That led me to the idea of creating power rankings of my own. While The Loss Column skews heavily towards the Orioles and Ravens, that’s more a product of circumstance than design. I’d love to spend more time analyzing and writing about the rest of our regional teams. Something like this could be a nice way to do that. It’d also provide a place to get some discussion going about teams/sports that we don’t address often enough.

Assuming that the relevant teams are Orioles, Ravens, Terps basketball, Terps football, Caps, Wizards, Nationals, and Redskins, here’s what I came up with:

1. Ravens
Is there even a contest? They’re the only team currently enjoying a sustained track record of success, and they’re the only team that doesn’t face any major questions about the future.

2. Terps basketball
The one team that, at present, could possibly unseat the Ravens. It would take an ignominious Ravens playoff exit and theTerps following that with a deep (or even deep-ish) run into March Madness™. As long as Gary Williams is there, this team will be better-than-average at worst. Only problem is that lately they haven’t been much better than that.

3. Capitals
They’ve got one of hockey’s two biggest stars in Alex Ovechkin. They’re a virtual lock for a good playoff seed every year. They enjoy great attendance. They’re fun to watch. Thanks to them, hockey is on the map in DC and, to some extent, the region as a whole.

Only problem is, they underachieved in the playoffs last year by losing in the first round to Montreal despite enjoying the #1 overall seed. They’ve got to do better.

4. Nationals
The Stephen Strasburg injury was a huge setback but they’ve got a solid young core and they made big waves in free agency by signing Jayson Werth. They – like the Orioles – are unlikely to contend this year, but they have what appears to be a very decent chance at getting there soon.

5. Orioles
I’d feel a lot better about them if they’d finally sign a first baseman and a veteran starter, but neither would change their ranking. I believe them to be a team on the rise, but there are (as we know too well) still way more questions than answers.

6. Wizards
They’re currently 7-22, and as a result I can’t rank them any higher than this. But they’ve got John Wall, and he should eventually be special. They’ve got Ted Leonsis in the owner’s box, and he knows how to make things happen (see #3 above). This isn’t their year but from what I’ve been able to gather they’re setting themselves up well.

7. Redskins
The Haynesworth debacle. The McNabb debacle. The losing record. The switch to a 3-4 defense coupled with the wrong personnel to execute it.

Good news is that they’re in the NFL and, as such, have a great chance at rebounding next year. If there’s football next year.

8. Terps football
I don’t care that they’re coming off a winning season and I don’t care about the Military Bowl. They utterly botched the firing of Ralph Friedgen and are facing a potentially huge disruption with the transition to a new coach. That and, well, they don’t really generate much excitement outside of College Park. The bottom spot is theirs because, at the moment, they don’t really matter.

So there you have it. I figure I’ll do a list like this maybe every couple of months, especially if the concept generates any interest. Comments are officially open.

30-year old Ace Bailey skates right wing for the Leafs, and he’s a good one. A former scoring champion who played an integral role during his team’s 1932-33 Stanley Cup season, he remains a force on the ice despite a recent drop in production.

Eddie Shore, 31, plays defense for the Bruins. He’s a rugged man with impressive skills, an iconic and polarizing star with a Stanley Cup of his own on the résumé.

Although the Leafs had eliminated the Bruins in the semi-finals the year before, there’s no particular relationship between the two men. They are simply two stars engaged in the game-to-game grind of helping their teams win a championship. Yet their names would, on this night, become linked forever.

Some time during the second period, Shore takes a nasty check. Depending on which account you read it comes from either of two Toronto defenseman: King Clancy or Red Horner. Either way, Shore gets up dazed and with his sights set on revenge. He wants the man who took him out but finds his target, mistakenly, in Bailey.

He delivers a vicious blow that trips Bailey up and sends him head-first to the ice. Bailey starts convulsing, bleeding from the skull. Horner skates in and decks Shore, sending the Bruin to the ice with a three-inch gash in his head. Both Bailey and Shore have to be carried from the ice by teammates. The ensuing chaos runs so deep that Maple Leafs president Conn Smythe rearranges the dental work of a Bruins fan who accused Bailey of embellishing his injury.

Back in the locker rooms, Shore recovers quickly enough to visit Bailey on the visitors’ side. He never intended any harm, and he says as much in delivering an apology. “It’s all part of the game,” Bailey says, before lapsing back into unconsciousness and being rushed to the hospital.

Bailey’s life hangs by a thread. Things get dire enough that a priest is brought in to deliver last rites. Boston police conduct interviews, assembling a potential case against Shore for manslaughter. Bailey’s father grabs a handgun, takes a train to Boston, and starts making inquiries as to Shore’s whereabouts.

Then, somehow, things changed.

