Former Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin was one of 173 modern-era players nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame last month. Next month, he’ll find out if he made the cut for a second straight year to be one of 25 semifinalists, this time for the Class of 2024.

But Boldin, whose 14-year NFL career included three seasons and a Super Bowl title in Baltimore, insists he doesn’t think about whether he’ll one day have a bust in Canton, Ohio.

“My dad always taught me if you have to tell somebody how good you were, you probably weren’t very good,” he told The Baltimore Sun last week at the Courtyard by Marriott Baltimore Downtown/McHenry Row hotel, where he was on hand to promote Marriott’s Ultimate Baltimore Ravens Fan Room. “For me, I don’t try to state a case. I let my play speak for itself.”

While that play and his toughness were enough to earn three Pro Bowl selections and a championship, whether his career was Hall of Fame worthy will be the subject of debate among the selection committee.

Boldin’s 13,779 career receiving yards rank 14th all-time and are more than Hall of Famers Andre Reed, Steve Largent, Art Monk and Charlie Joiner. His 1,076 catches are ninth in league history.

He was also the fastest player to reach 400 receptions (67 games), 500 receptions (80 games) and 600 receptions (98 games). He set the NFL rookie record with 101 catches and was the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2003.

Yet there are other factors that will likely keep him out, at least for now.

Only three times did Boldin — who spent his first seven seasons in the league with the Arizona Cardinals and also had stints with the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions — finish in the top 10 in catches and receiving yards in an NFL season. He never led the league in either category, nor was he an All-Pro. Boldin also wasn’t dominant for any length of time, topping 100 catches in two of his first three years but recording fewer than 70 receptions six times.

Still, it’s unlikely the Ravens would have won the Super Bowl during the 2012 season without him.

While Boldin had 65 catches for a team-high 921 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season, his biggest impact came in the playoffs. In four postseason games, he had 22 catches for 380 yards and four touchdowns, two of which came against the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. In the Super Bowl win over the 49ers, he led the Ravens with six catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

That 34-31 victory is also why Boldin looks back on his brief time in Baltimore so fondly.

“I look at it as mission accomplished,” he said. “I was brought here to help bring a Super Bowl to the city and was able to do that.

“Although I was only here three years, it felt a lot longer than that because I connected with the community right away, the fan base was great, the organization was second to none. I still keep in touch, not with just players but with people in the facility.”

As for this year’s team, now 5-2 after a blowout victory over the Lions, Boldin thinks they’re still finding their way.

“I don’t think they’ve played their best football yet, especially offensively,” he said. “They’re still trying to find that identity. That happens. You get a new offensive coordinator in, sometimes it takes him a little time to fill out the pieces that he has.

“Switching over to a new coordinator, him trying to make his presence felt here, figuring out the weapons that he has and how to use them, who’s best at what positions and what they can do best, that’s still a process right now. They have the weapons. They’ll figure it out.”

Whether Boldin has enough to make it to the Hall of Fame, time will tell.

“It would mean a lot,” Boldin said of the possibility of being enshrined. “You’re talking about being one of the best to ever do it. If you get that call there’s probably no greater call.

“But it doesn’t cross my mind, not until somebody brings it up. I reached every goal I wanted to in football. For me, the ultimate goal was winning the Super Bowl. If I’m inducted, that’s icing on the cake.”

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In its memorandum of understanding with the Orioles, the state of Maryland has set itself up to receive less revenue from state-owned land near Camden Yards — handing potentially lucrative profits to the team.

Revenue that could reach millions of dollars annually from the development of land and real estate, including the Camden Yards warehouse, would flow to the ballclub. It would come on top of at least $600 million in public money for Oriole Park improvements already approved by the General Assembly, and would be in addition to a further state fund proposed in the memorandum.

“That’s a lot of money,” Kennesaw State University economist J.C. Bradbury said, “and it’s unlikely to pay off to the public.”

