The O's drop below .500, let's talk some Ravens

Here's some video of all of the Ravens draft picks (hopefully of them playing football). I can't watch videos from my PC at work, so I'm not sure how good they are. The descirptions were good, so I'm guessing the vids are also. Let me know if you find better. For now, enjoy these:

Flacco - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxW_RdJjtos
Ray Rice - http://www.rayrice27.com/rutgers_football_video.htm
Tavares Gooden - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zuNfHoQLxg
Zbikowski - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJoBLwsLdbs
Cousins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uHeHLy_sT4
Marcus Smith - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTgQ7aM9jcg
Hale (combine) - http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/david-hale-at-the-nfl-combine/8573802/
Nakamura - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHApgrJarw8&feature=related
Justin Harper - http://virginiatech.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=23503&sport=1
Allen Patrick - http://www.allenpatrick.org/allen-patrick-videos.php
Fabian Washington - http://youtube.com/watch?v=7EOnAsmce_Y&feature=related

There is a possibilty that Ray Lewis might face his brother in Dallas on December 20th. His brother, former MD Terp RB Keon Lattimore was picked up by the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. This game will also be the last game played at the stadium in Dallas. The new stadium is scheduled to open for the 2009 season.

Speaking of Ray, Tavares Gooden --- who by many accounts, will definitely be a good'n, wore #52 at 'the U'. I think he will probaly be wearing a different number for the Ravens.

Joe Flacco will wear #5 and his jersey is already available from the Ravens online store. Here are the rest of the rookie/free agent jersey numbers:

Rice - 39
Gooden - 49
Zbikowski - 40
Cousins - 64
Smith - 81
Hale - 76
Nakamura - 43 (No, Vashone Adams' number was NOT retired)
Harper - 14
Patrick - 38
Washington - 31

JO update: I heard Rob Burnett on WBAL over the weekend and he said that, in a recent phone conversation, JO told him that he was done. No official word from the Ravens yet, so we shall see. Of course, according to this video from NFL.com, John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron would like to have JO back, so maybe they aren't on speaking terms with Rob Burnett. :-)

Happy Mother's Day to all those for whom this message would apply.

A Farewell to Arch

This has been a long time coming, but I promised to write it and I need to write it. So here goes:

I'm a big internet guy. Have been since 1999 or so (thank you, Al Gore). I'm also a big Ravens guy. Naturally, there would be the marriage of these two passions at some point.

The love of both eventually inspired me to start the website and another Ravens fan with similar passions (the talented BigRavensFan) got me hooked on the Ravens bulletin boards.

I eventually started posting (and still do) on the Baltimore Sun's Ravens board. There, I 'met' many people like myself, who loved the team, loved talking about the team, and enjoyed the camraderie. It's easy to get along with people when you already have a shared passion. One of the guys I 'met', who seemed to be a fairly nice and like-minded guy, posted with the userid of Arch33.

One day on the board I mentioned a trip to Ravens training camp that weekend for the annual intra-team scrimmage. Arch PM'd me and told me that he and his wife were headed to camp that day and that we should meet. Normally, I would be reluctant to do such a thing, but he seemed like a nice guy and I thought it would probably be nice to match a userid to a real face.

That day, as I approached camp, the traffic and parking were unbelievable. I thought there would be no way that I would find a parking spot within a 5 mile radius, let alone finding two people in a crowd of thousands. (This was actually the last time the Ravens held the scrimmage in Westminster. It had become so popular that the area could not handle the flow of people and traffic. The scrimmage has since been held at M&T Bank Stadium.)

After following the waves of the parking attendants, over fields and through lines and lines of parked cars, onto the soccer field, I found a spot and pulled into it, despite the attendant in front of me waving frantically to keep coming towards him. When I got out of my Jeep, I happened to notice the license plate of the Vette parked next to me -- 'ARCH33'. I should have known then that we were destined to become friends

I met him and Sandy, his lovely wife, and both were -- as I suspected, really into the Ravens and very nice people. I hung with them for a while and then went off to look around and get some pictures, or as Arch put it: "To work my magic".

