Band has low notes for Colts

John Ziemann, president of the Baltimore Ravens marching band, distinctly remembers that bleak March when once upon a midnight dreary Robert Irsay scurried out of town with the Baltimore Colts.

So when Indianapolis version of the Colts returns to the city for its first playoff game in Baltimore since 1977, it will be music to Ziemann’s ears, preferably a funeral dirge.

Ziemann has been a band member for 45 years, back to when it was the Baltimore Colts marching band. He helped keep it intact while the city was an NFL vacant lot from 1984 to ’95. But, he claims, this is not about revenge.

“When the Colts came here in 1998 and played the Ravens, we beat them,” Ziemann said. “When we beat them to the Super Bowl [in 2001] and won it, I came home from Tampa and said, ‘That’s it, I’m a happy man.’ I’m the only person from the state Maryland who has closure.”

Still ...

“Do I want the Colts to lose? Oh, yes; oh, yes; oh, yes. I see that horseshoe logo and it brings back a lot of memories and heartache. But my heart is purple and black now.”

Call it a tell-tale heart.

Trivia time

Which team won the last NFL playoff game between the Ravens and Colts? (This is a trick question.)

More ranting and Ravens

The wound runs deep among Ravens band members, even if only three remain from the Colts’ last playoff game in the city: Ziemann, his wife Charlene Ziemann and Gus Johnson.

That day they watched Dave Casper’s “Ghost to the Post,” the catch that led to an Oakland Raiders overtime victory. Seven years later, they witnessed Irsay’s “Gone Before Dawn” maneuver, with moving vans slipping out of town in the wee hours. That sent Colts fans into a “Hate Without Abate” formation.

“Even younger people in Baltimore feel that way,” Ziemann said. “It’s an inheritance from their grandfathers, ‘I want you to have this watch. I want you to have the good silverware. I want you to hate the Colts.’ ”

So the chances that the Colts’ fight song will be dusted off for old times’ sake? Quoth the Ravens’ band, “Nevermore.”

Rename that tune

The Colts may have had a band in the 1970s, but the Jets had Lou Holtz, who after each victory made the team sing a fight song he’d penned. It was called, “The New York Jets Keep Sailing Along.”

Note to Lou: Don’t quit your day job. Boats sail. Jets fly -- except during in the playoffs.

Lip service

It probably was not the first time a fan gave Drew Brees some lip, but this was an opinion the New Orleans Saints quarterback enjoyed. Brees told NBCSports.com that a waiter approached his table one night and claimed to be a “die-hard fan.”

Brees scoffed a bit.

“I said, ‘I’ve heard that a lot -- I’m a die-hard Saints fan.’ ” Brees said.

“He said, ‘No, check this out.’ And then he pulled his lip down and he had a tattoo of a fleur-de-lis on the inside of his lip.”

David Thiele, 23, had the Saints logo tattooed on the backside of his lower lip four years ago.

“I had Aaron Brooks as the quarterback when I got this thing,” Thiele said. “That’ll tell you something.”

Mostly, it tells how many Saints playoff victories Thiele has seen since being inked.

Trivia answer

The Cleveland Browns.

The Browns defeated the Indianapolis Colts, 38-21, in January 1988, eight years before moving to Baltimore and becoming the Ravens.

And finally

Intertops.com, an online gambling site, has posted odds on what David Beckham’s year could be like beyond the 6-1 chance that the Galaxy wins the MLS Cup.

* Gets a DUI, 10-1.

* Stars in a movie with Tom Cruise, 100-1.

* Attempts a field goal in the NFL, 500-1.

* Wins “Dancing with the Stars,” 500-1.

* Divorces Victoria and marries Paris Hilton, 10,000-1.

Meanwhile, Intertops has the Kings, another AEG property, as 200-1 shots to win the Stanley Cup. So there’s a better chance of Beckham’s co-starring with Cruise than the Kings’ cruising around with the Cup this year?

*

chris.foster@latimes.com