The Loss Column — Baltimore Sports Blog and Community

– Fan Fest produced relatively little actual news, but it did draw an estimated 10k fans, which is a very good sign. The Oriole Post was there, and their coverage is worth checking out (including a generous helping of pics).

– Josh Towers won the fifth spot in the Blue Jays rotation. It’s nice to see him put last year behind him and get on the comeback trail.

– Here’s an interesting article about radar guns, something fans of Daniel Cabrera can certainly get into.

– I thought to link some season previews, but what’s the point? Virtually everyone picks the O’s to finish fourth, and all of them pretty much say the same thing (Erik Bedard, Peter Angelos, not very good). I have a hunch most of the sportswriters just recycled whatever they said last year.

– Moving away from baseball, Wizards forward Caron Butler broke his hand today, meaning he’s probably out for the year. From the casual fan’s perspective this seems like a huge blow to their chances come playoff time.

– Michael Phelps is simply not human.

– I’ve got nothing to say about the Final Four because, well, it sucked. I won’t have anything to say about Monday’s championship game, either, because I don’t plan on watching it. Just so you know.

Hard as it may be for Americans to see much of what’s happening at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Baltimore has vested interest in two major players at the event.

Towson resident Michael Phelps utterly crushed Aussie golden boy Ian Thorpe’s record in the 200 meter freestyle Tuesday, with a new time of 1:43.86. The old standard, 1:44.06, was widely touted as practically unbeatable. American backstroker Aaron Peirsol called it “probably the single most incredible record in the books.”

“I thought this 200 freestyle record by Ian would last for 10, maybe 20 years,” Dutch competitor Pieter van den Hoogenband said.

Wednesday night, Phelps broke his own month-old record in the 200 butterfly (1:52.09), more than a second faster than the old standard (1:53.71). Then Thursday he broke another world record in the 200 Individual Medley (one lap each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle).

Meanwhile, fellow Baltimorean and North Baltimore Aquatics Club teammate Katie Hoff won the 200 I.M., setting a new FINA World Championship record of 2:10.13. As in track events, certain records in swimming are particularly difficult to break. The 200 Freestyle is one of the harder events to swim, akin to middle distance events in running like the 800 meters. It’s a long sprint that requires both discipline and raw physical power to swim well. Still, breaking 1.62 seconds off any personal best, much less the world reocrd in the 200 Fly, is beyond significant. Things like that just don’t happen. Butterfly is the most difficult stroke to master. Phelps’ breaking of these records is proof positive that he’s the best swimmer in the world at his events, especially when you consider how much time he broke the records by. And he’s only halfway through his program!

It’s good to see B-more on the aquatics map.