Former Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans QB Steve McNair has reportedly been shot and killed in what looks to be a double homicide in downtown Nashville, TN.  Nashville police currently have no suspects in the crime but are questioning several people at police headquarters there.  This story is currently breaking and details may emerge or change as we find out more about what went down.

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On a day when we're all steaming about Dave Trembley's affinity for small ball and the hit and run, I'd like to point out another glaring weakness in our team's management this season: the lineup. First let's take a look at the starting lineups over the past week to get a legit picture of where we're at:

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Lil Wayne has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music over the course of the past year and earlier.  His recent album Tha Carter III has produced numerous hit singles and all the while he has appeared as a guest vocalist on numerous other artists' tracks both inside and outside the realm of hip hop and R&B.  He'll even be releasing be releasing a Rock album in June (he claims one of his favorite bands from his youth was Nirvana).

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There's an old debate in Baltimore as to which of two Little Italy Italian restaurant rivals is better; Chiapparelli's or Sabatino's?  The two stand across Fawn Street from one another.  Both are unquestionably from another era, serving the hearty red sauce fare of Italians of my grandmother's generation.  Both take pride in their house salads which both feature a thick creamy house Italian dressing. 

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For years whenever I've had a conversation with a certain type of music fan I've lived a lie.  That type is a die hard fan of The Clash, and when they would wax poetic about this band and how they were one of greatest, most influential music acts of all time, I would nod and agree because it seemed like the right thing to do.  After all, many music journalists have had a stiffy for The Clash for decades now.  London Calling makes it on Top Whatever album lists like clockwork.  Plus they were punk rock, and they all seemed cool enough so why disagree?  Joe Strummer was so cool he lived with his Mum and was still adored for fuck's sake!

Well no more.  I can't go to my grave, or even into middle age keeping up this charade.  I like The Clash.  London Calling is a good album and so is The Clash.   But honestly...to me....they're just not that good.  They're not even that influential.  They're actually very influenced to be honest.  Influenced by reggae bands from which they derived their white reggae-light sounding material which really diminishes them as a band, for me at least.

So anyhow, here's the poll...

Perhaps, it's the unthinkable.  But it occurs to me that the Orioles have evolved into the familiar position of having crappy pitching and the unfamiliar position of having a decent offense that looks to only get better over the next several years.  Such an imbalance would seem to be the perfect time for a trade.  But that brings up another unfamiliar situation the Orioles find themselves, we now hold the contract for arguably the most valuable prospect in the entirety of baseball, young Mr. Matt Wieters. 

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Joe Buck admitted this morning on Colin Cowherd's show on ESPN Radio that he rarely watches sports on television and that he feels baseball is too big of a time commitment for people to be able to follow.  Buck noted that The Bachelorette is part of his television viewing repertoire however. 

I've never liked this fucking guy.  I've never liked FOX's coverage of the sport.  But to hear that this spoiled little shit doesn't even fucking watch sports and then has the audacity to make lame ass excuses about it, pisses me off to no end.  Can some of the lawyers around here tell me if it's possible for the government, or any other semi-functional entity, to take control of the broadcasting rights away from FOX on grounds of the incompetence they put in their announcing booth?

You can hear the offending clip here.

I love finding new, interesting websites.  It goes without saying that the Internets are an unbelievable resource, that over time just continue to grow and in many ways improve.  Trouble is, there's just so damn much out there, sometimes it's hard to get your bearings and without a little guidance or a tip.  So I thought since we do a lot of OT stuff on music, movies and even tv shows on here, it might be time to steer a discussion back to the medium we're all taking part in. 

Just as a starter, what I'm asking is for you to name five or so great websites.  Can be any topic (sans porn or other sexy-time sites, please), any format - blog, database, search engine, plain & simple html.  Try to think of something a little off the beaten path though.  We all know The Google is good for searching for stuff and Photobucket is a good place to store image files.  The idea should be to try to turn people on to something new, a good resource, a great way to find stuff, a music blog with opinions you value etc. etc.  You get the picture.

What on God's Green Earth is it going to take to convince the Orioles front office that Terry Crowley should have packed his bags and stopped pretending to be a Hitting Coach years ago?  How about these numbers:

O'S TEAM STAT     RANKING AMONGST MLB CLUBS

AVG   .246               27th                       

OBP   .317              25th

SLG   .392               20th

RUNS    227            25th

2B         87                25th

The outlier amongst the offensive stats is HRs where we're 12th in MLB and, astonishingly, 4th in the AL.  Although what this tells me with our crappy OBP and Runs stats is that we've got a bunch of jackasses, with (surprise, surprise) no plate discipline, swinging for the fences and hitting solo dongs since nobody can bother to get their ass on base on this team.

So what the fuck is it going to take?  We've known for years now that The Crow's "philosophy" about hitting is basically a mixture of "do whatever the fuck you want" and "be aggressive".  The man has been much more comfortable with a cheerleader pom-pom in his hand than a bat for years on end now.  Can someone in the FO please wake up about this jackass before he fucks up Adam Jones' future in the Major Leagues?

In following up on a conversation I had at the NYC is Birdland meetup last night, I'm posting the first in what could be an ongoing, off-topic, but Oriolecentric CC Travel series: "O"ly  Planet.  The first edition will be Chicago, Illinois - The Windy City, for no other reason than that I'm visiting there next week on bid-ness. 

Unlike, Lonely Planet, "O"ly Planet should only be comprised of advice and recommendations from people who have actually been to the destination in question and preferably have a decent knowledge thereof.  So if you've been to, or, even better, lived in Chicago feel free to give your recs on good food, neighborhoods, bars, activities etc. in the Windy City.

via www.chicagoaerialtours.com