Red Sox series ends, thankfully.

Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph summarized the week quite well, and on Wednesday night, with still one game left to be played in the O’s contentious series with the Red Sox. “I’m the most excited person to get the hell out of Boston,” Joseph told reporters.

Seriously.

What the heck was that?!

We wrote a good amount about the heated first two days of the four-game series, including the disgusting and racially motivated words Adam Jones said were tossed at him from the centerfield bleachers at Fenway Park, and the latest (fifth) intentionally thrown fastball by a Red Sox pitcher at our beloved Manny Machado.

That afternoon, the O’s and Red Sox essentially got called into the principal’s office. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred held a special conference call with representatives from both sides, telling them to knock off the childish, unwritten-rules-of-baseball feud that’s stretched back almost two weeks when the Sox took offense to a high Machado slide into second base.

On Wednesday night, quick-triggered home plate umpire Sam Holbrook ejected O’s starting pitcher Kevin Gausman in the second inning when he hit a batter with a 76 mile-per-hour hanging curveball. It wasn’t the type of pitch you’d typically intentionally hit someone with if you wanted to get your money’s worth. The 98 mile-per-hour fastball Chris Sale buzzed by Machado the night before was. “It’s malarkey,” Joseph said. (We need to talk more with this guy!) Then Jones got ejected later in the game for arguing balls and strikes.

Last night’s series-ending game, an 8-3 win, was less dramatic, and more sweet and orderly for the O’s. Machado launched a 466-foot moonshot home run that landed on the street outside Fenway – his third cathartic HR in the four games – and boos rained down as he circled the bases, as they did before every one of his at-bats on the road trip. Manny, after his epic rant against the Red Sox organization, is a serious villain in Boston. With the way some fans there behaved this week, we don’t mind being on this (right) side. “This is my team. I play for Baltimore,” Manny said last night. “I bleed for this team. I’m going to die out there, I’m going to do whatever I’ve got to do to keep this team going.”

Ravens tight end Ben Watson seems like one heck of a guy. 
The 36-year-old veteran hasn’t played a regular season game with the Ravens yet (he tore an Achilles’ tendon last preseason), but he’s already doing things worth noting. How often can you write this sentence? Not only did he recently spend three days in Lebanon, helping Christian humanitarian charity World Vision assist refugees near the country’s border with Syria, but the father of five also this week released a new book, The New Dad’s Playbook: Gearing Up For the Biggest Game of Your Life. Waston, who signed with the Ravens last offseason and won a Super Bowl title with the Patriots, is obviously a Renaissance Man. Back in 2004, when he was rookie coming out of Georgia, he scored a 48 – the third-highest score ever – on the NFL’s Wonderlic test, used to evaluate the learning and problem-solving ability of prospects. Sounds like he and mathematician lineman John Urschel have their own section of the locker room.

So is former Ravens tight end Todd Heap. 
Former Ravens tight end Todd Heap and wife, Ashley, are going through every parent’s worst nightmare: the unthinkable death of a child. A few weeks ago, Heap tragically and accidentally hit and killed his 3-year-old daughter, Holly, while moving his truck in the driveway of the family home in Arizona. Absolutely heart-breaking. On Wednesday, on what would have been the fourth birthday of their daughter, the Heaps asked the world to wear pink and hand out #HugsFromHolly in her memory. Twenty-five of the NFL’s 32 teams shared support on social media.

Welcome a 330-pound London native and rugby player to town. 
Jermaine Eluemunor, the Ravens fifth-round draft pick, selected last weekend, doesn’t exactly carry the usual NFL rookie profile. Aside from being typically large, as required for offensive lineman (he weighed 300 pounds when he was 14 years old and is now 6-foot-4, 330 pounds), Eluemunor sounds like he’s from London (because he is), and has only played one full season of football as a starter. He has more experience playing rugby. In any case, he’s in town with the Ravens now, who hope he’ll blossom into a bonafide NFL lineman, and he’ll get to visit his home country this season when they play the Jacksonville Jaguars Sept. 26 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

And say goodbye to an old Ravens fan favorite.

