Ravens Watch

Cubs Pitcher (And Former Oriole) Jake Arrieta Gets Naked—No, Really

And other top news from Baltimore sports this week.

Anyway, congrats on being ridiculously, ridiculously good looking, Jake. Also, yeah, on that World Series win.

Dexter Fowler made the right choice (can we still resent him?).
We have no animosity toward Jake Arrieta. He got traded and he excelled with his new team. Good for him. It’s what baseball is all about. Dexter Fowler, on the other hand, goes into the dread John Elway category of “Guys Who Out and Out Rejected Baltimore.” Just to jog your memory, in the off-season, the Os were poised to sign Fowler—the speedy center fielder and lead-off man—to a three-year contract. Os fans were, understandably, stoked. Then, without explanation or warning, Fowler reversed course and re-signed with his old team, the Cubs. Obviously, that worked out well for him, but left us in the lurch, with a shaky lead-off-hitter-by-committee lineup. It could be argued that the Os never fully recovered from that snub. Never forget!

Steelers Ravens play meaningful football on Sunday.
It’s a down year for the AFC North and that’s a good thing for the Ravens. To wit: Even with the Ravens recent Period of Suck, they still have a chance to be tied with the Steelers for the top slot in the AFC North! Sure, tied at an inauspicious 4-4, but we’ll take it. We love playing our rival Steelers. We love it even more when first place is on the line.

Jake Layman goes off.
It’s a good week for guys with Maryland ties named Jake. Former Terps forward Jake Layman, who I once called the “Terps Player Most Likely to Date Taylor Swift” absolutely went off in his NBA debut, scoring 17 points in eight minutes for the Portland Trail Blazers, while drilling 5 three pointers. In the process, he scored the second most points by a Trailblazer (after All-Star Damian Lillard) in his rookie debut and tied an NBA record (!) for most three-pointers in a rookie debut. Mind you, all in 8 minutes. Okay, so the points came in garbage time and the Blazers lost the game, but something tells us Jake is about to be seeing a lot more playing time.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.
In an exhibition game, the Lady Terps beat Bluefield State 146-17, with the Terps holding the “Big Blue” scoreless in the second half (72-0). If you’re shaky on your math, that’s a 129 point blow-out. So weigh in, folks: Should the Terps have laid back, stopped competing, and let the score be more respectable (especially since it was just an exhibition game)? Or is it actually more disrespectful to stop competing hard? Hmmm.

Orioles debut new logo.
On Friday, the Orioles unveiled their new logo to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Camden Yards. The Os will be wearing the logo in patch form on their jerseys and it will also be imprinted on Camden Yard baseballs. We like how the logo incorporates the warehouse brick. Your thoughts?