. I think we all know who the longest-tenured Oriole on this list is.
Cal Ripken Jr. worked 14 Opening Days at shortstop (1983-1996, six additional starts at third base), Mark Belanger made 13, and Mike Bordick logged six, as did J.J. Hardy, who has started six of the past eight seasons.
Have any of the shortstop options stepped up for the Baltimore Orioles?
Among the three candidates, Richie Martin has been the most effective at the plate. In 19 plate appearances, Martin is hitting .412 with two doubles, two stolen bases, and two walks (with just two strikeouts).
Much of the discussion surrounding Martin has centered around his corrected vision and offensive burst last season in Double-A with the Oakland Athletics organization. After failing to hit above .235 in any season with at least 300 plate appearances, Martin hit .300 with a .368 OBP in 509 plate appearances. He has continued to see the ball well in spring, while playing solid defense. Learn more about this news here…
Indeed, the Baltimore Orioles is in an unfamiliar situation right now, and their fans have actually felt it. Despite this unfamiliar situation, Orioles still have the stability and in a fairly decent production from the position as well. We’ll see in the coming days how their preparation progresses.
