Curveball

Pitches -- His stuff is below average. He throws 86, 87 [mph]. He can hit 91, but he doesn't pitch there, more like 84 to 88. He has a good changeup and a curveball he'll throw at any time. He throws a lot of cutters, and the ball can break either way. Attitude -- He's got great [guts]. He doesn't know that [Alex Rodriguez] is out there or [Derek] Jeter. He doesn't care. He's been successful because he gets ahead of hitters and usually pitches down in the strike zone. Overall -- He's one of those borderline fifth starters.

Quote: "[Mark McGwire] hits my changeup, he hits my curveball, he hits my slider. I just try to pick the spots where he's going to hit his home runs." -- Rockies pitcher Brian Bohanon, against whom McGwire was 6-for-9 until Thursday, when he was 0-for-2.It's a fact: The Dodgers' Eric Young, who stole his 17th base in the third inning, entered the game with more steals than six NL teams -- Montreal, Colorado, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and Florida.Who's hot: The Rockies' Larry Walker is hitting .563 (9-for-16)

TAMPA, Fla. -- Hideki Irabu brought an eye-popping and mitt-popping fastball but an inconsistent curveball into his first open workout in New York Yankee pinstripes yesterday.Irabu also brought a Nike equipment bag, which illuminated the problems of the communication gap with his new team. "We'll have to do something about that," said George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' owner and noted Adidas promoter.Of more concern to the pitching gurus monitoring Irabu are his control and conditioning. By the end of the 45-pitch session at the club's minor-league facility here, Irabu's first involving real batters in eight months, the pitcher was sweating profusely and seemed winded.

On the field: Besides having to take up residence behind home plate in the interminably long contest, the Orioles' Gregg Zaun took some additional abuse. He was hit above the right knee by a pitch that bounced in the second inning, and in the bottom of the third, he was hit by a pitch.In the dugout: Even a magnetic brace couldn't make Orioles manager Davey Johnson's seat any more comfortable; watching his pitchers struggle, Johnson switched his seating arrangement few hundred times.In the clubhouse: "Jimmy's got to be able to establish his fastball to both sides of the plate, and get his curveball over.

DETROIT -- Alan Mills keeps insisting to his teammates that Jimmy Haynes has an exceptional sense of humor, offering droll witticisms in the soft Southern drawl Haynes acquired while growing up in Georgia."

SEATTLE -- Mike Mussina took out an Orioles schedule before the All-Star break, counted out the days when he would pitch, every fifth day. Through July, through August.To Sept. 6. Just like he wanted. Mussina's turn in the rotation falls on the day that Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken is scheduled to break Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played."I want to pitch that game so that 20 years from now I can say I pitched that day, like [Jim] Palmer can say he pitched the first day," Mussina said.

Tim Giles' going 4-for-4 with three RBI is not surprising, but Tim Giles' throwing a curveball for strikes is.Giles pitched and batted fourth-ranked Arundel (2-0) to a 7-1 victory over No. 5 Severna Park (0-1) yesterday in Gambrills.Veteran Arundel coach Bernie Walter said last year that the left-handed-hitting Giles has "the best swing we've ever had here," and his .400 batting average, 29 RBI and 12 extra-base hits supported that.The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior was named a preseason Mizuno-Baseball America honorable mention All-America first baseman, but that was only half his role.

The Orioles' list of potential fifth starters is so weak, manager Johnny Oates is thinking seriously of giving the job to a reliever coming off elbow surgery.Would you believe Mark Williamson?Oates had a great idea borne out of desperation last season, when he named Brady Anderson his leadoff hitter. Frankly, Williamson would be less of a risk, even though he hasn't started since 1988.For one thing, the fifth starter's job is not as important as many believe, especially early in the season.

Gregg Olson's continuing nightmare turned into a collective horror show for the Orioles last night.The struggling reliever suffered his second blown save try and absorbed his first loss of the year as the Chicago White Sox scored twice in the ninth inning for a 3-2 victory.Trying to preserve a 2-1 lead for Rick Sutcliffe, who pitched 7 1/3 strong innings, Olson was unable to close the door. He gave up singles to the first two hitters he faced, Robin Ventura and Bo Jackson (off the scoreboard in right)

BOSTON -- It's not like Gregg Olson had to start all over again, but rather an impression that a new wrinkle here and there might be beneficial.When you have recorded 95 saves in three years and are on the verge of being the youngest reliever in history to reach 100, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to start looking for a new game plan.Making a change in delivery that keeps baserunners from taking more liberties than a pickpocket is an adjustment, not a change in philosophy. Adding a second fastball, one that can induce double-play grounders and reduce the workload is an adjustment, not a departure from style.

