Errors

Scott Kamieniecki down Fifth starter is averaging $3.15 million per win since signing a two-year contract after the '97 season. The Orioles must decide whether it's worth it to hold onto their investment. Ray Miller has his doubts.Injury intrigue down Hoping to sidestep a "circus" in Sarasota, Fla., Cal Ripken eased out of Detroit under cover of misinformation last Sunday. Two days later, after word had spread, seven media types and 20 fans attended a controlled scrimmage featuring the Iron Man. Oh, the humanity!

Quote: "They will take a piece of my heart with them when they tear down this place."-- Hank Aaron on Milwaukee's County Stadium, which will be host to its final home opener today when the Brewers take on the Cubs in expected 30-degree temperatures.It's a fact: The Cubs avoided a potential 900th all-time loss to Cincinnati when the game was postponed by rain. They are 926-899 in the series.Who's hot: The Giants' Barry Bonds had two doubles, going 2-for-3 to raise his average to .412.Who's not: Expos right fielder Vladimir Guerrero committed two errors against the Brewers.

NEW YORK -- No one wants to see this. No one wants to see Cal Ripken embarrassed. No one wants to see a great player stumble at the end of his career.It was only yesterday that Ripken was an offensive force, driving balls to the gaps, hitting three-run homers, delivering clutch RBIs.It was only yesterday that he was one of the game's top defensive players, catching every grounder, chasing down pop-ups, making powerful throws.That Cal Ripken has disappeared, at least for now.It's sad to watch.

TORONTO -- Taking another step into "uncharted waters," Cal Ripken was given off last night against the Toronto Blue Jays. Unlike his two scratches last week, manager Ray Miller's decision was based more upon Ripken's performance and personal difficulties than his lower back."

Devil Rays: Tampa Bay has committed 18 errors in its past 15 games, leading to 22 unearned runs. The team made only 13 errors in its first 30 games.Mariners: Ken Griffey's 18 homers in the Metrodome are tied for his most in a visiting park. He also has 18 homers in Yankee Stadium.Rangers: Texas has homered in 12 straight games, two shy of the club record. Juan Gonzalez has driven in a run in a season-high six consecutive games. Tom Goodwin, the AL steals leader, swiped his 20th base in the third inning.

Walkersville was making its sixth appearance in the state baseball tournament, including a finalist berth two years ago.It was the first state appearance in school history for North Harford.No matter how much a coach talks about it, or the players think about, this is not just another game.This was reflected in yesterday's state Class 2A semifinal, as Walkersville scored only two earned runs, but capitalized on 10 North Harford errors for a 12-2 win at Arundel. The game was halted by the 10-run rule with the Lions batting in the last of the fifth.

Navy capitalized on the wildness of freshman Bucknell starter Kevin McDowell and the shoddy support of his infield to rout the Bison, 11-3, in the opening game of the best-of-three, Patriot League baseball tournament at Max Bishop Stadium yesterday.Despite an hour-and-45-minute rain delay in the second inning, unbeaten Navy sophomore Shane Groover went the distance to earn his seventh victory. He limited Bucknell to seven hits and struck out nine.After spotting the Bison a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Midshipmen (24-15)

While playing host in yesterday's Class 3A West region final, Liberty was a bit too gracious to its visitors from Damascus.The Lions made six errors leading to six unearned runs that wiped out an early lead, and Damascus rode a two-hit, 10-strikeout performance from Morgan Randles to a 10-2 victory and a berth in the state semifinals Tuesday.Liberty (10-8), which reached the region final by surprising North Carroll 3-0 Friday, made errors that helped Damascus (17-1) score eight of its 10 runs.

With half its team freshmen, every game is a learning experience for Wilde Lake.Yesterday's lesson?"We showed we can take a lead and hold it even if some things go wrong," said freshman catcher Sara Taliano, whose Wildecats survived a three-error seventh inning and held on for a 5-3 victory at Centennial.The 15th-ranked Wildecats had made costly mistakes in losing their last two games to Glenelg and River Hill. Yesterday, they took advantage of Centennial errors and, until the last inning, played solidly in the field.

Baltimore police acknowledge errors in calculating city shootings statistics, a finding that could undermine Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier's claim that shootings have dropped nearly 60 percent since his arrival.Police blame their miscalculations on a 20-year-old computer system that they said mistakenly counted 1993 incidentsinvolving guns as shootings. The department acknowledged the errors after The Sun found discrepancies during a review of police statistics on shootings.A police audit found that the department over-reported the number of shootings for two months in 1993 by 25 percent.