His stay in Baltimore wasn’t very long, but Justin Forsett’s retirement this week is notable because of how beloved he became in just two seasons with the team. He originally signed a one-year deal with the Ravens in 2014, expecting to be a third-string running back, but became the starter after Ray Rice’s suspension and release, and injuries to Bernard Pierce. Forsett, not the biggest or fastest guy, which he noted in his retirement announcement, helped during a difficult time, and had the best season of nine-year career, racking up 1,266 yards. “Congrats to Justin Forsett on his outstanding football career,” John Harbaugh said in a statement. “A Pro Bowl player and a Pro Bowl person. We were honored to have this outstanding and blessed man as a Raven. His success will continue, no doubt.”

Forsett wrote more about his retirement here:

Brigade’s home opener is Sunday afternoon. 
One more football note: The first-year Baltimore Brigade of the Arena Football League host their home opener at Royal Farms Arena at 1 p.m. Sunday. Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect to see, from the field, at least:

Wonder if Joe Flacco will support the home team this time?

Ubaldo? U bet! On the heels of a 9-3 drubbing in the series opener at Cincinnati’s The Great American Ball Park (okay, we have serious problems with that name) the lovable, but ever-unpredictable Ubaldo Jimenez delivered a dominant effort, shutting down the Red Stockings over 7 and 2/3 innings. The most fun part of the night? When Adam Jones—ignoring a team pieing ban—celebrated the Jimenez’s stalwart performance with a strawberry pie to the kisser during the on-air, post-game interview.

Ubaldo has been known to string together both good and bad outings and we hope Wednesday is a sign he’s about to get on a roll. We also hope this means more post-game dessert action from our star centerfielder.

Trey Mancini’s magic bat. Trey Mancini, the young Orioles slugger, tied a Major League record earlier this week while rocking two home runs in the O’s 11-4 win over Toronto Sunday. A late-season call-up last year, those two dingers gave Mancini seven homers in first 12 games of his career, becoming just the third player ever to achieve that feat.

In fact, Mancini’s bat was so hot, two of his teammates—Craig Gentry and Manny Machado—grabbed his Louisville Slugger C243 and crushed subsequent home runs in the same game.

From Buck Showalter: “So Trey hits his second home run and Gentry grabs his bat and says, ‘I’m going to give that bat a try’ [and he] hits a home run. Manny says, ‘You know what? Give me that bat’ and Manny hit a home run so all of them with Mancini’s bat — I’ve never seen that before.”

Ravens Land Monday Night Game in Baltimore. Five years is a long time without a Monday Night Football appearance. But mark your calendars—the Ravens will host the Houston Texans at M&T Bank Stadium four days after Thanksgiving—just one more reason to be grateful come turkey season. The just-released 2017 schedule also has our birds opening up at The Jungle against the Bengals and then, circle your calendars again; the Steelers arrive in town in Week Four.

We don’t know a lot about the Arena Football League. Just being honest here. We’re still getting up to speed on the Baltimore Brigade, our new hometown entry in the indoor league. But we did see that Brigade defensive lineman Dexter Davis was named Defensive Player of Week after posting three sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in the team’s 52-49 win over the Cleveland Gladiators. Hey, nothing wrong with having two great pro football teams in Charm City. Nice work Brigade and kudos to Dexter.

Save the Trees. This is what frustration looks like to O’s fans: Chris Davis breaking a bat over his knee after a strikeout. While we admire the passion, we’d caution Chris to find a better way to channel his negative emotions. He does strikeout quite a bit (a trade-off for all the homers and RBIs) and something’s going to give eventually—either his knees or the folks who make his bats.

O’s make a great first impression on Opening Day.
Here’s to next Monday being as good as the last one: Opening Day at Camden Yards. More than 45,000 fans in the ballpark. Cal in the front row. The weather held up nicely all day. And, just before 7 p.m., with the stadium’s fancy new LED lights flashing and Mark Trumbo rounding the bases, the scene on the field and in the stands was pure jubilation.

The Orioles made an indelible first impression this 2017 baseball season. Trumbo (happy to have you back) smacked a game-winning home run to left field in the bottom of the 11th inning, shortly after closer Zach Britton found a measure of redemption against the Toronto Blue Jays, pitching a scoreless ninth and 10th, after not getting a chance to throw in a eerily similar situation in the O’s final, playoff-exiting game of 2016. And Manny Machado, our dear third baseman, dog-lover, and best bud of teammate Jonathan Schoop, wasted no games making a play worthy of a Gold Glove.