In the memorandum announced Sept. 28, the state agreed to lease to the Orioles land near the ballpark for 99 years for annual rent totaling $94 million. But the sticker price is less valuable than it might appear when factors like inflation over nearly a century are considered.

Viewed in present-day dollars, the Orioles will pay the state an average of $129,000 to $208,000 per year for the rights to develop and potentially profit from land surrounding the stadium, according to an analysis from Geoffrey Propheter, a University of Colorado Denver professor who wrote a 2022 book titled “Major League Sports and the Property Tax.”

When compared with alternatives, such as the state itself continuing to rent the warehouse to tenants or selling the land to a developer and returning it to state and city tax rolls, the ground lease yields “a trivial amount of revenue,” Propheter said.

“It’s a pitiful amount of money,” said Dennis Coates, an economist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The former B&O Railroad warehouse at Camden Yards is the jewel of the ground lease and it, like Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium, is owned and rented out by the Maryland Stadium Authority. The warehouse, whose tenants include law, advertising and medical offices, netted $638,000 in profit during the most recent fiscal year, the authority said.

With redevelopment, it could be much more lucrative.

The stadium authority retained Crossroads Consulting and Entreken Associates Inc. in 2019 to provide economic advisory services regarding the historic, 430,000-square-foot building. The consultants’ report, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, said that if the warehouse is converted to a hybrid of retail, hotel, apartment, and/or office space — at a cost ranging between $16 million and $36 million — it could produce net operating income of $4.6 million to $7.1 million annually.

Under the new memorandum, which is nonbinding but which the two parties say is the precursor to a lease, the Orioles, not the state, would be in charge of paying for development and receive potential profits.

“This is essentially gifting the land to the Orioles,” said Bradbury, who often critiques stadium subsidies.

The flip side for the state is that — as part of the still-to-be-reached lease agreement — the Orioles would commit to staying in Baltimore for 30 more years. Plus, the land around Camden Yards, currently largely dormant, would be more effectively used. The stadium authority and Orioles both envision a year-round, entertainment destination with varied attractions that would boost Baltimore’s downtown.

The land has been underutilized for years. Camden Station, which previously hosted the Sports Legends Museum and Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, has not had tenants since 2018. Only about half of the square feet in the neighboring warehouse is used, mostly as office space. That “limits activity to weekday working hours,” the stadium authority said in a statement.

“Private investment coming to the warehouse as well as the vacant Camden Station building and surrounding area will help reinvigorate and re-imagine the space, drawing visitors not just on game days but year-round,” spokesperson Rachelina Bonacci wrote.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has championed the memorandum of understanding, saying it will shape “the economic future of the city.”

David Turner, a senior adviser and communications director for Moore, cited the economic impact of entertainment districts around the MLB homes of the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and Texas Rangers.

In a statement Thursday, he described the memorandum as a “paradigm shift for the Camden Yards complex” and said the area’s development would result in more foot traffic to the area and tax revenue for the state.

“The new Camden Yards will bring visitors from across and outside the city to spend time downtown, whether there is a game happening or not,” Turner said.

Many economists, however, have argued that subsidizing stadium districts does not benefit the average citizen.

A spokesperson for Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos declined to comment, but Angelos has said he hopes to create a “live, work, play” district.

Earlier this year, he and Moore visited the Braves’ suburban stadium and its entertainment district, The Battery, which was developed by commercial real estate company JLL into residential, retail and office spaces, as well as bars and restaurants. In a January letter to Moore, Angelos noted that the Orioles had engaged JLL “to assist in maximizing our creative vision for Oriole Park.”

The Baltimore club would continue a trend of pro teams developing the areas around their stadiums. Asked why it is increasingly common for sports teams to involve themselves in land development, Propheter said: “Why does any business do anything? It’s because they expect a profit.”

The ground lease is one part of the eight-page memorandum of understanding signed by Angelos and stadium authority Chair Craig Thompson.

