Big Night

So I'm checking out the Web site for the legendary rock group Kiss when I stumble across a ticket offer for shows on the current tour. I already had planned to buy tickets to this past Thursday night's Kiss/Aerosmith double bill at MCI Center and - being a huge Kiss fan - wanted for one time in my life to get really good seats. The Kiss Web site offered to make it easy for me. If I signed up for the "Kiss Platinum Package," I would be guaranteed a seat within the first five rows, get to meet the guys and have a photo taken with them, painted faces, 7-inch platform boots and all. A T-shirt, autographed tour book, set of guitar picks and a $50 coupon for Kiss' online store completed the package.

ASHBURN, Va. - As the Washington Redskins announced their first round of cuts yesterday, Bryan Barker emerged as the biggest winner. Barker, a 14-year veteran who has spent the past two seasons with Washington, was the only punter at Redskins Park after the team released David Leaverton yesterday. Barker, who defeated Brent Bartholomew in a punt-off during Washington's seven-point loss to the New England Patriots on Aug. 16, preserved his status with the team when he averaged 52.3 yards on three punts Saturday night against the Ravens.

Ask a visitor to name three things about Baltimore, and they're likely to be crab cakes, the National Aquarium and Little Italy. But ask a Baltimorean where to eat in Little Italy, and he might not be able to tell you. If you don't know your way around the city's most famous neighborhood (at least as far as eating goes), we're here to help. We've grouped the restaurants in categories as a guide, but don't take them too seriously. You could argue -- and somebody surely will -- that most of these restaurants fit into more than one of the categories.

Some things never change. On a night the Blast paid tribute to its 1983-84 Major Indoor Soccer League championship team, an old nemesis also was back in town to put a damper on the otherwise memorable occasion. Remember the San Diego Sockers, the team that got the better of the Blast in four championship series back in those '80s? Making its first trip to Baltimore in more than a decade, the Sockers took control early and stayed on top of things the rest of the way for a much-too-easy, 20-11 win over the Blast last night at 1st Mariner Arena.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- In a battle that was largely Mark Millon vs. Nate Watkins, Millon had the better supporting cast. As a result, the Baltimore Bayhawks improved to 3-0, holding off the Rochester Rattlers for a 17-13 Major League Lacrosse victory last night. Millon scored five goals and had three assists, including the final score to end a rally by the Rattlers that had brought them within three goals, as close as they had been since the first quarter. And after Rochester finally found its scoring touch midway through the second quarter, it was Millon who put in two extra-man goals to keep the Bayhawks in command.

"I love Big Tracks, Little Tracks by Millicent Selsam. It lets you know how to find animals that are hiding. It tells you what their tracks look like. It asks questions. I love this book because I like tracks! You have to read it! I learned that you can be a detective." -- Brady Collins Charles Carroll Elementary "My book review is on Cat's Big Night / Dog Behind Bars by Nancy Krulik. The book is about Dog being sent to jail because he was making too much noise. I like the book because you can flip it over and find a story about a cat."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In the midst of his finest pro season, Qadry Ismail took awhile to warm up to the bright lights of Monday Night Football. The Ravens' offense was a fiasco for most of three quarters, and Ismail played his part. He wasted the best penetration of their first five drives with that rarest of penalties for a wide receiver, roughing. On their first possession of the second half, he turned a pass from Elvis Grbac into a 17-yard gain, but then fumbled the ball away, setting up a short Titans drive that resulted in the game's first points.

In a Baltimore hotel laden with a thousand venture capital investors and entrepreneurs, one participant surveyed the ballroom - the ice rink-size chandeliers and giant video screens - and likened it to a Vegas casino. But the scene also resembled a high school dance, full of energy and anxiety, with potential partners taking a measure of each other. It wasn't teen hormones in the air, though. It was money. On one side of the room stood John Ticer, a 42-year-old executive seeking several million dollars to build his Virginia-based software company.

SOMETIMES IN politics, it's hard to tell just who is courting whom. That was the case last week as many of Maryland's best-known Democratic names gathered - a bit awkwardly, at times - for a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser to benefit the unspecified political aspirations of Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry. Curry, who is barred by term limits from seeking to retain his job next year, is pondering a run for some statewide office - governor, comptroller or attorney general.

A season of incremental change advanced another step for the Orioles last night. Wrapped within a compelling 3-2 win over the Detroit Tigers before 27,722 at Camden Yards, a closer's role was thrown open and an outfield's composition altered. Cal Ripken replied to another unspoken challenge by preserving the game with an eighth-inning dive and received a standing ovation. More obviously, starting pitcher Pat Hentgen tied up the Tigers before a tag-team bullpen covered the final six outs to give the Orioles their second three-game winning streak.