Baseball Fans

If you're a truly committed baseball fan - or just a baseball fan who truly needs to be committed - you've probably spent a lot of time thinking about the most appropriate way to honor your favorite team when you head off to that big ESPN Zone in the sky. So I don't have to tell you that your options have been severely limited by the lack of officially licensed funeral merchandise bearing the logo of your most cherished major league franchise. Not anymore. Thanks to a recent licensing agreement between Major League Baseball and a company called Eternal Images, obsessing about your mortality just became a lot more fun ... and carrying your fanatical allegiance to the Orioles or some other major league club officially into eternity just became a whole lot easier.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Pitcher Dave Stewart had every excuse to make himself scarce yesterday. He had just signed a contract with the Oakland Athletics and was preparing to leave the Major League Baseball Players Association free-agent camp when he noticed 5-year-old Justin Loughrey, watching the workout from a wheelchair.Stewart stopped for an autograph, then handed the boy his glove. His game glove."Try that on," Stewart said.The child sheepishly tried it on and then tried to hand it back, but Stewart already was moving toward the clubhouse.

Time was when the number of good baseball movies numbered in the, oh, ones: "Pride of the Yankees," maybe another. These days they tumble out of Hollywood and #i elsewhere in pairs and threes, a fact attested to by an American Movie Classics tribute entitled "Diamonds on the Silver Screen," scheduled for showing on the eve of the World Series, Oct. 15.From the opening scene, wherein Tracy says to Hepburn, "I'd like to take you to a baseball game," in...

Caught in an ever-tightening web of fan-fueled outrage, Major League Baseball backed down last night, saying it would not put logos on the bases as part of its $3.6 million promotional deal with the maker of Spider-Man 2. The ads were to appear as part of a deal between Major League Baseball and Marvel Studios and Sony Inc., the parent of Columbia Pictures, which is releasing Spider-Man 2 on June 30. Under the deal, the logos were to appear on bases and...

More than 15 years after Ray Kinsella built it, people still come to the Field of Dreams. Just like Shoeless Joe Jackson, throngs of baseball fans -- 65,000 a year -- are drawn to Dyersville, Iowa, to see the ballpark Kevin Costner's character built in a cornfield in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. The field reopened for the season April 1, two days before this year's first major league baseball game. But while the famous cornfield is by far the town's biggest attraction, there are many other things to do and see here.

Before Baltimore becomes swept up entirely in Ravens football (as impossible as that may be given the first place team's comeback win against the dread Steelers on the road), a tip of the cap is due Buck Showalter and the Orioles. A baseball season that started out as an epic disaster in the making turned into something not so embarrassing after all. We knew of Mr. Showalter's legendary turnaround skills before he took over the team this summer. He worked baseball magic in New York, Texas and Arizona.

IN MARYLAND Suppose you live in Annapolis or Ellicott City. Suppose also that you couldn't believe your eyes when Tippy Martinez picked off three Blue Jays in the 10th to save a win in the Orioles' 1983 championship season, that the "Why Not?" summer of 1989 was one of the happiest of your life, that you fought back tears when Cal Ripken homered in consecutive game 2,131. Finally, suppose you work in Washington and maybe even root for the Redskins. Which baseball team do you love and support if, as many expect, Major League Baseball's owners send the Montreal Expos to Washington?

It appears the Midsummer Classic is finally back to being must-watch television for baseball fans in Baltimore. Gone are the dark days when the Orioles sent one (sometimes deserving) player to the All-Star Game. From 2006 to 2011, the Orioles had just one All-Star each year. And in the cases of George Sherrill (2008) and Ty Wigginton (2010), the Orioles were only represented because the league mandated they sent somebody, anybody. The Orioles sent three players to the All-Star Game last season, just the second time since 2000 that they had multiple representatives.

The bases are loaded for the Orioles, and first baseman Morgan Walker steps to the plate. In the stands behind the screen are his parents, who traveled from Texas to see his first few days in a new uniform. Walker had enjoyed a stellar season the previous year, but father Mike -- a high school English teacher and baseball coach from the Houston suburbs -- eyes the crowded bases and confides: "This situation has not always been kind to him in the past." As we talk about baseball dreams and sit in the bright sunshine of opening day last year, Morgan, showing patience, works the count and draws a walk.

In yesterday's Today section, a headline with an article about Mark McGwire's quest to set a new home run record incorrectly described the late Roger Maris as a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Maris, who holds the record for most homers in a single season, is not.The Sun regrets the error.Computer systems consultant Ken Vangeloff never imagined that he would make the baseball highlights on Chicago superstation WGN, but there he was Wednesday afternoon, clinging to Mark McGwire's 48th home-run ball and giving his first-ever television interview.