Jesse Saginor, a professor at University of Maryland’s Real Estate Development Program, said leasing land to pro teams for a low rate is not atypical.

“That discount there is basically a sweetener, ideally so that the team will want to stay,” he said.

The club’s lease for Oriole Park — which binds it to the city and to the state-owned stadium — expires Dec. 31.

Angelos has promised to keep the team in Baltimore and the state committed in April 2022 at least $600 million in improvements to the ballpark to strengthen the prospects of signing the Orioles to a long-term lease. The recent memorandum states that the Orioles would remain in the city for 30 more years.

But fans’ fears about a sale of the Orioles leading to a move were stoked last year when an internecine dispute over the assets of his ailing father spilled into public, revealing acrimonious statements about possible preparations to put the team on the market after Peter Angelos dies.

The memorandum of understanding further details additional financial agreements. The Orioles will pay for operation and maintenance of the ballpark, but will stop paying annual rent. That will ultimately save the state millions of dollars a year and is similar to the arrangement it has with the Ravens for M&T Bank Stadium.

However, the Orioles, in addition to the ground lease, would receive $3.3 million annually for a repair fund that would total $100 million over 30 years. Those are benefits the Ravens do not receive. Because of parity clauses in the teams’ leases, the state might have to provide the equivalent to the NFL team.

The fund would require General Assembly approval and it’s unknown if the legislature would pass such a bill. The legislature isn’t scheduled to meet again until January, but that does not necessarily mean the lease could not be signed before then.

“It is common for contracts to be signed that include terms covering future events, conditions, or approvals,” said Turner, Moore’s communications director.

The memorandum has also been criticized by former stadium authority leaders for giving construction and operating power over the ballpark to the Orioles.

Asked if the Orioles would have the authority to determine how public money is spent, Bonacci, the authority’s spokesperson, said in a statement: “the team is expected to have a larger role in contractor selection and project administration, following models from other stadiums and subject to significant Maryland Stadium Authority controls and approvals.”

Christopher Ryon, a Baltimore-based procurement attorney, noted that the stadium authority has procurement experience, unlike the Orioles, and wondered what procurement guidelines the club would need to follow.

“Those are important details that still need to be worked out between the parties,” Ryon said.

Economists who study stadium subsidies have long warned that publicly funding venues for privately owned sports teams is bad business for taxpayers. Coates, the UMBC professor, criticized the decision-making of the General Assembly and then-Gov. Larry Hogan for approving at least $1.2 billion for the Orioles’ and Ravens’ stadiums in 2022.

On Wednesday, he further decried the recent memorandum for awarding the Orioles additional resources in the form of state land and funds.

“I’d like to see some discussion of what can be done with that money,” he said, “besides it being given to a sports team for their own profit.”

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Ravens coach John Harbaugh generally doesn’t like overarching themes or big-picture evaluations, but he has used one this week.

The Ravens appear to have gotten the message, even though the answer won’t come until Sunday when they travel to play the Arizona Cardinals.

The Cardinals (1-6) are in the mix for the No. 1 overall draft pick in April while consistency is the theme for the Ravens (5-2) coming off a 38-6 win against the highly regarded Detroit Lions last weekend.

“I believe we’re going in the right direction right now, if anything,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “We just need to keep going. Like I said, keep being consistent.”

That hasn’t been the case in recent years, and certainly not in 2023. The Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24, on Sept. 17 and lost a week later, 22-19, in overtime to the struggling Indianapolis Colts.

They beat up the Cleveland Browns, 28-3, then lost seven days later to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10, in another game they easily should have won but collapsed late.

So, which Ravens team will show up in Arizona?

“That feeling was incredible, but we know the type of league that this is,” tight end Mark Andrews said about Sunday’s lopsided win. “It’s any given Sunday, so every game is different. It’s not going to feel the same as it did last week, but if we go out there and do our job and continue to get better, we’re going to become the team that we need to be.”

At least verbally, the Ravens have gotten the message. When a coach has a strong command of the locker room, the players repeat the same things, complete with the buzz phrases.