PHILADELPHIA -- When Rich Hill was removed from his previous start after a rocky fourth inning, the normally docile pitcher made no attempt to hide his anger. Despite giving up four runs in the fourth and a two-run Orioles lead to the Atlanta Braves, Hill wanted the chance to salvage his outing and took out his frustrations on several pieces of equipment when he wasn't given that opportunity. In Friday's series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies, Hill again appeared headed for an early exit, but this time, he heeded pitching coach Rick Kranitz's advice and did something about it. The left-hander allowed two first-inning runs and then nothing else while pitching into the seventh inning and he added an RBI single in the Orioles' 7-2 victory over the Phillies before an announced sellout of 45,135 at Citizens Bank Park.

SEATTLE - -The Orioles, of all teams, know how dominant Erik Bedard can be, so it would have been easy to dismiss Tuesday as one of those inevitable nights when they were shut down by a very good pitcher. The problem with that theory is it has been happening far too frequently to give the Orioles the complete benefit of the doubt. Bedard overwhelmed his former team, taking a three-hit shutout bid into the seventh inning and walking off the mound to a standing ovation in the Seattle Mariners' 8-2 victory over the Orioles in front of an announced 17,978 at Safeco Field.

Even a baseball novice could've told you which high school pitcher would make the majors. At a lean 6 feet 4 with a fastball that crossed 95 mph and uncommon poise for a teenager, McDonogh's Brandon Erbe could have been cast by Hollywood as a young Jim Palmer. Chorye Spoone? Well, the player from Northeast High was a chunky kid with an unruly temper whose fastball topped out at 87 mph. But a funny thing has happened since the two local pitchers were picked by their hometown Orioles in the 2005 draft.

Curveball Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War By Bob Drogin Random House / 343 pages / $26.95 You knew the case for going to war in Iraq was shaky, that Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction," which President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the CIA swore existed, never existed. You may not have realized just how cravenly eager they all were, in the months before Bush launched the war, to swallow a shoddy, half-baked story told by a two-bit Iraqi who defected to Germany hoping for a Mercedes and a nice apartment.

Pitches -- His stuff is below average. He throws 86, 87 [mph]. He can hit 91, but he doesn't pitch there, more like 84 to 88. He has a good changeup and a curveball he'll throw at any time. He throws a lot of cutters, and the ball can break either way. Attitude -- He's got great [guts]. He doesn't know that [Alex Rodriguez] is out there or [Derek] Jeter. He doesn't care. He's been successful because he gets ahead of hitters and usually pitches down in the strike zone. Overall -- He's one of those borderline fifth starters.

It likely would have been the first time such a thing had happened in Baltimore. Surely, the first time at Camden Yards. Alas, the ways of baseball quashed a chance at a historical oddity. For a while, though, it looked as if two graduates of the same Baltimore high school would start against the Orioles here in the span of one week. Last Saturday, Mike O'Connor, the Washington Nationals' rookie left-hander and 1998 Mount St. Joseph grad, allowed two runs in six innings against the Orioles.

BERLIN -- The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the Iraq war. Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with the Los Angeles Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an...

PHILADELPHIA - Have I got a spy story for you. It takes place just before the Iraq war. It reads like a thriller, except you can't believe the spooks in the story could be so clumsy. The most hair-raising chapter tells the tale of a defector named Curveball, who duped the United States into believing that Iraq had mobile germ-warfare labs. The saddest part of the tale is that it's all true. I refer to Thursday's report by the presidential commission that has been examining the ability of U.S. spy agencies to find foreign weapons of mass destruction.

As 14-year-old pitcher Michael Spracklin winds up, he has more television cameras trained on him than Barry Bonds going for a record-setting home run. Researchers at the Center for Motion Analysis at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford hope that what they learn by analyzing the moves of Spracklin and other young baseball pitchers will keep their young arms healthy enough to face down the next generation of sluggers. Studies of young pitchers are desperately needed because more and more of them are showing up at doctors' offices with damaged shoulders and elbows, said Dr. Carl Nissen, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Connecticut who is conducting a study of young pitchers at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

The "honor" comes with double edges for Double-A Bowie pitcher Matt Riley. Sure, there's something nice about holding the franchise record for career strikeouts. Riley collected No. 264 in Tuesday's 7-2 victory over Portland to pass Matt Snyder (261). But it also indicates that Riley has spent more time in the Double-A Eastern League than he ever expected. Riley hasn't returned to Triple-A since making two starts with Rochester to open the 2000 season. He went on the disabled list with a 14.14 ERA and a strained left shoulder, reported to extended spring training in Sarasota, Fla., and finished up at Bowie.