Final Season

If you've ever devoted a supreme effort to a project, taking an approach maybe a little off the beaten path, only to have your work criticized afterward, you'll understand the frustration Fox officials are feeling as they approach their final season of hockey coverage.For four years, the network attempted to take a game that was and still is largely on the fringe of the American sports consciousness and bring it into the 20th century, only to have virtually every move met with criticism from the hockey community.

Perhaps top-ranked Loyola should consider changing its nickname from Greyhounds to Reservoir Dogs.Every Monday before practice, Loyola players must run a half-mile lap around the nearby reservoir under 2 minutes, 30 seconds three times. This first-year conditioning exercise is what many coaches and players believe has made the Greyhounds the best fourth-quarter team in the nation.Loyola has outscored its 10 opponents, 29-8, shutting them out four times. No team has registered more than two goals on the Greyhounds in the final period all season.

Ravens Pro Bowl defensive end Michael McCrary said he will go into free agency after the 1999 season if the team doesn't extend his contract before the season starts Sept. 12.According to Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens' vice president of player personnel, the team is in the preliminary stage of discussions for re-signing McCrary, who has one season left on a three-year contract worth $2.5 million in 1999. McCrary had surgery on his right knee March 11 and had been ordered off his feet for four more weeks.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Defensive end Jamal Reynolds has the talent to follow Peter Boulware, Reinard Wilson and Andre Wadsworth into the NFL. But it won't happen until 2001 because Florida State's sack leader said he will return for his senior season.Reynolds said he never seriously considered leaving FSU after this season for the NFL although his coaches and some teammates had privately expressed concern. He had seven sacks and 11 tackles for losses during the regular season."I'm not thinking about leaving," he said.

Ravens defensive end Michael McCrary is known as a fast healer. Since having arthroscopic right-knee surgery four months ago, he has done nothing to tarnish that reputation.Unless he experiences a major setback in his rehabilitation, McCrary figures to be on the field when the Ravens open their regular season Sept. 12. And at the rate he is progressing, he could begin practicing with the team midway through training camp, which opens in nine days at Western Maryland College.Bill Tessendorf, the Ravens' head trainer, said McCrary might see his first live game action in the team's preseason finale Sept.

If there is a lesson to be learned from the first quarter of the 1999 season, it is that in baseball, lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place.The New York Yankees were the toast of the town last year, when they streaked away from the rest of the American League East and went on to set an American League record with 114 victories. They still are a dominant team, but the real thunder in 1999 is coming from Cleveland.St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire was the most dominating individual presence in the sport in '98, inflating the single-season home run record to the point where it may never be threatened again, but he is not -- so far -- one of the dominant home-run hitters of 1999.

The Orioles opened the 1997 season with a victory yesterday, but not before they had reached an important compromise.Minutes before the club took the field for yesterday's Opening Day matchup against the Kansas City Royals, the Orioles agreed to terms with third baseman Cal Ripken on a two-year, $15.1 million contract extension that includes an option for the 2000 season and substantial performance incentives.The deal, in the works for several months, will pay a reported $6.3 million per year for the 1998 and '99 seasons, and would pay him the same salary if the club picks up the third-year option.

Maryland's 103-73 victory over Penn last night was just the type to inspire random musings, so here goes:These Terps vs. Joe Smith's.Which team would win?The answer might not be as obvious as it appears.Smith was one of the great centers in Maryland history, the national player of the year his sophomore season, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.But was his 26-8 team two years ago superior to this one?Maybe not."It would be a great game," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Both teams play the same way. They didn't have any agendas.

At his outrageous, provocative best, Lefty Driesell once promised to transform Maryland into the UCLA of the East.Even if he didn't deliver the goods, he had an eventful 17-year run at Maryland and helped the Atlantic Coast Conference blossom far beyond its Tobacco Road roots.Now 64, Driesell takes his eighth James Madison team into the Colonial Athletic Association tournament tomorrow in Richmond, Va., for what could be his last hurrah.Whether Driesell will return next season to finish his contract is uncertain.

David Lord has resigned after seven seasons as the girls soccer coach at Broadneck High."Dave resigned as of today, May 18, for no cause on our end, but for personal reasons, and he is getting out of coaching," said Broadneck athletic director Ken Kazmarek. "He will be very, very, very sorely missed."Lord (63-29-3) led the Bruins to the playoffs in five of his seven seasons, including a state finalist campaign in 1988 when the team was 12-4 overall.In his final season, Lord led Broadneck to an overall record of 6-4-2.

