Foul

The Blast, of course, loves to get physical. With Mike Stankovic, Mark Mettrick, Rusty Troy and fiery Billy Ronson in the lineup, who wouldn't?But the Major Soccer League made it official yesterday, during a conference call hookup with the Competition Committee, that a personal foul rule, officially called "persistent infringement," will be in effect when the season kicks off this weekend.Only the vote of Blast coach Kenny Cooper prevented the passage of the rule from being unanimous.During the just concluded preseason, the league experimented with a three-foul plan, but modified it to four fouls before passing it. A player who earns four fouls in a half will be given a two-minute penalty.

The body of a man found in a pool in Randallstown has been identified as that of a disabled man who'd previously gone missing from a group home, Baltimore County Police said Thursday. James White, 64, had gone missing from the home in Owings Mills on Feb. 26, and his body was found in the pool in the 8100 block of McDonogh Road on April 28, police said. White was pronounced dead at the scene. At the time of his disappearance, police had described White as being non-verbal and intellectually disabled.

If you've been watching the NBA playoffs, you know that even though the games feature the kind of contact normally associated with a dock brawl, none of these players ever commits a foul.In fact, judging by their reactions whenever the whistle blows, each player deserves to sit at the right hand of God on Judgment Day. And they're absolutely shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- that anyone would accuse them of overly vigorous play when, clearly, no gentler men ever walked the face of the earth.

UMBC goalie Kendall Mason could not have done much more to keep the Retrievers in Saturday's critical women's lacrosse game against New Hampshire. The senior had eight saves and held the Wildcats to six goals. With those stats, a goalie should get the win, but the Retrievers committed too many costly fouls and did not take advantage of some great opportunities on offense, falling to the Wildcats, 6-5, in a game that cost them a berth in next weekend's America East tournament. The Retrievers (8-8, 3-3 America East)

Southern of Anne Arundel hit Parkside pitcher Paige Hurley hard. The Bulldogs tagged Hurley for numerous long shots down the left- and right-field lines.The problem is they all went foul.Hurley shrugged off the long fouls to go the distance with a three-hitter, and visiting and fourth-seeded Parkside scored single runs in the first and seventh for a 2-0 victory over second-seeded Southern in the Class 2A East Region final yesterday.Parkside (12-8) advances to the state semifinals on Tuesday.

COLLEGE PARK -- When Walt Williams took a seat on the Maryland bench a little more than seven minutes into the second half last night against Wake Forest, his four fouls were just as important as his 32 points.While the time he spent there -- 3:12 to be exact -- might have cost the senior guard a chance at the school scoring record, his absence proved even more significant for the Terrapins.Having led the Demon Deacons by as many as 11 points earlier, and by six when he went out, Maryland predictably fell apart without the ACC's leading scorer.

SAN DIEGO -- As if Mark McGwire needed another sign that this was his year, the St. Louis Cardinals slugger caught a foul ball in the fourth inning of the New York Yankees' World Series-clinching game last night after throwing out the first pitch.Baseball's new home run king was in a front-row box seat on the third base side, next to commissioner Bud Selig, when the Yankees' Chuck Knoblauch hit a ground foul.McGwire, whose 70 home runs this year set a major-league record, reached just beyond the railing and one-handed the ball.

As if he wasn't busy enough, agent Ron Shapiro last night caught a foul ball at Camden Yards -- only to have the feat ignored by public-address announcer Rex Barney.Shapiro, who sits in the first row on the far side of the visitors' dugout, was holding ice cream in his left hand when he caught a third-inning foul by Randy Milligan with his right.Barney normally yells, "Give that fan a contract!" under such circumstances. But in this particular case, he refrained.Shapiro didn't need a contract, not after negotiating a five-year, $30.5 million deal to keep Cal Ripken with the Orioles.

BELTSVILLE -- The Class 4A, Region II semifinal game may not have taken place at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House, but the much-anticipated showdown between No. 2 Lake Clifton and host High Point had the air of a state championship.High Point (19-4), the defending state 4A champions, and Lake Clifton (18-5) did not let the 1,500 fans packed into the Beltsville gymnasium down, as the high-scoring Eagles outlasted the foul-plagued Lakers to gain a 96-75 victory.High Point, state titlists in 1989 and possessing a record of 159-37 since 1985, advances to the Class 4A, Region II final tomorrow night against Poly, a 95-85 winner over Woodlawn.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- It took just two flicks of the wrist by Walt Williams in a 47-second span last night against Rutgers to reduce the Maryland Terrapins from a tournament threat in the Fiesta Bowl Classic to a berth in tomorrow night's consolation game.Those flicks were Williams' third and fourth fouls in the opening minutes of the second half. The foul-riddled Terrapins were never able to recover in losing to the Scarlet Knights, 95-79, in the tournament's opening game at the McKale Center.