In my spare time, I'm going to open a flier-proofreading business. I wouldn't charge a thing; though it might be nice if the flier distributors considered bartering the services they advertise, just once, for my family and me. And no, I am quite sure I didn't mean "for my family and I." Here's my plan: I would definitely benefit from a one-time housecleaning, home exterior power washing, lawn analysis, junk pickup or any number of services proffered via fliers stuffed in my front door.

Errors exacerbate shock and grief Ellicott City, and the Mount Hebron community in particular, still is recovering from the shock of the tragedy Feb. 17 that took the promising life of Michele Iampieri, one of our seniors. Imagine my frustration when we have to add errors from the police investigation to our grief and sadness. There is no better place to start a rumor than in a high school. The staff at Mount Hebron is exceptionally good at handling the talk that spreads through the grapevine, but our task is made infinitely more difficult when those whose job it is to investigate and relay "the facts" make such egregious errors in their quest for the truth concerning this accident.

WHO'S UP Johnny Damon of the Red Sox reached base in 10 of his 14 plate appearances during the weekend series with the Braves. WHO'S DOWN David Eckstein of the Cardinals, who had only six errors last year, had three yesterday, one Friday and has eight this season. BATTING LINE OF THE DAY Lew Ford, Twins DH AB R H RBI HR 4 3 3 1 0 PITCHING LINE OF THE DAY Javier Vazquez, D'backs IP H R BB SO 9 5 0 0 7 Baseball "You see outfielders drop routine balls and you hope it never happens to you. I wanted to crawl up under a rock when I dropped it."

NEW YORK - Justine Henin-Hardenne fought hard to win the 2003 U.S. Open and battled to be back on court to defend her crown this year. She was fighting herself too much in just the fourth round last night, and the struggle proved too great. She was upset by Nadia Petrova, another of the young Russian contingent. The 6-3, 6-2 win by Petrova, the No. 14 seed, was hardly ever in doubt. After breaking Henin-Hardenne to go up 5-3 in the first set, Petrova served out the first and broke again at 1-all in the second.

ATTORNEY Sonya Smith-Valentine says one of her clients has died three or four times. Well, at least according to his credit reports. The client has repeatedly learned about his presumed passing after being denied credit because credit reports have erroneously listed him as deceased, the attorney said. So the client contacts the credit-card company suspected of generating the error, to prove he's alive. "It gets fixed and later comes back," said Smith-Valentine of Prince George's County, who represents consumers in disputes with card issuers and credit bureaus.

The Orioles were hardly in position to laugh last night, saddled as they were with a nine-game losing streak and that harrowing feeling that comes when your manager's job is in jeopardy. They certainly have their own issues, but for one game, they finally had a chance to go through nine innings feeling like Mother Superior. The Orioles weren't the ones treating the baseball like an unwelcomed guest in their gloves; the Oakland Athletics were. And when it was over, the Orioles had broken Oakland's 10-game winning streak with a 9-0 victory before 18,752 at Camden Yards.

NEW YORK - The Orioles committed three errors last night and still had a chance to win. Their catcher had two passed balls, their pitchers hit three batters, their center fielder didn't make two plays. But while stuck in a black comedy, they kept the outcome a mystery until the end. The defense rested for the Orioles, and in the worst possible place. Looking to gain more than just a split of a four-game series at Yankee Stadium, the Orioles were done in by their own sloppiness in a 5-2 loss to New York before 50,595 that made a cross-country flight to Oakland a little more uncomfortable.

While Orioles shortstop Deivi Cruz has bulked up his average after a slow start, he's battling a different kind of slump. Before last night's game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Cruz was responsible for the last six errors committed by the Orioles, including two during Thursday's loss in Toronto. Manager Mike Hargrove held him out of the lineup, giving Melvin Mora the start at shortstop and keeping Cruz - whose 10 errors tied third baseman Tony Batista for the team lead - among the reserves.

Sam Perlozzo worried about the defense when the Orioles let Mike Bordick walk as a free agent last fall, and who could blame him? At shortstop, Bordick had the consistency of a metronome last season. He made one error in 117 games and seemed to make everyone around him better. Perlozzo, whose duties as bench coach include overseeing the team's infield defense, doesn't have those worries anymore, even with Bordick in Toronto and second baseman Jerry Hairston on the disabled list. On Tuesday, Bordick will make his first visit to Camden Yards since signing with the Blue Jays, and Perlozzo will be proud to show him how well the Orioles' defense has fared in his absence.

On a normal day, a two-run lead with senior Lindsay Ettinger on the mound would be more than enough for the top-ranked Chesapeake Cougars. Yesterday, was anything but normal. Third-ranked North County made sure of that, taking advantage of four Cougars errors to come back for a 4-3 win at Chesapeake. Credit the Knights, who aggressively ran the bases, turned each error into runs and got a timely two-run single in the sixth inning from Amanda Baldwin that turned out to be the difference.