They become parrots.

The Ravens aren’t buying into the Cardinals game being a “trap.” That’s media jargon. They know that this is the NFL and if they aren’t prepared, they’ll lose.

“You come out and treat them the way you treat all the other games,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “The thing about a one-win team is they’re hungry for that second win, so they’re going to come out, play hard and we just have to play a little bit harder.”

The Cardinals are likely to be without three of their top offensive players because of injuries to quarterback Kyler Murray, running back James Conner and tight end Zach Ertz. The Cardinals rank 19th in total offense, averaging 319.9 yards, while the pass offense ranks 28th, averaging 180.9.

Their 28th-ranked defense allows 368.3 yards per game. They also rank 25th against the rush and 23rd against the pass. Arizona is so unorganized and concerned about money that they don’t even regularly play their best outside linebacker, Victor Dimukeje (Boys’ Latin), who is tied for second on the team with 3 1/2 sacks.

So, to help get his message across, there is the standard Harbaugh buildup of a team that’s really a mess.

“I see a really tough team,” Harbaugh said of the Cardinals. “They have a lot of great players, and they’re building in their new offensive and defensive systems. They play super hard — both sides of the ball are very physical. It’s a young team. You have guys like [safety] Budda Baker over there, that’s one of the best players in the National Football League. They’re impressive with what they try to get done. They’ve been in a lot of close games.

“They’ve been in games in the fourth quarter, they were one-score-or-less games where they had the lead and then didn’t finish, so I’m sure that’s what they’re talking about — play hard, get the game in the fourth quarter and find a way to finish the game.”

It’s two teams on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Ravens defense, ranked No. 2 in the league, has proved they can succeed against any offense in the NFL.

Offensively, the Ravens have to prove that last week’s total of 503 yards wasn’t an aberration, but the sign of a unit getting better. Arizona has had a week to analyze coordinator Todd Monken’s offense. The Cardinals know the Ravens are built more around college concepts than those in the NFL. Baltimore will play with more patience than it did against Detroit.

Regardless, the Ravens need to get better. It all starts with consistency. Last week, they showed they could do it from quarter to quarter. Now they have to prove it from game to game.

“We played well against Detroit and we’d like to continue that pace and build,” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “Arizona is a good team that plays a lot of multiple fronts, they give you a lot of different looks, but we have to be prepared to play. It’s like that every week in this league.”

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As she kneels in front of her plot in Woodbury’s Community Garden, Ying Liang says that she always wanted to have her own vegetable garden.

“I would flip through catalogs and, you know, daydream about it. I would think about what I could plan but never be able to do it.”

Lack of space in her backyard and neighborhood association rules prevented Liang from growing vegetables at home. The IT professional of over 25 years said she had been asking the city for several years for some sort of community gardening space, and was excited to receive an email about one in 2022.

Liang wasn’t alone in desiring a garden space. A city survey of residents found that a community garden was one of the things most wanted by its population of just over 80,000. Until then, Woodbury had been the largest city in Minnesota without one, according to Simi Patnaik, director of the Woodbury Community Foundation’s Woodbury Thrives program.

Just next to Andy’s Bark Park, near Manning Avenue and Dale Road, Woodbury’s first community garden was farmland in 2021. In 2022, supported by Woodbury Thrives, the community garden was piloted with 16 plots, then fully implemented this year with 48 9-by-14 garden plots for community members to use. The garden was funded through grants offered by the state, according to Patnaik.

Patnaik said the community garden helps build on the organization’s three pillars of healthy lifestyle, mental well-being and social connectedness: It gets residents outside, learning about growing their own vegetables and interacting with other members of the community.

Patnaik and Woodbury Thrives chair Jodi Ritacca conducted a survey of garden users through email. Roughly two-thirds of the gardeners responded and revealed that 50 percent of them are immigrants and people of color. Additionally, 60 percent earned below $100,000 per year and live in multifamily housing.