NEW YORK - The Orioles were back at Yankee Stadium on Friday for the first time since their season-ending Game 5 loss to the Yankees six months ago in the American League Division Series. “That's the first thing I thought about when I walked in, was that playoff series and how fun it was,” Orioles outfielder Nate McLouth said before Friday's game. “When we lost that Game 5, it was tough, but being however many months removed, I can still kind of look back on it and just think about how fun it was and how much of a great experience it was. But I also remember how it felt to lose.” McLouth played a pivotal role in Game 5, hitting a towering fly ball down the right-field line in the sixth inning against Yankees ace CC Sabathia.

Maryland's continuing quest for basketball redemption led it to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, with the opportunity to fashion an upbeat ending to a season that had once seemed all but lost. But after winning five of their previous six games, the Terps saw their season end in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals as an old problem - turnovers - resurfaced at a particularly inopportune time. Iowa's 71-60 victory was forged largely by defense and Roy Devyn Marble, who scored 21 points.

Two quick updates from Wednesday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Brian Roberts fouled a ball off his right ankle in a sixth-inning at-bat. He stayed in the game, but was removed in the top of the seventh. Taking him out for the final three innings was the plan. It had nothing to do with the injury. Afterward, Roberts said his ankle was sore, but OK. “It is fine. It will be fine. It's sore, but no big deal,” he said. “It was going to be my last at-bat either way. Able to end the game with a bang, why not?

Baltimore County police, joined by 40 volunteers, found more skeletal remains of an unidentified man during a search Saturday of woods near Overlea High School. Police do not suspect foul play. A county employee discovered some bones Monday. Police said they have made a tentative identification but are not releasing it until DNA testing is completed. Police suspect that the remains had been there for a significant amount of time and that animals may have scattered the bones, police spokesman Cpl. John Wachter said.

Funny Approval went to the front and never looked back, posting an upset victory in the $250,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park on Saturday. A maiden win and two allowance scores at Mountaineer Park over the off-going were the credentials Funny Approval brought to Laurel's seven-furlong Winter SprintFest fixture, leaving the daughter of Outrageouslyfunny a distinct outsider in the field of eight fillies and mares. Trainer Jose Lopez and jockey Juan Vargas were also virtual unknowns in the Mid-Atlantic region, but they won't be after Saturday.

When Maryland utilities replace their gas pipelines, customers have had to fork out extra money afterward — not during. But that's poised to change. Both chambers of Maryland's General Assembly, citing safety concerns, approved measures this month that would make it easier for utilities to add infrastructure surcharges of up to $2 a month to natural-gas customers' bills. It's the latest push in a tug of war over the best and fairest way to replace the nation's aging utility infrastructure, the price tag for which has been estimated in the trillions of dollars.

The Class 4A, Region II semifinal game may not have taken place at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House, but the much-anticipated showdown between No. 2 Lake Clifton and host High Point had the air of a state championship.High Point (19-4), the defending state 4A champions, and Lake Clifton (18-5) did not let the 1,500 fans packed into the Beltsville gymnasium down, as the high-scoring Eagles outlasted the foul-plagued Lakers to gain a 96-75 victory.High Point, state titlists in 1989 and possessing a record of 159-37 since 1985, advances to the Class 4A, Region II final tomorrow night against Poly, a 95-85 winner over Woodlawn.

SAN FRANCISCO - After four cities, 10 games and two temperature extremes, the Orioles thought they had seen everything on this road trip, when San Francisco Giants first baseman Damon Minor hit a ball that almost changed everything. It was the ninth inning yesterday at Pacific Bell Park, and the Orioles were one strike away from finishing .500 on a trip in which they went toe-to-toe with National League superstars Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson and Barry Bonds. With a runner on third base and the Giants trailing by two runs, Minor turned on a 97 mph fastball from Orioles closer Jorge Julio, blasting it toward the right-field foul pole.

A man's body was pulled from Prettyboy Reservoir in Northern Baltimore County Thursday, police said. The body of a 26-year-old male who was reported missing Wednesday night, was recovered by drivers around 11:30 a.m., said police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton. His identity has not been released pending notification of his family. Police have not found any signs of foul play, she said, but the medical examiner will determine the cause and manner of death. Batton said the man's vehicle was found in the area, as well as his phone, keys and wallet.

State environmental officials are drilling monitoring wells on the outskirts of Salisbury to get a better handle on ground-water contamination there that has fouled dozens of household wells with a potentially cancer-causing chemical, according to a spokesman. The Maryland Department of the Environment has contracted to install a total of 10 wells in the residential area south of the city to gather more information on the movement and severity of contaminated ground water, said Jay Apperson, the agency's deputy communications director.