Billbill, I know exactly what you are saying about the Yankees fans taking over Camden Yards. The Red Sox faithful do as well, and it is downright embarrassing. The truth is that the O's management has badly run the team over the past decade. Things are starting to turn around, but they needed to do more back when they were getting 48,000 O's fans a night in there every game.
I do think that teams like the Yanks and the BoSox, Mets, etc, do have an unfair advantage over teams like the O's, or the Tigers, say. However, the Tigers are doing well, Oakland is in it every year, the White Sox won it all last year, so it seems to me that if you don't have the Yankees money, then you need to be smarter as an organization that the Yankees. The Orioles have repeatedly failed to be. And believe me, this pains me more than the Yankees buying their way into the playoffs every year. But I still have to flip Yanks fans some shit, ya know?
Steve, the Jamal Lewis case was a joke. It was part of a federal sting operation in Atlanta, and yes, some of Lewis' buddies were involved in the drug trade. However, all Jamal did was let an undercover narc informant use his cell phone to set up a deal with a friend of his; he was not personally involved. And it was blatant entrapment. However, due to the blessed wisdom of our nation's drug laws, it is a 10 year term for the use of a cell phone in a drug felony case. Lewis was advised by his legal defense that if he plead guilty, he would receive a much reduced sentence, as opposed to the crap shoot that is the lot of a young black guy in federal court.The Ravens also guaranteed to stand by him upon his release, so he copped a plea bargain for four months.
However, after he plead guilty and cut his deal, he was told by the sitting judge in the case that, had it gone to trial, the feds had no case against him and she would have dismissed it. But, you cannot recant a plea bargain, so he had to do the four months. As it turned out, a bad call on his part, but understandable.
The sad fact is that lots of guys in the NFL, the NBA, MLB, etc, aren't saints. They are young guys with waaaaa-aaay too much money, from too often a background of untouchability due to their athletic abilities, and all too often they surround themselves with the absolute wrong kind of people. They're just lucky that they can usually buy their ways out of trouble up to a point.
Out of the loop? I didn't know there was a loop!