Orioles reliever Jamie Walker will not need surgery on his left elbow, his agent said yesterday. Walker spent the past two days in Birmingham, Ala., getting examined by noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews. "He had his second appointment with Dr. Andrews today, and Dr. Andrews gave him a clean bill of health," said Phil Tannenbaum, Walker's agent. "He prescribed a little bit of rest and some exercises, and [Walker] should be ready to go for spring training." Walker, 37, who had been one of the most effective situational left-handers in baseball, is coming off perhaps the worst season of his major league career, which spans parts of nine seasons.

As Chicago White Sox pitcher Gavin Floyd approached the dugout after the fifth inning in his most recent start, he also was drawing closer to a historic moment in his young career. And a male fan sitting near the front row made sure Floyd was aware of it, announcing in a loud voice that the Severna Park native hadn't allowed a hit. Never a good idea. "I was oblivious to it," Floyd said yesterday. "I was just wanting us to win and focusing on each pitch and who's coming up. Then some random fan said, `Hey, you have a no-hitter going.

Cast and crew from HBO's The Wire, augmented by a few hundred friends, fans and family members, took over the Senator Theatre yesterday afternoon to mark the opening of the show's fifth and final season. Which made yesterday both a celebration and a final goodbye. "It's like when you read a great book and you get to the end," said Deirdre Lovejoy, who has played Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman on the show since season one. "You're sad and angry that it's over, but you realize the story's been told."

Writing about the past four seasons of HBO's The Wire has been one of the great pleasures of this job. But reviewing the fifth and final season, which begins next Sunday on the premium cable channel, is more of a mixed blessing. It's not that the series has suddenly taken a drastic turn away from its epic and compelling exploration of life in a downsized Millennial America. Steeped in a dense and seething urban sociology, the Baltimore-based series is still one of the most daring dramas in the history of the medium.

Notebook After the Atholton football team lost its starting quarterback, leading wide receiver and workhorse running back to graduation, coach Chuck Fales knew he was going to look to running back Kelechi Odocha this season. But, before the season, Fales wasn't sure how much he would be able to lean on his 5-foot-7, 175-pound senior. He knows now. Odocha has rushed for 1,669 yards this season, averaging 8.4 yards on 22 carries a game as Atholton (6-3) has put itself in position for a playoff berth in the Class 3A East region.

When director David Mickey Evans gets into a pitching/hitting/fielding rhythm in the game scenes of his true-story baseball flick The Final Season about a scrappy small-town Iowa high school team facing the end of an era, you can feel Evans' love for the sport the way one of those proud parents did rooting for their kid from the bleachers. Unfortunately, the off-diamond scenes are a woeful mixed bag of cornbelt sanctimony and predictably plowed drama, built around a devilish, state-enforced merger with a more populous county that threatens to kill a long-winning baseball tradition in the teeny farm community of Norway, Iowa.

In a surprise move that will guarantee 125 jobs and pump at least $17.5 million into the local economy next year, HBO will announce today that it is renewing its Peabody Award-winning drama, The Wire, for a fifth season. The Baltimore-based series about urban America began its fourth season Sunday night, greeted by a crush of critical acclaim, including an "appreciation" on The New York Times' editorial page calling the series "the closest that moving pictures have come so far to the depth and nuance of the novel."

The first words spoken by a member of the Soprano family tonight as the celebrated HBO series returns for its final season come from Carmela (Edie Falco): "I'm worried," she says to a friend. THE SOPRANOS / / Season 6 starts tonight at 9 on HBO.

GAME TO WATCH Maryland at No. 18 N.C. State When -- Sunday, 2 p.m. TV -- Comcast SportsNet The point -- Back in 1973, an enterprising TV programmer whipped up a Super Bowl Sunday appetizer. No. 2 Maryland had Len Elmore, John Lucas and Tom McMillen. No. 3 North Carolina State came to Cole Field House with sophomore forward David Thompson. One of the most indelible moments of his brilliant career remains his soaring putback that beat the Terps by two. A few hours later, the Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins in the Super Bowl.

It its long life on TV, Will & Grace has broken new ground for network sitcoms. But to start its eighth and final season tonight, the show pays homage to the earliest days of broadcasting: The season premiere will be presented live. "I've never done live TV before," says co-star Debra Messing, who plays Grace. "It starts out our final season in a real special way." "I'm nervous and scared, but it should also be fun," says Sean Hayes, whose character, Jack, is pretty much guaranteed to break everybody up in the middle of the broadcast.