Batting Cage

My First Job!Do you have a summer job? Many famous athletes held other jobs before they became superstars!Brady Anderson center fielder, Baltimore Orioles"I worked at a batting cage in San Diego. I was a freshman in high school."I stood behind the cage wearing a batting helmet. When a customer was done hitting, I swept up the balls."I earned $16 for four hours of work. After my shift, I would spend $12 at the batting cage. The boss wouldn't let me hit for free!"Meet Teresa WeatherspoonGuard Teresa Weatherspoon of the New York Liberty is a showstopper!

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- He steps into the batting cage at noon beneath a sunny sky, and the outline of what lies ahead for Eric Davis begins to form."

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Manny Alexander stood next to the batting cage, watching Armando Benitez warm up."Oooooh, Benito," Alexander moaned in a singsong voice, bracing for what was to come.Ten minutes of hell.Batting practice with Armando."You're sitting there watching BP," advance scout Deacon Jones said, "and all of a sudden, you hear, 'pow!' "The players, coaches and reporters gathered around the cage heard it over and over again yesterday.First the whoosh.Then the pow.This was supposed to be batting practice, but Benitez's fastballs kept detonating in catcher Matt Nokes' glove.

Sherman ObandoWhat he would be doing if there were no strike: Obando, who turned 25 last month, would be preparing for his second season with the Orioles after tearing up Triple-A pitching at Rochester last season (.330, 20 home runs, 69 RBIs). The Rule V draftee is one of the leading candidates to be the team's starting right fielder. Obando may platoon at that position with Jeffrey Hammonds or at the designated hitter's spot with Harold Baines.Where he is instead: Obando permanently moved from Maryland to a new home in Orlando, Fla.How he's filling his time: Obando is working his way back into shape after suffering a season-ending hairline fracture of his right shin last August and undergoing off-season knee surgery.

VENICE, Fla. -- Jack Voigt pulled a blue piece of scrap carpet out of his trunk."Got a new backdrop today," he said.Voigt walked to the batting cage at Wellfield Park, where he played Babe Ruth and high school baseball.Two minor-leaguers, Todd Brown and Jim Felch, were already working out."Gas today, Jack," Brown said as he fed balls into the pitching machine. "Going about 92 [mph].""We'll have to take that down a little bit then," Voigt replied.It's not that Voigt was trying to avoid the heat.

Working for recovery through self-relianceWhen Marguerite Nichols and Paula Rangel aren't in class learning psychology or public speaking, they're busy keeping people off alcohol and drugs. Together they run a self-help group in Baltimore called Rational Recovery (RR)."Sometimes people come to the meeting with a lot of anger, or a great sense of worthlessness," Ms. Rangel says. "What we try to do is give them the tools they need to deal with those emotions. They learn how to reason with the inner voice that's telling them to have a drink."

That Peter Angelos doesn't know a humpback liner from a delayed steal is no reflection on his lack of baseball knowledge. In this connection, it can be a prerequisite for making him the best franchise owner the Baltimore Orioles ever had. But, in truth, he doesn't have much to beat.Baltimore has, indeed, had its share of stiffs. It's amazing, in some ways, that the franchise is still standing.One previous owner, or rather the advertising whiz kids he employed, wanted to alter the dimensions of the field by enlarging the distance between first and third base.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Michael Jordan's first outdoor baseball exhibition met with decidedly mixed reviews here yesterday at the spring home of the Chicago White Sox.The good news for the former NBA great was that he made contact on each of the 97 swings he took during three turns in the batting cage. The bad news was that Jordan not only didn't hit any balls over the fence, but he also was unable to reach the warning track.Against comparable pitching, Jordan's performance was not unlike the one he put on in a celebrity home run-hitting contest during All-Star festivities at Oriole Park last summer.

The Prince of the Air was the King of Swing for a day.Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan had a couple of air balls. He had six fouls, no slams and only a few drives.But the drives were hits of more than 300 feet as Jordan earned $3,600 with his bat and a $5,000 bonus -- all of which goes to charity -- for winning the Celebrity Home Run Challenge yesterday at Camden Yards.Jordan was no Babe Ruth, but he was no Casey at his last at-bat, either."Wins. He always wins at everything," joked New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing, who along with Jordan, actors Jim Belushi, Tom Selleck and Bill Murray, Olympic sprint star Florence Griffith Joyner and former NFL wide receiver and NBC broadcaster Ahmad Rashad made up the celebrity field.

The Prince of the Air was the King of Swing for a day.Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan had a couple of air balls. He had six fouls, no slams and only a few drives.But the drives were hits of more than 300 feet as Jordan earned $3,600 with his bat and a $5,000 bonus -- all of which goes to charity -- for winning the Celebrity Home Run Challenge yesterday at Camden Yards.Jordan was no Babe Ruth, but he was no Casey at his last at-bat, either."Wins. He always wins at everything," joked New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing, who along with Jordan, actors Jim Belushi, Tom Selleck and Bill Murray, Olympic sprint star Florence Griffith Joyner and former NFL wide receiver and NBC broadcaster Ahmad Rashad made up the celebrity field.