Back To Baltimore

Mickey Tettleton will be a Baltimore Oriole in 1991.After an 11th-hour attempt to make a deal with another team, Tettleton's agent, Tony Attanasio, said last night that his client will accept the Orioles' offer of salary arbitration."

The Mercantile Charity Challenge, Pam Shriver's 19th tennis event held here in support of children's charities, will come later than ever this December, but the star attraction will be hot. Shriver will announce today at a Baltimore news conference that tennis phenom Maria Sharapova, 17, will play in the main match Dec. 17 at 1st Mariner Arena. Shriver and her group are also working to confirm an opponent, who will be announced in a few weeks. Only a year ago, Sharapova was here playing Ashley Harkleroad in the tournament's Futures match.

MONDAWMIN is five Metro stops away from downtown, six stops from Owings Mills. Within a one-mile radius of the shopping mall, it's possible to attend school from kindergarten to college. So why are the Mondawmin-area neighborhoods, despite their solid housing stock and leafy gardens, experiencing some of the same uncertainties and blight that are afflicting so many other city areas? A recently released 64-page survey suggests some of the reasons: an aging population; the lack of new investment; apathy.

GOV. PARRIS N. Glendening has made a national name for himself by championing Smart Growth. Just this month, Governing magazine named Mr. Glendening one of its Public Officials of the Year because of his anti-sprawl initiative. There's no better way for the governor to celebrate this recognition than by embracing Mayor Martin O'Malley's ambitious package for rejuvenating Baltimore. All of the mayor's elements fit neatly under the Smart Growth umbrella: State aid to reduce crime and drug violence; state money to continue the turnaround in city schools; and state assistance to fortify neighborhoods, create an urban land bank and make the "Digital Harbor" a reality.

SEN. PHILIP C. JIMENO knows a new Baltimore football stadium would yield economic rewards for his Brooklyn Park district. The Democratic legislator saw how many northern Anne Arundel County businesses won contracts when Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built a few years ago. He also knows that, by being nearer the proposed stadium than any other part of Maryland, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City and Baltimore County will benefit more than all other jurisdictions...

First, the sound of shrill bird calls pierced the misty downtown air, startling hundreds of fans who made their way along Pratt and Howard streets, having left last night's Orioles victory over Detroit a few minutes early.Then, about 10 minutes later at 11: 23 p.m., came another sign that the NFL has come back to Baltimore.From several vantage points on and around the Baltimore Convention Center, the black, purple and gold helmet design of the Ravens was unfurled for the masses to see.The sight was accompanied by cheers, applause and a few explosive fireworks.

NEW YORK -- Labor leaders were conspicuous in their absence at his annual reception for the maritime industry, but Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer said he is optimistic they will be with him when it counts for the Port of Baltimore.About 150 executives of ship lines, railroads and other transportation companies attended yesterday's Port of Baltimore luncheon at the Downtown Athletic Club, hosted by the Maryland Port Administration.The same event last year drew most of the port's major labor leaders, including John Bowers, president of the International Longshoremen's Association.

The next round of Jim Speros' legal battle with the NFL over trademark rights to the Baltimore Colts name will be fought in Indianapolis.Attorneys for Speros, owner of the Baltimore CFL Colts, will argue Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis that the Indiana court has no jurisdiction to hear the merits of the trademark infringement debate.The jurisdictional issue was raised when the NFL filed a civil suit in Indianapolis on April 29 seeking to block the Canadian Football League team's use of the name Colts.

Aaron Sopher When: Tuesdays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday evenings to 7 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through Feb. 24.Where: The Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Museum Drive.Call: 396-7101.Don't miss the chance to see what a treasure we had in our midst from the 1930s to the 1970s at the Baltimore Museum of Art's exhibit "Aaron Sopher: Satirist of the American Condition."Sopher is in a way a self-contradiction: the term local artist both fits and doesn't fit him. He drew almost exclusively on the Baltimore around him for his subject matter; but in the broader sense, even the term "American," chosen by guest curator Peter Hastings Falk for the title of the exhibit and of his new book, is too confining.