It’s not very often that you hear Baltimoreans say nice things about Bostonians that virtually never gets said, especially in an athletic context. Orioles fans hate the Red Sox almost as much as fans of both teams hate the Yankees. And there’s a persistent rumor in NFL circles that it was the Ravens who tipped off the Indianapolis Colts about New England quarterback Tom Brady’s deflated balls, thus triggering Ballghazi.
That said, the people of Boston recently did a nice thing and that gesture deserves a word. And that word is thanks.
We here in Charm City and in Washington owe a debt of gratitude to folks in the Hub for being the sacrificial civic lambs and getting out of the running to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
That could have been us tossing billions and billions down into the fetid and festering sinkhole known as the International Olympic Committee for the right to pick up the tab for a party for the rest of the world.
The rest of the world would have shown up at our doorsteps for 2 ½ weeks, thrown our traffic and life patterns upside down, then left cup stains and worse all over the good furniture.
To be specific, the people of Boston were wary of the idea that they would have to pay cost overruns in excess of the estimated $4.6 billion that local organizing groups were pledging.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said late last month that quote No benefit is so great that it is worth handing over the financial future of our city and our citizens were rightly hesitant to be supportive as a result unquote.
This is an admitted about face for me on this subject. I was urging the powers that be in the DMV to go get the Games, the first Summer Olympics on U.S. soil since 1996.
I felt the Baltimore-Washington area had the wherewithal, financial and otherwise, to stage the best Olympics the world has ever seen. I still believe that.
But what is happening in Rio, the site of next year’s Summer Games, has me wondering if IOC officials aren’t as morally bankrupt as those of FIFA, soccer’s governing organization, as they squeeze for every last penny, athletes be damned.
The Atlantic reported in April that the site of several Olympic sailing events has more than 78 times Brazil’s allowed limit for fecal pollution. That’s nearly 200 times the limit here in the U.S.
Surely, the IOC had knowledge of this situation six years ago when it awarded the games to Brazil, marking the first time the Olympics – Summer or Winter – have come to South America.
Yet, it took until this week, roughly a year out from the competition, before the IOC finally deigned to order for testing for bacteria in the water.
Almost on cue, as if to deflect the mounting criticism over the Boston debacle and the potential Rio disaster, the IOC announced late last week that it will make history by awarding the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing.

That’s right, the same horribly polluted Chinese capital that hosted the 2008 Summer Games and used those very Olympics to deflect criticism about their blissful and in any other place criminal ignorance of human rights concerns, gets to be the first place to host both the Summer and Winter Games.
Supposedly, Washington, and, by extension, could still be in the running for 2024. It would be an amazing experience, no doubt, but, if offered, folks should join in with Boston and just say no.