A League

Betty Beatdown. Human Soup. Natalie Boh. Molly Melee. The pseudonyms adopted by the 53 women of the Charm City Roller Girls might be whimsical, but the competition and action are genuine: Proof is in the bruises and injuries. The women of the Baltimore roller derby league -- professionals, students, stay-at-home moms -- rolled it out on the hardwood at Putty Hill Skateland in northeast Baltimore County as they competed in the league's inaugural season. Starting in April, four teams -- the Junkyard Dolls, Speed Regime, Night Terrors and Mobtown Mods -- met once a month on a Sunday night.

During 14 years in the NFL, Dick "Night Train" Lane was celebrated for his vicious clothesline hits, his technical skill on the defensive perimeter and his fast-paced lifestyle off it. Few players were bigger in stature - or better at their job - than the Hall of Fame defensive back with the alluring moniker who intimidated receivers from 1952 to 1965. "Train was kind of in the show-business atmosphere," said Lenny Moore, a longtime friend and on-field foe. "He married the great [jazz singer]

The Howard County Run & Shoot Football League's games are touch football contests played Sunday mornings for men who are trying to be competitive and play a sport they love. But the contests bear a striking resemblance to football games fans watch on television. There's the quarterback who is often scrambling to get away from a rush or moving around to buy time and find an open receiver. Four receivers are trying run pass patterns to get open while the defenders are working hard to cover them.

Bill Grau and Dan McCabe were neighbors who helped coach their kids in a youth football program in Sykesville. They enjoyed what they did, and their kids had fun, but both wondered why there wasn't a similar program where they lived. Just over four years ago, the two formed the Western Howard County Warhawks, a youth football program that started out big - and has kept growing. The program had 250 kids for its age-group teams in 2002, the club's first year of competition, and this fall enrolled about 450 players from 6 to 14. The club has become a strong feeder for several county high school teams.

Mark McGwire turned the baseball world on its ear in 1998 when he hit 70 home runs. Barry Bonds captivated the country again three years later when he blasted 73 homers. But in terms of numbers, all of that isn't much compared with Dutch Detwiler's recent feats - even if his sport is slow-pitch softball. The Ellicott City resident has averaged 91 home runs a season over the past six years. A right-handed batter who is a designated hitter most of the time, Detwiler has hit 546 home runs in that span.

Nicholas Brady, clad in a black suit, his shiny black shoes glinting in the sun, clutched a folder at his side and released a rapid-fire cascade of arguments into the microphone. "The United Nations cannot solve genocide," he said forcefully. "The U.N. helped create it in Rwanda by supporting the leader of the Hutus." Around the Inner Harbor pavilion, tourists with disposable cameras and passers-by sipping lemonade seemed stunned as they gathered to hear the teenager plead his case for why the United States should resist joining U.N. peacekeeping missions.

JEFFREY HAMMONDS wants to talk about today. He doesn't want to dwell on any yesterdays. Today, he is a 34-year-old on the deep end of the Washington Nationals' bench after starting the season in the minors. Today, his career is winding down. If Washington released him, he's not sure whether he'd look for another team or retire. That's for tomorrow. Today, he's an aging veteran trying to hit above .200. His yesterdays as a baseball phenom, however, are what make Hammonds' story so intriguing, so special.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - Anywhere but South Africa, rugby is just a sport, not a volatile indicator of relations between blacks and whites. The latest reminder that rugby is this nation's national obsession came last month when the South African Rugby Union decided against awarding a newly created team to Port Elizabeth, the struggling city on the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Cape, the region considered the heart of black South African rugby....

The Class 4A-3A division of last weekend's Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association state high school wrestling tournament had a distinct Anne Arundel County feel to it. Arundel High finished fourth in team points, with Chesapeake seventh, Old Mill ninth and South River 11th. In addition, two Anne Arundel County wrestlers won state championships, and four others were runners-up. That's not unusual for the state tournament, in which Anne Arundel schools have long fared well.