Empty Seats

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be so depressing. A midweek Orioles game, a chilly night, an opponent - the Toronto Blue Jays - with little charisma, and a crowd that would once again challenge the record for the smallest turnout since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened its retro doors more than a decade ago. But two friends in the area from England wanted to see a baseball game, and I had agreed to act as their tutor in these arcane arts and this game was the one...

OPINION: The thousands of empty seats at the Olympic venues actually make me want to go to Greece. The Greeks apparently have found something else to do in their country that's more interesting than attending the Olympics, and whatever it is, it must be pretty good. Fact: The Orioles are 55-52 this season against all opponents other than the Yankees. Opinion: Guess Bud Selig's contract extension is sort of a present from the baseball owners marking the 10th anniversary of the World Series he killed.

Only a few steps are taken through the main gate at Harry Grove Stadium when the first reminder greets its visitors. The standings from the Carolina League are posted on a concourse wall, in print large enough to be seen from the parking lot. To find the Frederick Keys in the first half, it was necessary to scan all the way to the bottom. Logic says this should be a depressing place for the Orioles' high Single-A affiliate to play its home games. If not for the cicadas earlier this summer, the sound of crickets chirping would have seemed a more appropriate soundtrack.

Winter isn't the ideal time to go to Europe, but it's the ideal period in which to find deals -- meaning lower than usual prices, though European countries are not about to give away the store. Finding deals also involves contending with the strength of the euro, the common currency for most of Europe. At this writing, it takes about $1.20 to buy one euro. It wasn't so long ago that the two currencies were on par. Now it takes more dollars to buy a meal or purchase a gift than it used to, with a dollar actually worth about 82 cents.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - When the lights came up and a long ovation ended, former President Bill Clinton must have been taken aback by the sight of all those bright red seat backs. Presidents do not speak to empty chairs. But Clinton spoke to almost 900 of them here one night this week. More than a third of the 2,305 seats in Centennial Concert Hall went unsold for Clinton's Tuesday night lecture urging nations to cooperate to cure disease, eradicate poverty and battle terrorism. And a few seats were vacated, as the lights came on, by people eager to beat the rush to the coat-check room as Clinton prepared to field questions.

JOE MARKIEWICZ remembers days he sold $400 to $500 worth of soft drinks and baseball cards to Orioles fans outside Camden Yards - a figure that sometimes spiked to $700 if a premier team like the Yankees was in town. But for Markiewicz, 42, and other vendors working outside Camden Yards, those numbers now seem as elusive as an Oriole pennant. "Right now, I'm doing about $150," Marckiewicz said as he sold goods after a 9-8 Oriole loss to Tampa Bay last weekend. "Attendance is hurting me, and it seems like every time you turn around, we're playing Tampa Bay or Detroit, and those teams aren't going to draw people."

Who's hot Cristian Guzman of the Twins has a career-best 18-game hitting streak. Who's not Aaron Sele of the Angels, who walked a career-high-ty ing seven, has won once in his past nine starts. Line of the day Jason Giambi, Yankees 1B AB R H RBI HR 3 2 2 3 1 He said it "They've got the same promotion here they had in Mon treal: Dress up like an empty seat and get in free." Larry Walker, Rockies outfielder, after a game in Miami's Pro Player Stadium, where empty seats have outnumbered patrons six to one On deck Curt Schilling of the Diamondbacks goes for his major-league-leading 21st victory today, facing the Reds.

Imagine that because of political maneuvers and bureaucratic bungles, more than 10 percent of the seats in the U.S. Congress were vacant. Such a crisis would cause a national uproar. Yet that is the state of one of the triad that makes up the national government - the judicial branch. Of the 862 authorized federal judge positions, 95 are vacant. But few, outside the small circle of legal eagles, seem to care. The reason for the vacancies? Politics. Congress used to confine its fights to Supreme Court nominees.

DETROIT - It doesn't get much better than this for a ballgame: The sky is blue, the temperature a delightful 74 and the Tigers are in the midst of a two-run, fourth-inning rally at their new stadium. Seated in a half-empty upper deck at Comerica Park, Jeff Nail, a 45-year-old manager for the U.S. Postal Service, is at a loss to explain why more people aren't here on this Sunday afternoon to enjoy the game. "They come down for the casinos. They come down for the festivals. And the traffic is always tied up when the Red Wings play," Nail said.

New Windsor Town Council accepted last night departing Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr.'s offer to serve the last two years of a vacant council term. After about 75 minutes of debate, the council voted 3-1 to appoint Gullo to fill the vacant seat. Councilman Neal Roop dissented, saying the council would lose respect by appointing Gullo and the move would be unfair to his likely successor, Sam M. Pierce. "I did not anticipate that volunteering to help out I would generate so much controversy," Gullo said before the vote.