In the end, the lasting image of the day might have been the empty Gatorade coolers near home plate—thrown in celebration—and their icy contents melting into the dirt, as players and staff headed to the clubhouse.

The O’s beat the Jays 3-2, and they have now won their last seven Opening Day games, all under Buck Showalter. Two nights later, they beat Toronto 3-1 against a gorgeous sunset backdrop, so tonight the team welcomes the Yankees on an undefeated streak.

Michael Phelps sports a goggle tan.
Boy, he looked tan, didn’t he? Baltimore’s Olympic hero — and his sunburned red face — made the Internet rounds later on Monday night, when CBS’ broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game between North Carolina and Gonzaga showed Phelps’ sporting what some reporters with too much time on their hands deemed a “goggle tan.”

The memes took no mercy.

But don’t feel bad. This may be a case of what goes around comes around. Just 48 hours before, on April Fools’ Day, Phelps tweeted out to the Internet that he was making another Olympic comeback in 2020 in Tokyo. He’s not, for the record, he later said.

Manny sports Skittles.
If accessories make the outfit, then consider the aforementioned Machado red-carpet worthy. He’s apparently a big fan of Skittles and, inside the self-designed Air Jordans he wore on Opening Day, are insoles with pictures of the rainbow candy on them. Plus, the candies are personalized with the letters M, Y, and K, for his name, his wife, Yainee, and his dog, Kobe. Turns out Manny’s wife gives him a goody-bag of Skittles for every road trip. The shoes also boast the number “305,” in homage to the area code of Miami, where Machado played in high school. Swag on.

Adam Jones talks education.
If there’s any week to go heavy on Orioles news, it’s this one, especially when a face of the team like Adam Jones spends the day between the O’s first game and their second (a 3-1 win over Toronto on Wednesday) talking about the value of education to a group of kids from the local Boys & Girls Club.

The Orioles, Jones and his wife, Audie, the former Roland Park girls basketball star, made a $75,000 donation to the youth organization for the fourth straight year. Jones never went to college, because he pursued a major league career right out of high school in San Diego, but told the kids “education is the backbone of anything.”

Baltimore Brigade’s first season starts tonight.
It was a relatively slow news week on the Ravens front—the team welcomed free agent center Nick Mangold for a visit to the Castle (he left without signing a contract), the club traded defensive lineman Timmy Jernigan to the Eagles, and it signed wide receiver Michael Campanaro to a one-year deal. Those are humdrum developments compared what’s happening tonight: the debut of the town’s newest football team, the Arena Football League’s Brigade, as it kicks off its inaugural season in Washington, D.C. Here’s some more info about the team, which will host its first home game on May 7 at Royal Farms Arena.

Craving football in the Ravens off-season? You’re in luck! This month, the Arena Football League (AFL) kicks off its inaugural season in Charm City with the brand-new Baltimore Brigade. The indoor team has the first of its 14 games on April 7 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., followed by its home opener shortly after that at the Royal Farms Arena on May 7.

“The arena is thrilled that the Baltimore Brigade will play at our venue this spring and summer,” says Frank Remesch, general manager of the Royal Farms Arena, which also features indoor soccer games played by the Baltimore Blast. “Baltimore has always been a sports town, and we are proud to continue that tradition.”

The AFL has many of the same rules as the NFL, but with a smaller field and fewer players (eight on the field at a time per team compared to the NFL’s 11, with a roster of 24 compared to the NFL’s typical 53). The AFL uses a rebound net, which can keep the ball in play, and sorry boys—no punting allowed (on fourth down, a team may go for a first down, touchdown, or field goal).

In their sleek blue and silver uniforms, the Baltimore Brigade includes seasoned players and rookie talent, with a few athletes hailing from Maryland and even Baltimore. “You have to have great people from top to bottom,” says head coach Omarr Smith, a longtime AFL champion. “Building a football team from scratch is a huge challenge and I’m excited about the opportunity.”

In a city that treasures its underdog status, the team hopes to gain a loyal following. “Baltimore has a great fan base for all of its sports,” says wide receiver LaQuan Williams, who played at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and the University of Maryland before joining the Ravens in 2011 and now the Baltimore Brigade. “I’m excited to see how the town takes to the new team. It’s an exciting game and it gives the community something new to cheer for.”