Distractions

RoyalsThat was then: Kansas City, which hasn't made the playoffs since winning the 1985 World Series, was 13th in the AL in runs and 13th in ERA, then set free its leaders in wins (Tim Belcher), batting average (Jose Offerman), homers (Dean Palmer) and RBIs (Palmer).This is now: Payroll is already down from $36 million to $26 million. Next to go: Kevin Appier, Jeff King and Jeff Montgomery.Upside: Not that it counts, but Kansas City had baseball's best spring training record. First baseman Jeremy Giambi hit .372 in Triple-A; outfielder Carlos Beltran is a top prospect, too.Downside: The staff's 5.15 ERA was the worst in club history.

BOSTON -- For a few minutes, the justices seemed to be going down memory lane. Bad memory lane. The word bandied about the Supreme Court chambers Tuesday was "teasing.""I'm sure schoolchildren nationwide tease each other," said Justice Sandra Day O'Connor."Boys tease girls because they are girls, and vice versa," Justice David H. Souter agreed.You might have thought that the classmate known as G.F. was just a Georgie Porgie who kissed the girls and made them cry.Indeed, Davis vs. Monroe County Board of Education began with two 10-year-olds, G.F. and LaShonda Davis, who sat side by side in a fifth-grade Georgia classroom.

BravesThat was then: Brave new world? Not last year. Atlanta won a franchise-record 106 games and a seventh straight division title, swept the Cubs in the Division Series, then suffered another postseason collapse, losing to the Padres in the Championship Series.This is now: The Braves are heavy favorites in the East, where amazingly no team finished within nine games of any other in 1998, but they must play without clubhouse leader and 44-home-run hitter Andres Galarraga, who has lymphoma.

RangersThat was then: Juan Gonzalez had 157 RBIs, most in the AL since 1949, and Texas went 5-for-5 against Anaheim in the last two weeks to win the division. The Rangers hit just .141 in a Division Series sweep by the Yankees.This is now: Texas signed first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who should take advantage of the Ballpark's short right field.Upside: Palmeiro and a full season of shortstop Royce Clayton should solidify an infield defense that went in the past three seasons from 59 errors to 74 to 90.Downside: Rick Helling and Aaron Sele (28-35 the previous two years)

AstrosThat was then: Houston won the Central with 102 wins despite having the lowest payroll of any playoff team, then fell to the Padres in the Division Series.This is now: The Astros lost Randy Johnson to free agency, failed to trade for Roger Clemens, then learned that Moises Alou, third in MVP votes, suffered what likely will be a season-ending knee injury by slipping while trying to adjust the speed on his treadmill. That's no way to start the Astrodome's final season.Upside: Other key NL Central injuries keep the Astros the favorites.

Clubs listed in predicted order of finishYankeesThat was then: New York lost four of its first five games, then saved Joe Torre's job by becoming the first team this century to play .700 ball the first four months of a season. Its 125 overall wins were a record.This is now: The $88 million Yankees have a great chance to become only the sixth team to win three World Series in four years. They haven't lost any key players and get a Rocket boost from two-time defending Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who hasn't lost since May.Upside: Forget complacency; Clemens wants his first ring as much as ex-Yankees prospect John Elway wanted his first NFL title.

Club listed in predicted order of finishIndiansThat was then: Cleveland, which has owned or shared first place for 639 of the past 700 days, has won the past four Comedy Central titles by a combined total of 59 1/2 games. The Indians beat the Red Sox in the 1998 Division Series, then lost to the Yankees in the ALCS.This is now: They're still the rich kids in a poor neighborhood. They have a ballpark sold out for the season, 18 Gold Gloves up the middle and an All-Star or former one at every position, thanks to the signing of Roberto Alomar.

On the way to the opera, we heard a man belch. It was loud and clear and uninhibited, a belch with gusto, delivered on Mount Royal Avenue, about 100 paces from the front door of the Lyric Opera House. It was a startling sound, and it made us laugh. And our laughter made the man say, without apology: "Better now than during the opera, right?"Ah ... right. Good point.I have heard a lot of sounds in opera houses and concert halls. So far, a four-star belch is not one of them.I actually have a strange, twisted obsession with people who make noise in theaters.

Even if Gregory Shahade weren't going up against the world's greatest chess player this afternoon (greatest human chess player, that is), the time has arrived for him to get serious about his game.At age 18, gone are the days when he could improve by leaps and bounds merely by playing his sister, his father, a few tournament opponents, or 25 friends simultaneously via the Internet, as he still does once a week.Nor will he likely pick up anything of value today when he and seven others take on the computer-bruised world champion, Garry Kasparov, at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu, who held out for months to realize his dream of becoming a New York Yankee, will make his long-awaited major-league debut against the Detroit Tigers tonight at Yankee Stadium.Irabu will be met by hordes of media -- both from Japan and from the United States -- when he arrives at the stadium today. His contract dispute with the San Diego Padres and eventual trade to the Yankees made international headlines. Now, it's just a matter of finding out if he can live up to the hype.

