Bass

Tony Leicht started playing bass guitar when he was 6, then switched to electric guitar a couple of years later after being inspired by the 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive! He started performing with bands at age 12. "I did the whole music thing with bands and record deals and everything," he said. Before long, he was building guitars. "Throughout the '80s, there was a time when everyone was making their own guitars because Eddie Van Halen did it," Leicht said. He would get wood from a lumber yard and cut out the shapes with jigsaws, he said.

The whole atmosphere smells of hair tonic and Aqua Velva, chewin' tobacco and great, heaping levels of testosterone.Burly men in jeans and flannel shirts crowd around booths hawking exotic fishing trips to Alaska, Canada, Montana, each booth featuring a montage of color photos depicting beaming customers triumphantly holding up huge salmon and steelhead against breathtaking backdrops of blue skies, towering fir trees and clear-rushing rivers.But as you wander the aisles at the 15th Annual Bass Expo, Saltwater Fishing and Fly Fishing Show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds and gaze at all the high-tech equipment -- the lightweight composite rods and $30,000 bass boats, the chemically enhanced lures, the rods and tackle strong enough to reel in an oil tanker -- you're left with one overriding thought:Do the fish even have a chance anymore?

At 83, a vibrant Dorothy Bass says she still has a lot to do.Perhaps, Bass says, she will dabble in telemarketing. She might be interested in directing children's activities at a play center. Or maybe she'll work as a school cafeteria lunch lady.After almost seven decades of doing everything from running a grocery to working as a department store clerk, Bass says she's not quite ready to recline and relax in the so-called golden years of her life.Yesterday, she was among the more than 10,000 senior citizens who showed up at Baltimore County's 13th annual Senior Expo at Timonium Fairgrounds, and about 2,000 of them were there for only one thing: a job.They found plenty of opportunities at the expo's first-ever job fair, where 80 Baltimore-area businesses were more than eager to tap into the state's growing work force of senior citizens who just aren't ready to retire and move to Florida.

Ron Shuffield was feeling the pressure after the first day of the $621,000 Kmart Bassmaster MegaBucks Tournament last week. Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tenn., had been unforgiving, and it had been eight years since he had won on the B.A.S.S. tour."I started off this tournament catching one bass that put me in 125th place," said Shuffield, of Bismarck, Ark., "and I thought seriously about going home."Over the next four days, however, the 42-year-old figured out a spinnerbait pattern fished around shallow, floating boat docks and climbed through the standings to win the $125,000 top prize.

When network television made its first telecast of a bass-fishing competition a week ago, the tournament gave a group of Maryland anglers in the field a glimpse of what the future might hold for their sport."

Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Mo., has earned more than $1 dTC million as a professional bass fisherman and, earlier this summer, was selected as the first pro angler to have his face on a box of Wheaties. But, until last weekend, the big one always got away.Brauer, Angler of the Year on the rival FLW Tour, won the Bass Masters Classic on High Rock Lake near Greensboro, N.C., eight days ago in his 16th attempt to capture one of bass fishing's toughest tournaments."After 16 years, you really don't know if it's ever going to happen," Brauer, 49, said after weighing in 46 pounds, 3 ounces and beating second-place George Cochran of Arkansas by nearly 10 pounds.

Frank Ippoliti has fished the year round and across the country for bass. He fished for bass so much, he said yesterday, it eventually cost him his marriage -- even after he tried to give up the sport.But after placing second in the $227,500 EverStart Challenge on Kerr Reservoir last weekend, winning $20,000, Ippoliti said he is thinking of making a new start on the pro tour."I used to fish a lot of the B.A.S.S. tournaments, the top 100s," said Ippoliti, who owns the Four Seasons restaurant in Mount Airy.

The big ones got away from Paul Elias yesterday, but the Mississippi angler still managed to move into first place in the B.A.S.S. Federation's Kmart Top 150 tournament being fished this week on the Potomac River.Elias, who won the B.A.S.S. Masters Classic in 1982, weighed in 14 pounds, 15 ounces to bring his two-day total to 26 pounds, one ounce ahead of second-place Bernie Schultz of Gainesville, Fla.Unlike many of the 312 anglers in the pro-am competition, Elias has fished deep water in the mainstem of the river, and he said he has lost more weight in bass than others have caught in a full day during the four-day tournament.

MARBURY -- Denny Brauer has won every major bass fishing honor and a slew of top tournaments during his long career. But this week in the B.A.S.S. Kmart Top 150 tournament, Brauer managed to surprise ever himself.After a slow start in the first Brauer day of the tournament, Brauer figured out a small creek on the Virginia side of the Potomac River and worked it for 58 pounds, 11 ounces of bass and a victory in the sport's season opener.Brauer clinched the victory with a five-bass limit, weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces.

