Fantasy Baseball

Now this is fantasy baseball. Randy Newsom is a relief-pitcher prospect for the Cleveland Indians. The submarining right-hander is selling 4 percent of his future major-league earnings - if there are any - for $50,000. You don't have to put up the whole $50,000, however. You can buy shares in Newsom at $20 per pop, as brokered by Real Sports Investments, his company (realsportsinvestments.com). Each $20 share is worth 0.0016 percent of his future major-league earnings. So say he turns into something like Dan Quisenberry, earns an average of $4 million a year and works 10 years.

When I was watching television while completing an online fantasy baseball draft last night, I had a revelation -- the Orioles are going to finish with a winning record in 2012. Huh? I know they're picked to finish at the bottom of the American League East again in 2012 by pretty much everyone that knows what the AL East is. And I know they still aren't sure who is pitching a week from Friday on Opening Day at Camden Yards, let alone the other 161 games this season. And I know there are still more questions than answers for a lineup that lacks the prototypical leadoff hitter as long as Brian Roberts is unable to play.

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine.     Running it back: For some Terps football players, the transition to new coach Randy Edsall has been "rough. " ... Fans who look closely at Maryland's sideline may be puzzled by seeing Regis Philbin and Scott Van Pelt on the cards held up . ... The Ravens on Tuesday signed former Cowboys cornerback Bryan McCann to a two-year deal . ... There's a chance that Andy MacPhail could stay on as Orioles president of baseball operations in 2012.

Services for Baltimore City Fire Department Lt. Wayne M. Prior, who was slain late Thursday by an intruder at his home on Allenswood Road in Randallstown, were to be conducted at 7:15 p.m. today at the Macedonia Baptist Church, 718 W. Lafayette Ave.Lieutenant Prior, 28, was promoted to his final rank and assigned to Aerial Tower 128 on Chesapeake Avenue in Fairfield in July after passing the exam for the job on his first attempt.He joined the Fire Department in 1987 and was a member of Engine Company 25 at Gold and McCulloh streets until it was disbanded in 1989.

If Baltimore County Superintendent Robert Y. Dubel could pick his county government dream team -- like those fantasy baseball games -- one would think it would look something like the line-up that's in Towson right now.County Executive Roger B. Hayden served on the county school board for the better part of a decade, including when Dr. Dubel was chosen superintendent. Mr. Hayden's experience as board president surely helped sell him to voters when he beat a much better-known incumbent in 1990.

NATIONAL Roads allowed in national forests The Bush administration took sweeping action to open nearly 60 million acres - about one-third of the national forests - to road construction, which in turn could lead to logging, mining and other commercial use of the previously protected areas. [Page 1a] General to be demoted The Army said that only one senior officer - Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski - will be demoted for failed leadership in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and that more than a dozen lower-ranking officers will face a variety of punishments.

I've never been the hugest Stephen Stills fan, but as I thought back on this fantasy baseball season, my mind kept singing the refrain, "Love the one you're with." That was the theme of my experience with Childs Play, a team I professed to hate in a midseason column. I spent way too much on Todd Helton and cast my hopes with pitchers who got hurt or just stunk. (Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne and John Patterson were three of my 10 least favorite people on Earth this summer.) Until late July, I languished in the bottom third of my National League-only league.

It's hard to love something without really hating it sometimes. Me and fantasy baseball? We're not so much on speaking terms at the moment. A month ago, things couldn't have been dandier for my flagship team - Childs Play. I had never had such an offense. Chase Utley was off to a scorching start. Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins and Brian McCann were doing their parts. Even supporting players such as Edwin Encarnacion, Xavier Nady and Eugenio Velez were giving me exactly what I needed. Better still, recent trade acquisitions Chipper Jones and Rafael Furcal were flirting with .400.

The void is upon us. The NFL regular season is over and the baseball season is still far enough away that you can't quite imagine the smell of fresh grass and smoke from Boog's. So what to do for the fantasy junkie robbed of his or her chief imaginary pursuits? It's an annual dilemma and I offer here a few coping strategies (though this list is hardly exhaustive.) 1) Abstain. I know it sounds radical, but you could just not think about fantasy sports for the next month to six weeks. It's cheap, and it'll make your boss and significant other happy.

In the relaxed atmosphere of spring training, the Orioles' locker room in Sarasota seems less pro athlete man cave than after-school rec center. Their workout over for the day by early afternoon, the players seem in no particular rush to head home. Jake Arrieta wheels in the bike he rides to and from the stadium every day; Nick Markakis carries in his 9-month-old son, quickly borrowed by Brian Roberts for a knee bounce, a cell phone picture and the answer to that mathematical question: What does cuteness squared look like?