Bailey made the kind of recovery Hollywood screenwriters don’t dare dream up (although his playing days were over). Shore’s indefinite suspension was lifted and he returned to the ice. The NHL community rallied to Bailey’s side and staged an All-Star game for his benefit, the first such contest in league history. Bailey and Shore met at center ice, shook hands, and closed the book on their incident for good.

Every sport has its unwritten rules. How and when to pitch inside and hit a guy, what’s “dirty” and what isn’t in the scramble for a loose ball. Where the line is drawn between gamesmanship and something more serious. What’s personal and what isn’t. These rules are necessary because at any moment — no matter how innocuous it might seem — the threat of real loss hangs over the contest.

Ace Bailey and Eddie Shore weren’t the first pro athletes to buy tickets to that dance and they weren’t the last. Just ask Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich.

The rules tighten, the fines stiffen, and the effort to sanitize pro sports marches on. I doubt we’re any better for it.

(Ace Bailey photo via legendsofhockey.net)

It all comes to a head tonight down at the Verizon Center in one of the most glorious displays on earth: a playoff game seven. Do yourself a favor and watch at least a period or so of this one. It’s going to be something.

In Orioles news, the Angels are in town today for the first of two. They’ll be greeted (at least in part) by Melvin Mora, who skipped his rehab assignment and joined the team today. To make room, Matt Albers was sent down.

I think that transaction makes us better immediately. Mora > Wigginton (although I do love Ty in the utility role), and Albers really needs to get himself straightened out. And who knows, maybe MelmO will provide us a shot in the arm.

Tonight it’s Adam Eaton on the hill against Joe Saunders. Koji goes tomorrow against Shane Loux before it’s off to the Blue Jays for a weekend series.

One that, incidentally, will feature a Mark Hendrickson-Roy Halladay matchup on Friday. Yep.

(photo via)

“Ideally, you get your best players through the draft, so you always put the emphasis on that part of rebuilding. If you look at any successful team, they’ve drafted well.”

And then:

“That was the process and there were going to be some tough nights. It’s not much fun walking into a building knowing you’re probably going to get thrashed. But you get through that and you make sure your team is gritty and competitive and the wins will come at some point.”

Here’s the Homer McFanboy blog post from which Steinberg got the quotes, where McPhee also talks about the importance of making good trades and signing “the right free agents.”

McPhee is talking hockey, yes, but it’s the same in any sport. Draft well. Make smart trades. Use the free agent market to fill the last few holes when you’re ready. The wins will follow.

The Orioles under MacPhail are following the blueprint. That’s not news, but it was interesting to read McPhee’s quotes in light of the situation here.

Moving on to Wigginton, I like the pickup. It’s interesting that he chose Baltimore, too. At least one other team — the Phillies — was interested. So, I have to figure that he’s been promised significant playing time, probably as a super utility guy who will also get plenty of looks at DH. My gut tells me that the moves aren’t done, but even if they are we’re suddenly a pretty well-stocked team.

And, oh yeah: we’re only ten days away from pitchers and catchers.

This is the kind of thing I hope to get around to more often. One thing that should help is the new site design. If it ever goes live, it will have space for posting links and comments outside of the normal posting structure. That way I — and hopefully community members as well — will be able to mention things that don’t merit an entire main page post.

In the meantime, here are some news items/thoughts to mull over and, if you so desire, comment on.

– MASN has announced that Jim Hunter, Roch Kubatko, and Phil Wood will be anchoring a Hot Stove show starting on December 12th. It’ll run on the network every Friday until the start of spring training. It should be a good show, but if MASN had their wits they would simply pay all of the charter members of the Loss Column Community (LCC) to sit around and talk baseball once a week. That would be a show.

– I meant to announce this a few weeks ago: I’m one of ninety-or-so voters in the weekly DC Sports Bog Atlantic 11 Basketball Poll. For those of you who don’t know it, that’s a poll Dan Steinberg set up to rank all of the mid-Atlantic area men’s basketball programs. Check out the latest installment here.

If, in any given week, you want to help me vote, just fire off an email with your thoughts.

– I may have traded in my sports hat over at the Examiner, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still sneak it in. Like, for example, today’s post about NFL cheerleader calendars. Fun stuff.

– Speaking of college basketball, I’m impressed with the Terps so far. The struggles against Georgetown and Gonzaga were to be expected, and those wins against Michigan and Michigan State could serve them very well in March if they can manage eight or nine ACC wins.

They figure to be a deeply frustrating team again this year, and they will struggle mightily down low. But, I never count a Gary Williams team out.

– Speaking more of college basketball, what has happened to Loyola? Anyone out there following them closely who can tell me why they’re struggling so badly?

– Wizards bad, Capitals good.

I know I’m forgetting something, but this seems like a sufficient brain dump for now.