Maryland's law banning the practice of sending text messages while driving goes into effect Thursday, and not a moment too soon. It comes amid a steady stream of evidence that electronic distractions in the driver's seat pose a serious and growing threat to highway safety. Researchers have found that texting behind the wheel is about as dangerous as driving drunk. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of truckers found they were 23 times more likely to get in an accident if they texted behind the wheel, a risk about four times greater than dialing a cell phone.

Sirens rang out at the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company as engines turned into a parking lot, where firefighters pried off the driver-side door of a wrecked blue Toyota Camry. The firefighters performed the mock rescue at the staged wreck yesterday to help kick off the Baltimore Metropolitan Council's summer Regional Highway Safety Campaign against distracted driving. Capt. Glenn Resnick of the Pikesville Precinct said that all too often at accident scenes, "we can see fast food on the floor, we see the cell phone laying down on the floorboard after the event."

SAN DIEGO -- Brian Roberts endured it with the firing of Mike Hargrove, then Lee Mazzilli and now Sam Perlozzo, three managers he liked and respected. So when he was approached by a small group of reporters in the visiting clubhouse at Petco Park and asked about Perlozzo, he quickly grew agitated. "I've seen managers come and go here," said Roberts, who has been with the Orioles for parts of the past seven seasons. "To tell you the truth, I just want to come here and play baseball. That's all. I am tired of dealing with the manager situation.

Charlotte, N.C. -- First, they swallowed a familiar pill, as their strong credentials failed to elevate them to a more prestigious postseason game. Then, their head coach took over at a rival school within their own conference. Yet, even as he conceded the month of December has been full of challenging distractions to the Boston College football team, Eagles junior linebacker Jolonn Dunbar said he and his teammates are too determined to make another winning statement on the field to allow any outside influence to sway them.

In the middle of Wednesday's Terrell Owens melodrama, the Ravens opened their locker room for interviews. Reporters rushed in and asked players about Owens instead of the Ravens' upcoming game against the San Diego Chargers. It was a familiar scene. Over the years, the Ravens have endured more than their share of off-field controversies that dominated conversations and distracted players. The difference this time, of course, was it was another team's player, not a Raven, who was making the wrong kind of news.

IN HIS NEARLY 20 YEARS AS A "Young Lion," Roy Hargrove has grown and flown in jazz, tinting the genre with bright, interesting musical shadings. No matter what the trumpeter dives into it -- pop, hard bop, hip-hop, blues, R&B, Cuban jazz, jazz standards -- the native Texan charges the material with soul. It's that essential, transcendental feeling that invigorates and electrifies music, giving it life. This spring, Hargrove releases two albums simultaneously on the venerable Verve label: Distractions is credited to the RH Factor, the artist's loose, funk-oriented outfit, and Nothing Serious is by the Roy Hargrove Quintet, the musician's straight-ahead jazz group.

Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro can wear earplugs, stuff wads of cotton in his ears, even put on headphones and listen to Green Day full blast - and it won't necessarily block the distractions that might be responsible for his feeble hitting since returning from a 10-day suspension three weeks ago after testing positive for steroids, according to some sports psychologists. Palmeiro wore earplugs Tuesday night in Toronto to muffle the jeers from Blue Jays fans; he went 0-for-4, and is 2-for-26 with one RBI after the suspension.

EVERYTHING SEEMED to be going so well. Quarterback Kyle Boller was no longer tripping over his feet and the strong running game had resurfaced. The defense was dominating and the special teams improving. The Ravens were tied for first place in the AFC North, and ready to make a huge statement on national television. It was supposed to be a coming-out party Monday night against Kansas City. Ray Lewis was going to dance, Prime Time was going to strut, Ed Reed was going to take off his helmet for mug time, and Chris McAlister was going to do who knows what?

NEW YORK - The daylight was fading, the lights high above the four-tiered Arthur Ashe Stadium court had taken a firmer hold on the court below, and Roger Federer, as if there was a spotlight on him now, was midway through the final set of this U.S. Open destruction, the full measure of his immense repertoire on display. The tournament's top seed was zinging forehands, clubbing topspin backhands heavy enough to shake fourth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt's grip on his racket, cleverly placing serves and delivering deft little touches around the net balls that seemed to be caressed, not stroked.

IF YOU'RE part of the chattering class, you should pay attention to this: Yammering into a hand-held cell phone while driving became illegal last week in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Why? Because cell phone chatterers are apparently more likely to be involved in car accidents. But outlawing driver use of cell phones really won't address the problem, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the organization that represents state highway safety agencies. Hands-free devices, while reducing some distractions and adding convenience for the driver, do not mitigate the mental distraction of the conversation itself.