“It’s about forming connections with the community,” Patnaik said. “And helping people meet the neighbors they might not normally see every day.”

200 pounds of tomatoes

On Saturday morning, Liang deftly clipped a handful of orange cherry tomatoes and gently rinsed them under one of the faucets in the garden. It’s the end of the harvesting season, and her yield has included squash, eggplant, red russian kale, lettuce, and a whopping 200 pounds of tomatoes. She says the tomatoes make her nostalgic.

“I am from China, so when I was little the tomatoes were marketed to us as both a vegetable and a fruit. We eat them like fruits.”

Liang emigrated to America in her high school years, and had always been disappointed in flavorless grocery store tomatoes.

“I’m at the grocery store and I’m looking at the tomatoes, and there’s just no way you can eat it. So bland, and it just doesn’t have that tomato taste. So when I grew my own, I thought, ‘Oh, that tastes like tomato.’”

A basket of produce Ying Liang harvested from Woodbury’s new Community Garden on Oct. 21, 2023. (Gabrielle Erenstein / Pioneer Press)

The roma and cherry tomatoes Liang grew are indeed far more sweet and flavorful than standard grocery store tomatoes. They make for a whole lot of sandwich toppings and soup she drinks cold out of bottles, too. Liang’s tomato surplus wasn’t just for her. She gave much of it away to family, friends, neighbors and even a piano teacher.

Liang has a similar childhood nostalgia for some of the other vegetables she grows and eats fresh, such as winter melons and purple starchy corn, which she can’t find at regular grocery stores.

“But I think I have it in my blood, wanting to grow something. You know, you look at a seed and you watch it grow and nurture it, and they reward you with this abundance. It’s just amazing.”

Liang has also enjoyed the garden as a way to connect with Woodbury’s community. She said she made new friends through meeting her fellow gardeners. She would water other gardeners’ plots when they were away, and they did the same for her. She connected with other gardeners via a Facebook group, which she hopes will take off more as a way for other gardeners to communicate.

Having previously worked only with flowers, she was able to learn more about vegetable gardening from other more experienced gardeners. Liang said she learned about how to properly support her plants, fertilizing, extending harvests and sustainability techniques.

“I met people from different cultures, who grow vegetables I’ve never seen or heard of before.”

Sharing expertise

Ed Myatt, one of the brains behind the Woodbury Community Garden, echoed the sentiment. Despite being a Master Gardener, one of nearly 200 in the state who undergo 80 hours of training by the University of Minnesota to contribute gardening knowledge to communities, he too had seen some vegetables for the first time during this year’s harvest.

“It was a real broad cross section of people, from places like Somalia, China and India.”

Myatt, a retired Exxon Mobile executive, is required by the Master Gardeners program to volunteer for 25 hours per year.  He said that on average, he volunteers 350 to 400 hours per year. When the garden first started up, because most of the gardeners were completely new, he helped them get started by lending tools and advice. The Master Gardeners also donated funds used to buy more tools for residents. After a few weeks though, he said he wasn’t as needed anymore.

“It became a community of gardeners because they started helping each other,” Myatt said. “I was amazed at how they came together.”

Even an 8th grade Girl Scout, Audrey Srefken, provided some expertise when it came to interacting with a very important denizen of the gardening world: Srefken taught gardeners about pollination and how to interact properly with bees, Ritacca said. Srefken gave a presentation about the gardeners and the bees to Woodbury’s City Council on Monday.

Ying Liang harvests produce she grew in Woodbury’s Community Garden. (Gabrielle Erenstein / Pioneer Press)

Liang worked Saturday on cleaning up her plot. The city has asked gardeners to clean up the plants and structures left after the harvest so the garden can be ready for next year. In April, Liang starts growing again.

Garden plot registration for 2024 begins Nov. 29 for Woodbury residents. Registration can be found on the “Recreation” section on Woodbury’s website: woodburymn.gov.

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