As the lone returning starter from last season for Lake Clifton, Rodney Bass has found the first few weeks of the season a period of adjustment with a new coach and heightened expectations.It has sometimes been a slow and difficult process for the 6-foot-5 senior forward, but it's one that is starting to yield results. Bass scored a season-high 22 points yesterday in helping No. 9 Lake Clifton to an 87-69 victory over visiting Patterson in a City East Division game.Junior forward Kevin Smith led the Lakers (4-3, 2-1)

They dug themselves out from an early four-run hole to tie the game in the fifth. They then erased a two-run deficit by scoring runs in the eighth and ninth inning, the latter one coming against Angels All-Star closer Brian Fuentes. And just as it seemed that the Orioles had run out of chances, they escaped bases-loaded, one-out jams in the 11th and 12th innings by completing double plays. All of it could have been a prelude to one of the most uplifting victories of the season. Instead, it added to the agony of the Orioles' 17-8 loss in 13 innings before an announced 26,529 on a scorching Sunday at Camden Yards.

Matt Albers, one of the Orioles' most effective pitchers when he was healthy last season, was jettisoned to Triple-A Norfolk late Saturday night because the club needed a roster spot for Adam Eaton and didn't want to risk losing Brian Bass. Albers had a minor league option remaining, while Bass did not and would have been exposed to waivers before heading to the minors. The decision, which team officials acknowledged was more about business than baseball, might well turn out to be the right one, but it didn't look good Sunday, when the Tampa Bay Rays teed off on Eaton and Bass and avoided a three-game sweep.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -No one should be surprised, but when the Orioles dispatched their three top pitching prospects to the organization's minor league camp in Sarasota over the weekend, the whole optimism-of-spring thing sort of went along for the ride across Alligator Alley. Brian Matusz could light up Fort Lauderdale Stadium with his curveball. Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta could make the future appear as if it's just around the corner. The three of them created so much buzz during the early weeks of spring training that it was easy not to notice that the major league pitching staff they will someday lead was quietly coming unraveled.

The Script The Script [Epic] ** (2 STARS) The Script sounds like a nice enough band, led by singer Danny O'Donoghue's pretty, malleable vocals, which are best displayed on its debut single, "The Man Who Can't Be Moved." Unfortunately, on the Irish trio's self-titled debut, it sounds like a band that gets moved too easily, one that's been cobbled together by industry execs' suggestions and focus-group findings. "We Cry," with its vaguely hip-hop beat and from-the-streets vibe, sounds like a response to a need to be more urban.

Error starts a rally: : With the game tied at 2 in the seventh, Gabe Gross hit a routine grounder to Brian Roberts, who bobbled it and couldn't make a throw. Two batters later, Gross scored the go-ahead run on Jason Bartlett's double off Rocky Cherry. The Rays scored another run in the seventh when Cherry walked Carlos Pena with the bases loaded. Both runs were unearned. A no-hit departure: : Orioles starter Brian Bass left in the fifth after facing 18 batters and allowing no hits. In his third major league start, Bass retired 11 straight to begin the game and 14 of 15 before giving up three walks - one intentional - with two outs in the fifth.

Outfielder Lou Montanez toiled in the minor leagues for nearly nine full seasons before finally getting his first big league shot. Pitcher Brian Bass has made 46 appearances, but before last night, he had never started a major league game. Reliever Jim Miller had never saved a major league game despite accumulating 80 saves in the minor leagues. As the Orioles play out the string of what, barring a miraculous final two-week turnaround, will be an 11th consecutive losing season, the games still carry great importance to several members of the club.

The Orioles made a series of rosters moves yesterday, including recalling three reinforcements from Triple-A Norfolk and agreeing to a trade with the Minnesota Twins for relief pitcher Brian Bass. They also released struggling reliever Fernando Cabrera, who flipped a ball at manager Dave Trembley in a show of frustration last week. Bass, 26, appeared in 44 games for the Twins and had a 3-4 record and a 4.87 ERA. He was acquired for a player to be named - likely a low-level minor leaguer - and reported in time for last night's series opener with the Oakland Athletics.

Hometown -- Easton Current members --Willis Kurtz, drums; Ben Tucker, bass, guitar and vocals; Cody Finkner, guitar, bass and vocals Founded in --2006 Style --punk/hardcore Influenced by --Choking Victim, Led Zeppelin, the Replacements, Gram Parsons Notable --The trio recorded an album mostly live in a friend's bedroom for free until the wee hours of the morning. Surprisingly, none of the neighbors complained or called the police. Quotable --"It would be 2 o'clock in the morning, and I'd be up there screaming my head off," Finkner said.

Horace L. "Sam" Bass Jr., a residential real estate salesman who enjoyed boating on the Chesapeake Bay, died of cancer Sunday at Genesis Spa Creek Nursing Home. The Annapolis resident was 73. Born in Greenville, N.C., and raised in Clarksburg, W.Va., he was a first lieutenant in the Air Force and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond. He was a 1963 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law. After moving to Catonsville many years ago, Mr. Bass founded Professional Real Estate and had offices on Frederick Road and Nunnery Lane.

The company that acquired subprime lender Fieldstone Investment Corp. of Columbia two weeks ago is now in financial trouble and could be written off as worthless by its owners. MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc. announced late Monday that they may write off their stakes in Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC. The New York joint venture, known as C-BASS, invests in subprime mortgages and packages the debt for sale. MGIC and Radian had valued their combined investments in C-BASS at roughly $1 billion.