A few weeks later, I got a PM from Arch asking about where we tailgated and the cost. At the time, I thought this was 'too soon'. Much like the Seinfeld episode where Keith Hernandez asks Jerry to help him move soon after having just met him, I thought this whole 'tailgating together' thing might be a bit premature. And I wasn't sure how he/they would fit in with out current gang.

Of course, we hooked up that season, and his family - Sandy, Laci and boyfirend Mike, son Jason, along with friends Tree (6'8"), Randy and Mike's brothers (Denny and the other one) mixed in with our group nicely. As an added bonus, Arch brought along good friend Rich (rla20cpa) and son Eric who are also good guys, good cooks, and good hosts. They all have become part of my extended family.

We spent a couple of seasons tailgating together and bonding. The last time I saw Arch at a game was the Christmas night game vs. Minnesota near the end of the 2005 season.

Early in April of 2006, not long after receiving an email from Arch about the upcoming season and possibly meeting at camp again that year, I got an email from Sandy, who had never emailed me before. She and Arch had gone to Baltimore's Inner Harbor on a whim. They were standing on the sidewalk, holding hands, at a red light. Arch, for whatever reason, big kid that he was, decided to let go of her hand and run across the intersection. He didn't make it to the other curb.

The last sentence from his April 26, 2006 email, kidding about my Dad and brothers Dave & Bruce, the former two Boller-bashers: "Say hi to Dad & your bros for me. Are they still planning to start a Boller Fan Club? :)." Typical Arch.

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Sandy, family and friends still tailgate with us. I know I do, and I'm pretty sure they do look forward to the new season and some fun tailgating. I feel like they are a part of my family and I hope that I am even considered a small part of theirs. I thank them for allowing me to share Ravens games with them.

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Now, as Peter Griffin would say: Let's play some footbawwwwllllllllllllllllllll".

The Ravens explain their new '46' defense to the media (and the media try to explain it to us)

I found a good followup of the Ravens explanation of the '46' defense to the media that I mentioned yeterday, by Peter Shmuck of the Baltimore Sun here.

The '46' was originally named after the jersey number of Doug Plank, a Chicago Bears safety who dropped down behind the linemen as an extra linebacker. His role on the Ravens will be played by Will Demps. I, therefore, dub this the '47' defense.

Here is a
graphic of the '47' defense from The Baltimore Sun.

~~ Coach Billick will be guest bartending tonight at The Mt. Washington Tavern in Mt. Washington, Baltimore City. Not sure of the time.

~~ I was thinking about the opening Sunday Night, 9/11 game against the Colts and it occurred to me -- that's my wife's birthday. I was really stoked about being at that game. Now, unfortunately, I'm going to have to remember to take a Happy Birthday sign with me to the game. Someone remind me on the 10th, thanks.

BaltimoreRon - off the porch and running with the Big Blogs.

It's 5/24/2005 and the Ravens are in the second day of their second passing camp. The last camp was run last week, Monday - Thursday.

I like to get the camp updates from WNST at lunch time. I sit in the Jeep while I eat my lunch. It's a glamorous life I lead, I know.

The buzz today was about this kicker from the UK, Rhys Lloyd. According to WNST's Casey (sorry, I can't remember his last name), Rhys was nailing field goals from 56 - 57 yards out. He started kicking from shorter distances, they started moving him backwards and his accuracy seemed to get better. It looks like Rhys will be the replacement for kicking specialist, Wade Richey, and may be the heir-apparent to Matt Stover.

The other tidbit from Casey was that the Ravens were going to explain the new offensive system to the media after camp broke for the day. This sounded like something only a class organization like the Ravens would do. Casey was unsure whether it would be a PowerPoint presentation, or if the media was going to be asked to strap 'em on and get muddy. I'll try to update tomorrow.

BTW - no sappy 'this is my new blog, I hope you like it' crap. I just wanted to hit the groung running and let you know what it's like to spend the day as a Ravens fan in Baltmore.