Ace

Pam Shriver put on a charity ball last week at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, and just as the live-auction portion of the evening was winding down, Martina Navratilova popped up and offered to donate tennis lessons to the highest bidder. Her surprise gesture brought in an extra $15,000 for cystic fibrosis research. Sounds like a sweet ending to the evening. And it would have been, if celebrity baker Duff Goldman hadn't been cued at that very moment to make a grand, music-filled entrance on the stage to present Shriver with a cake.

"Ace of Cakes" fans who are disappointed about the TV reality show's cancellation can take heart in knowing that star baker Duff Goldman is expanding a recently launched line of baking and decorating products. Just days after the Food Network confirmed it had canceled the show, which followed the exploits of the Charm City Cakes owner and his staff, specialty retailer Party City announced it would sell the Duff Goldman Collection. Goldman, whose bakery is in Remington, launched the line in June at Michaels craft stores, selling mixes, spatulas, pans, edible cake graffiti spray and fondant in nine colors.

The way Brendon Ayanbadejo remembers the first significant injury of his football career, it came on a routine play. It was the fourth quarter of a road game at New England early last season, and Patriots running back Sammy Morris had eluded one of Ayanbadejo's teammates. When the Ravens linebacker went to bring Morris down, Ayanbadejo's left knee bent the wrong way under the added weight of a couple of other players helping with the sideline tackle. Ayanbadejo later learned that he had torn the quadriceps completely off the knee.

SAN FRANCISCO — The last time Cole Hamels was on the mound, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said he saw the Cole Hamels of old. The way Manuel was talking — "When he's really good, he's good the same way he was before" — he made Hamels sound like someone in his mid-30s. Or someone recovering from a major elbow operation. Hamels is 26. His left arm has never been cut open. But Hamels, who will face the Giants on Tuesday in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, has already experienced enough in his relatively brief career to be enjoying a revival.

NEW YORK — In any business, you have good days and bad days. Seldom, however, do days come along like the ones that Jon Daniels, Brian Cashman and their co-workers did back in July, when they battled over left-handed pitcher Cliff Lee and possibly a trip to the World Series. There was nothing surprising about what Lee did on Monday night at Yankee Stadium. It's what he does when the money is on the line, and he does it over and over again. But the fact that he threw this two-hit, 13-strikeout masterpiece in a gray, road uniform of the Texas Rangers, rather than the classic Yankees pinstripes, remains one of the most shocking chapters in modern baseball history.

The first indicator that it might not be Jeremy Guthrie's night came on his first pitch, a fastball that drilled Derek Jeter in the left elbow and gave New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi another opportunity to gripe about the Orioles starter's propensity to hit his batters. Guthrie said he wanted the pitch to be inside, but not far enough inside that it would put Jeter on first base. But not many of the 108 pitches that Guthrie threw Saturday night wound up where he wanted them.

The old Orioles would have been the perfect opposition for CC Sabathia on what was supposed to be his big night. The New York Yankees' ace was bidding to win his 20th game for the first time in his career. He was trying to extend his unbeaten streak at Yankee Stadium to 22 games, which would have been the longest such streak in Yankees history. The new Orioles had no interest in watching him do either, and they knocked around Sabathia, who had lost to them just one other time in 19 career starts.

Orioles rookie Josh Bell walked into the clubhouse just before noon Sunday still sporting a smile, which only grew broader when he showed off the two prized possessions in his locker. Bell had the ball he hit off Texas Rangers ace Cliff Lee on Saturday for his first major league home run on one side and the ball he hit off Lee for his second homer one inning later on the other. He plans to deliver them this week to his mother, Jacqueline , who will be in Chicago to watch her son play in the Orioles- White Sox series starting Tuesday.

When the Orioles dealt Miguel Tejada in late July, the primary purpose was to make switch-hitting third baseman Josh Bell the everyday starter, even against tough left-handers, and to see whether the husky 23-year-old could replicate the power stroke he flashed in the minors. Through his first 74 big league at-bats, Bell had no homers and just three extra-base hits, including only one against a lefty. On Saturday, in the Orioles' 8-6 win over the Texas Rangers, Bell rewarded the club's patience by bashing the toughest of southpaws, Rangers ace Cliff Lee, for two homeruns and five RBIs in his first two at-bats.

Ten months after Brendon Ayanbadejo's left quadriceps tore away from his kneecap in New England, the Ravens' special teams ace remains in limbo, reduced to private workouts amid the grind of training camp practices. The Ravens break camp Friday in Westminster, counting down to their Sept. 13 season opener against the New York Jets. Ayanbadejo, 34, is operating on an entirely different timeline. "My goal is just to be healthy again," he said. "Whenever that happens, it's going to happen.