According to the writeup, No blog covers local sports with as much wisdom. With a decidedly realistic/pessimistic perspective, it asks questions like, “What if the Orioles never win again?”

Check it out online here.

I have to say that I’m incredibly grateful. It was just earlier this year when I gave considerable thought to shutting things down, and even though I retooled my approach I still had days when I wondered if maybe this whole thing had just run its course.

Lately, though, I’ve been feeling reinvigorated and recognition like this tells me that it isn’t for naught. I dig that.

So thanks, Baltimore Magazine, and thanks to all of you who join me here. Commenters and non-commenters alike, daily visitors and occasional drop-ins. I owe ya one.

Starting today, all Loss Column comments become eligible for our new Featured Comment Feature. A lot of the best content on the site comes in the form of individual comments, and I want to feature and reward that. So every week I’ll pluck the best comments from the previous 7 days and put them into a post on the main page, linked back to their spot in the original discussion.

Then, at the end of each month the best comment of them all will be designated the winner, and the person who wrote it will receive a prize. For this month (actually 5 weeks — this week and all of March) the prize is a $10 iTunes gift certificate — enough to pick up one album of your choosing. It’s not a new canary yellow Mustang, but it’s something.

To become a featured comment your post must be:

– Intelligent.
– Well-reasoned.
– Fresh and new.
– Valuable.

Humor can earn you bonus points, naturally, but this isn’t Deadspin.

Edited to add: this basically describes the comments as they already are. I want to make sure everyone knows that the point of this is to keep the already good things going and have a little fun with it.

I’m the sole and final judge of who wins what, and I promise to be fair. That said, feel free to suggest favorites, offer up nominations, etc.

This first month will be a test run. If nobody’s feeling it then, hey, fun while it lasted. If it works then we’ll keep it going indefinitely.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anything I might have missed? Lemme know…

If anybody out there has designs on doing any of their holiday shopping via Amazon, I’d like to encourage you to do so using the advertising link in the upper right. No matter what you eventually purchase, The Loss Column will get a small commission if you start your shopping by clicking through from there (provided you have cookies enabled on your browser). You’ll also earn my eternal gratitude.

Back to sports…

If you’re in the general area of the city you can tune your radio to 1570 on the AM dial, or you can listen in from anywhere by going to wnst.net and clicking on “Listen Live” in the upper left-hand corner, next to Nestor’s noggin (the stream requires Windows Media Player).

I’d love to hear from some of you if you get a chance.

And just in case I don’t get to it later today…

it’s Steve Trachsel (4-4, 3.89) vs. Jeff Francis (5-4, 3.70) tonight at the yard. Get in on it.

Unfortunately, though, it’s also probably a pretty fair representation of how the rest of the baseball world sees Baltimore. Nine straight losing seasons will do that.

Yet isn’t this the same way everybody saw the Tigers before last year? Not to say the O’s are poised for a run like that, but maybe they’ll do enough to shift next year’s focus from Anna Benson to Bedard, Cabrera, and Loewen.

– More roster moves today, including the demotion of Hayden Penn. Here’s the thing to keep constantly in mind about Penn: he’s still only 22 years old. For all of his inconsistency he’s still managed to do more at that age than most players, let alone pitchers. Patience.

– The Final Four is set at Georgetown, UCLA, Ohio State, and Florida. Everybody’s lamenting the lack of a George Mason — or anything close — this year, but the Hoyas are still a pretty compelling story. There’s never been a father-son coaching lineage where both members reached the Final Four, let alone at the same program. Considering that they’ve been virtually invisible for several years now it’s nice to see them doing well again.

And after the way they came back against UNC tonight? Don’t be surprised if they take it all.

– Finally, a bit of TLC housekeeping: I added a couple of links to the “Further Reading” section, most notably the Sports Agent Blog, which provides sports news from a business/agenting perspective.

I also switched up the advertising links in the upper right. I decided from day one that this site would never be driven by advertising, but that I would incorporate it in ways that make sense and don’t intrude on the reading experience. I feel like this configuration does that, but it’s always under consideration.

So if you have a need for baked goods, activewear for women, running gear, or anything sold by Amazon.com, start here. You’ll be doing us a big favor.