... after all, wouldn't want to strain anything.

As I type the United States is down 1-0 to Ghana less than 25 minutes into their round of 16 World Cup soccer match. In a tournament being played in South Africa, Ghana is the last African country playing.

Not to be selfish, but I'd appreciate it if the Yanks pull this one out. NFL Training Camp is still too far away.

...

I'm pleased that O's right fielder Nick Markakis has taken more of a vocal leadership role, at least publicly, in the last week. First, he provides a critical but not offensive interview regarding his team to The Baltimore Sun.

Then, Nicko requests a meeting with Balmer owner Peter Angelos. The two reportedly talked over dinner in Little Italy.

I know it probably doesn't mean anything tangible, but it's nice to see that someone on Eutaw Street actually gives a damn about the direction of this team. Nicko probably only signed that 6-year, $66.5 million contract with the Birds because he knew he was worth well more to them than any other team in an open market, but now that he's locked in, I'm glad he's having conversations with ownership about improving the performance of the team, rather than demanding a trade to a contender.

...

The signing of backup quarterback Marc Bulger by the Balmer Ravens was excellent. Seriously. But only if Ozzie can find a team willing to give up draft picks for former Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith.

Last season showed that the brief experimentation in 2008 with the "Suggs Package," where Smith and Joe Flacco were both on the field, wasn't going to play a large role in the team's offensive future. The Ravens want Flacco to be the one taking all the snaps, because he's the one that can make the most happen with the ball in his hands every single play. They want Flac to be like Manning or Brady. And you don't take snaps away from Manning or Brady.

Even if Smith only fetches a late-round pick, Ozzie can find value there in 2011.

...

For my fellow UMBC alums, are you aware that the school changed its mascot logo back in May? I know, I know, not exactly breaking news ... but I've been wondering what folks' thoughts are. I kind of like it. From umbcretrievers.com: 

What do you think? Is it an improvement? Or a terrible mistake?

Either way, the Retrievers will need to stick with this thing for a while. It's only been ten years since their last logo change, and having a schizophrenic mascot isn't exactly a good thing for a program's image.

...

At the half, the US is still down 1-0 to Ghana, and has looked pretty weak so far.

How many days until Training Camp?

Attention all NFL executives and coaches: If your offseason training activities are voluntary, stop complaining when a player doesn't volunteer to forfeit his vacation time.

ESPN ran with a story on its website today saying that some Washington Redskins players are unhappy that defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth hasn't reported to voluntary camps.

I actually understand the problem the 'Skins have with Haynesworth staying home. They're busting their butts and they want the superstar lineman to be out there doing it with them. After all, as defensive end Phillip Daniels said, "There is no room for negotiation at 4-12."

That was Washington's record last year when the defense played out of a base 4-3 package. New defense coordinator Jim Haslett apparently plans to install a 3-4 scheme, which Haynesworth has no desire to play in.

Fine. Criticize the overpriced lineman for not wanting to play in a defense because he likes another one better. Criticize him for the apparent attitude problems he flashed all through a disappointing first season with the Redskins.

But don't criticize Haynesworth purely for not attending a voluntary mini camp.

It's one of the more absurd aspects of the NFL. Every team holds voluntary mini camps and conducts voluntary conditioning programs. As their name implies, these camps and programs are not required. Coaches cannot force players to attend or participate. Players cannot be fined or otherwise disciplined within the team for failing to volunteer.

And yet, every offseason, a coach will call out one of his players in the media for not attending a voluntary camp. He'll say he really needs the guy there, and that he's disappointed he didn't show up.

Coach may not be able to fine or bench his player. But he can certainly apply pressure and wreck a player's reputation by tricking the public into thinking he has done something wrong.

Again, the camps are voluntary. We ain't even talkin' 'bout practice. We're talkin' about practice that is not required!

How many of you 9-to-5ers volunteer to come into work on Saturdays? Sure, your boss might like it. But if he doesn't make you, you're not doing it. What's interesting about this particular case is that the players are the ones calling out Haynesworth. But they're not any more right to do so than the coach.

Players in the NFL live a good life. They make lots and lots and lots of money playing a game that most of us loved to play for free as kids. But they pay the price, too, with devastating injuries, the lifelong effects of which we are only just now beginning to comprehend.

So even if I'd love for every player on every team to show up for practice, required or not, and work with their teammates to get better every chance they get, it doesn't make a player wrong to decide to sit out of those voluntary work outs.

I don't know Albert Haynesworth. Maybe he's a terrible teammate and a general pain in the ass. But if a nine year NFL veteran with two Pro Bowls under his belt and an enormous, unhealthy, but required lineman gut above that belt wants to sit a few out in May, I don't see the problem.

It's been a few days now since O's general manager Andy MacPhail made his now famous "not a suicide pact" proclamation, threatening to send the club's struggling ballplayers to Norfolk if they didn't start hitting.

Forget for a minute that the suicide pact line may be the coolest phrase ever uttered by anyone in Balmer. Certainly the coolest by a sports upper-management type.

MacPhail's point is well taken, and he's certainly giving voice to the tens of fans who watch and love the Orioles, but is that his place? Peter Schmuck has an interesting, rational take (as usual) on MacPhail's threat. And maybe I agree with him.

This is not Peter Angelos's team or Dave Trembley's team. Pete pays the bills and Dave just rents space in the dug out.

No, this Balmer squad is 100 percent Andy's.

On the one hand, that gives him the right to discipline his own children. On the other, as Schmuck writes, what good does it do to add pressure to the young players he's chosen to stock this team with?

Even as I write, I go back and forth. It seems to me that if you're choosing a career as a professional baseball player and you're blessed with enough talent to make it to the Big Leagues, you ought to be able to handle a little extra pressure put on top of you by the boss. Use it as fuel. Don't athletes love that "nobody believed in me" crap? And it's not as if every other working professional doesn't live and work under at least a modest fear of screwing up so bad that they lose their job.

Luke Scott is hitting .177 right now. Do you think if I got less than 18 percent of my facts correct I'd have much of a career in journalism?

Stop snickering. The answer is no.

But professional sports are a tremendously different animal. Every day these guys go out and play in a fishbowl in front of thousands. Every day, win or lose, they come back to the clubhouse to face questions from a bunch of guys who probably couldn't jog a mile without keeling over. The athletes can't even go and blow off steam by having a drink for fear of someone snapping a picture.

What are you doing drinking on a game night?? Don't you know you're a role model?!?

Ballplayers are already under a great deal of pressure. Not "Mr. President we need the launch codes" pressure, but pressure still.

But they're paid well for it. And while I have a great deal of sympathy and admiration for individuals who by such great percentages live appropriately so directly in the public eye, after 13 years of losing baseball, I just can't take any more.

I'm with Andy. Are you?