Countdown

WHO'S HOT Victor Martinez of the Indians is hitting .464 (13-for-28) with nine RBIs during an eight-game hitting streak. WHO'S NOT Aaron Harang of the Reds lost his fifth straight start to fall to 0-5 with a 6.67 ERA in June. BATTING LINE OF THE DAY Damian Jackson, Padres 2B AB R H RBI HR 4 3 4 3 2 PITCHING LINE OF THE DAY A.J. Burnett, Marlins IP H R BB SO 9 2 0 2 7 "I don't miss ballparks. I can't wait until the new one is built. I like new." Bob Gibson, Cardinals Hall of Famer, after performing the daily stadium countdown in St. Louis

IN BALTIMORE CITY Unidentified man killed by gunshot on north side An unidentified man was shot and killed early yesterday in North Baltimore, police said. The homicide was the city's 275th this year, police said. Police who responded to a report of a shooting about 12:15 a.m. in the 3100 block of Ellerslie Ave. and found the man lying in the street with a gunshot wound to his upper chest, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. The man was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:39 a.m., Monroe said.

NEW YORK -- Let the surfing begin. With an ailing king, two would-be successors and a ubiquitous substitute, New Year's Eve on television has more subplots than a party with three ex-girlfriends. Dick Clark and his "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC has been the go-to party for 32 years, but he'll be away from Times Square Friday as he continues recovering from a stroke. Regis Philbin will fill in for him. NBC is launching its own party show from Rockefeller Center with Carson Daly. Ryan Seacrest, in his third year for Fox, is bringing his show east to New York for the first time.

Minutes before darkness fell last night on the County Office Building in Westminster, Carroll's commissioners called for a countdown to a show of brilliance. "3-2-1," the crowd yelled. Then the commissioners lighted the first Christmas tree to grace the office building in more than 30 years. The 22-foot Douglas fir stands in the fountain pool at the front entrance to the building on Center Street. About 1,700 white lights decorate the tree, donated by Gail and John Terzano of Hampstead, who were in the crowd of about 100 spectators.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Sen. John Kerry sprinted toward the finish of the first post-Sept. 11 presidential campaign yesterday with the terrorism issue squarely in their sights and the contest a virtual tie. Osama bin Laden's videotaped warning to Americans added an element of uncertainty to already shaky pre-election calculations on both sides. Voters ina handful of battleground states, the scene of fierce campaign competition since the spring, are likely to decide the election.

Don't look now, but the political stars might be aligning to put the candidate who loses the popular vote into the White House once again. This time around, though, it might be the Democrat taking advantage of the odd institution known as the Electoral College. Tom Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has been touting this scenario since spring: John Kerry takes the populous states that went for Al Gore in 2000 - that's where Gore piled up his 500,000-vote margin over George W. Bush - but in much tighter races.

IT SEEMS like only a few days ago that I was writing off the Boston Red Sox like so many of Ben Affleck's recent movies, and now I'm sitting in front of the television like it's the moon landing all over again. The Sox already have proved me wrong, which isn't easy to do unless you're married to me. They did what was supposed to be impossible, pushing the mighty Yankees to last night's climactic Game 7 after losing the first three games in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.

Bill Griesmer has been through the retirement process hundreds of times in the past 20 years. "I didn't let anybody retire unless they talked to me," said the 70-year-old Pittsburgh resident, who once managed a Sears, Roebuck and Co. store. When it was his turn, he knew the drill by heart. But not everyone is so lucky. In the next decade, 76 million Americans will reach retirement age, the largest retirement generation ever, said Cynthia Egan of Fidelity Retirement Services in Boston.