Back To Normal

On Sept. 20, Nancy Galicki gave birth to a son, Adam, by Caesarean section at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. When Mrs. Galicki had her daughter, Shannon, by C-section 11 years ago, she spent a week recovering in the hospital. This time, she was sent home in less than 48 hours, making her recovery much more difficult. We tracked her first two weeks.Sept. 22 -- Adam is 2 days old.Nancy Galicki gets out of her hospital bed and moves slowly toward the crib where a nurse is ready to show her how to change her newly circumcised son's diaper.

"Maybe now things will get back to normal," says Cal Ripken, major-league baseball's new champion iron man, Mr. 2,131.Maybe things will get back to normal, whatever that is. They've been anything but normal lately at Camden Yards.After the Hollywood-like love-ins of the last two nights as Cal caught Lou Gehrig and then passed him, you have to believe a return to normalcy is going to take a while.For one thing, this unassuming, clean-living, 35-year-old family man from little Aberdeen, has changed Baltimore.

Loretta Spradley feels it's like being in a different world these days when she comes home to her community in the 800 block of E. Baltimore St. For one, the detour signs are gone; more importantly, everything is spanking clean.Credit both to the Metro."Believe it or not, being able to cross President Street is a major deal in my life," said Ms. Spradley, a resident of the Jonestown community, just east of downtown, for 10 years. "Being able to drive across President Street and not step in grime associated with the subway is heaven."

In today's editions, a Sunday Snapshot article on page 4H of the Today section incorrectly identifies Dr. Franklin Leslie, a physician who took up marathon running after his retirement.The Sun regrets the errors.Franklin Lane, retired and busy as everHaving already given up marathon running six years ago, Franklin Lane was compelled in the fall to suspend his routine of running 25 miles a week because his knees were bothering him. It seems that time, which has had 78 years to catch him, is starting to gain on Dr. Lane.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Right-hander Mike Mussina threw for 15 minutes yesterday, which normally wouldn't draw much attention this point in spring training. Not if Mussina were coming off a normal season.He isn't, of course. He is coming back from an injury-filled 1993 season that -- at least temporarily -- threw his future as one of the game's top starters into doubt. So, his first steps of the new season are being watched with great interest . . . and a certain sense of trepidation.The extended workout left him a little stiff, but he came away a little more confident about his prospects for a full recovery from the back and shoulder problems that limited his effectiveness through much of the 1993 season.

The early reports are good on the three Orioles who were given physical examinations yesterday by Dr. Charles Silberstein, the club's orthopedic specialist.Pitcher Mike Mussina was given a clean bill of health, while reliever Gregg Olson and outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds showed progress from the injuries that sidelined them last year.Hammonds, bothered all season by a herniated disk in the upper neck, is scheduled to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging next week. Olson, sidelined the past two months because of a partial tear in the elbow ligament, will stay on the same rehabilitation plan and won't begin throwing until January.

Cleveland Indians manager Mike Hargrove is watching the future of his team take shape brick by brick. Before every home game, he drives by the new stadium that is rising downtown and reminds himself of the better days that lie ahead.He can see things coming together on the field, too. His youthful team may be well down in the standings and its sub-.500 record might be disappointing under normal circumstances, but there has been nothing normal about 1993 -- not in the aftermath of the boating accident that killed relief pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews and seriously injured pitcher Bob Ojeda.

Ethel says she's seen one shooting; her sister Ebony corrects her, no, we've seen three. Reggie and his cousin are going to different middle schools next year, and their disagreement is over who is more likely to get shot.Davon, Darnell and Xavier start listing what they've seen, and soon the details are tumbling over each other with numbing repetitiveness: My cousin got shot; my other cousin got shot; my uncle got shot; Tiffany, James, a teen-ager on the corner, some police officers -- they all got shot.