OPINION:
Noble: The Baltimore County Police Department, whose sleuthing appears to have solved the mystery behind Pikesville’s nighttime explosions.
For over two years, Pikesville, Md. residents complained of blasts and bright flashes at odd hours. Police elsewhere might have ignored these complaints as vague or implausible. Not here. Was it a gas leak, strange weather events, aircraft sorties, UFOs or something else? County police installed cameras to find out. A few weeks later, they pinpointed the source: fireworks. The rockets and poppers originated from the window of a fourth-floor condominium on Brynmor Court. Police raided the apartment, finding pyrotechnics, illegal narcotics and firearms. According to Kristin Blumer, a Baltimore County assistant state’s attorney, occupant Frederick Lee Mackler, 59, told police he was upset with his neighbors — upset enough, apparently, for two years’ worth of sleep-depriving, peace-destroying, highly illegal annoyances. He was denied bail last week.
For taking citizens’ complaints seriously and doing the sleuthing necessary to find the source of the blasts, the Baltimore County Police Department is the Noble of the Week.
Knave: The Major League Baseball Players Association and ESPN’s Buster Olney, who seem to think that “no takers” for Barry Bonds and other aging, has-been superstars means a conspiracy.
This is a new twist in the “right to work” movement: Baseball’s players union has opened an investigation to probe why Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and other over-the-hill pitchers and batters, some of them scandalized, have not received offers from major league teams. Major League Baseball denies that the clubs have colluded against the players, and the burden of proof should rest with the union. It may simply be that clubs do not want overpaid, scandal-plagued, aging has-beens. Regular old brainpower suggests that Roger Clemens is not worth the trouble. Of course, the union sees the dollar signs at stake and seeks to maximize bargaining power.
A dishonorable mention here belongs to ESPN’s Buster Olney, who toed the union line in an ostensibly “straight” news story: “Recently,” Mr. Olney wrote, “the Mariners and the Tigers have developed what would seem to be a classic situation for Bonds — the need for a left-handed hitter and an opening at designated hitter — and still no offers have come in.” Could it simply be that these clubs don’t want the spectacle?
For putting foolishness ahead of common sense, the MLB Players Association and Buster Olney are the Knaves of the Week.
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