Bats

PHILADELPHIA -- Baseball bats -- cheap, legal and readil available -- are increasingly a weapon of choice in Philadelphia and elsewhere for crimes of assault, and some lawmakers would like to define them as such.Bats, both wooden and metal, are extremely popular because under the law, they are not a weapon but a recreational tool, law enforcement officials say. Drug dealers and jealous lovers in Pennsylvania know that if they use bats, they will not be treated as severely by the judicial system as if they had used a gun, which carries a five-year mandatory sentence.

In the movies, bats dart like ugly portents of evil in the shadows above the heads of terrified humans.But in the backyard of a growing number of county residents, these same bats fly gently in and out of special "bat houses" put up just to entice them to visit.It's all perspective, says bat enthusiast Frank Branchini, director of the county Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.Where once bats were on the level ofvermin, he says, now they're welcomed as useful -- even attractive -- in the homeowner's battle against bugs.

The subject is bats, again, because a surprisingly large and impressive group of readers appears to be passionate about bats, one way or another.Not long ago I suggested that people help compensate for bats' shrinking habitat by putting up bat houses, which are much like bird houses. The column raised quite a squeal, first from the anti- and then from the pro-battists. Bat facts have been darting past my head at such speed that I think a few have gotten tangled in my hair.So here's what we're going to do: Present both sides of the story.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- New house. On campus. Lake view. Free. Meals provided. Must fly in to appreciate.University of Florida officials are aggressively seeking tenants, but the house isn't for students.It's for bats.Taking a $30,000 gamble, university officials hope to coax nearly 6,000 of the creatures out of the bat-infested track, baseball and tennis stadiums and into a custom-designed bat house just west of a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the campus."To my knowledge, nothing on this large of a scale has been attempted before," said Marshall Hanks, a Wisconsin man who has a national reputation for removing unwanted bats from attics and buildings.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An assumption that the Orioles had obtained a left fielder and cleanup hitter when they signed Albert Belle to a $65 million contract suffered another hit yesterday when manager Ray Miller said he plans to place Belle third in his reconfigured batting order, ahead of first baseman Will Clark.Miller's move sounds unorthodox but is based more upon flow than convention. Belle has led the major leagues in home runs the past eight seasons and last year produced 99 extra-base hits, but he also represents a potent right-handed bat in a lineup stacked with left-handers.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Orioles first baseman Jay Gibbons has been bothered with a sore right wrist in recent weeks, and that's one reason his home run production has lagged behind last year's level. Gibbons had his first career two-homer game in Tuesday night's 3-0 victory over the Anaheim Angels, and he said the key was swinging a lighter bat that made it easier on the wrist. Last season, Gibbons had 15 home runs in 225 at-bats before breaking the hamate bone in his right hand and damaging cartilage in the wrist.

LITTLE ORLEANS - Clouds drift in front of a nearly full moon as a bat flutters to the mouth of an abandoned railroad tunnel in Western Maryland. There, caught in a web of fishing line, it drops into a biologist's trap. A quick and gentle exam by flashlight identifies it as a big brown bat, a female. Gloved hands jot down her vital statistics and release her - one more data point in scientists' growing understanding of what is believed to be Maryland's largest winter hideaway for bats. The 4,350-foot Indigo Tunnel southwest of Hancock hosts an estimated 1,400 bats during their winter hibernation, some of them rare and endangered species.

AS SOFTBALL fields go, the one at Yingling-Ridgely Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 7472 in Ellicott City must rank right up there with any in terms of, let's say, eccentricity. We went there looking for more information about a slow-pitch softball league that plays there and is unusual because of the bats it requires. But to appreciate the league, you have to appreciate the setting, first. You'll know you've arrived, in the quiet Autumn Hill neighborhood off Old Columbia Pike, as you turn onto VFW Lane and see, aimed more or less straight over your head from the other end of the tree-shaded road, two howitzers.

As a major league third baseman, manning the spot that has been dubbed "the hot corner," Melvin Mora knows that at any moment a scorching line drive or a flying bat fragment could be sent his way. Given the choice, there's no question which one he'd prefer. "If a broken bat comes right at me, I'd run away like crazy," Mora said. It's an occupational hazard, and one that is happening more often with the increasing popularity of maple bats, which unlike their ash counterparts tend to snap and spray instead of crack.

NEW YORK -- Newcomer Chito Martinez had to borrow a bat to make his major-league debut Friday night, but he had his own supply yesterday, and it showed.His bats arrived from Rochester in the morning and he put one of them to good use, hitting safely in his first two at-bats and driving in the first run of the game for the Baltimore Orioles.Martinez was on a tear when he left the Rochester Red Wings on Friday, but he seemed uncomfortable at the plate in a 1-for-5 performance for the Orioles later that night.