Game Tomorrow

After an exciting come-from-behind, 28-24 victory over the Air Force Academy last week, the confident Mids take on the Colgate Red Raiders (2-3) from Hamilton, N.Y., tomorrow at home with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff.The relief didn't come too soon, what with the nationally ranked Louisville Cardinals and the Notre Dame Irish on the horizon.In the three-game series to date with Colgate that began in 1923, Navy has yet to lose. The 1923 team won, 9-0, recorded a 5-1-3 season, and played a 14-14 tie with the University of Washington in the Rose Bowl.

The TV repairman: Jim Valvano is so good doing studio for college hoops on ESPN one wonders when ABC is going to get around to using him in similar fashion. I should charge for these worthwhile tips.* It's called digital split-screen imaging, the routine wherShowtime had Sugar Ray Leonard interviewing himself prior to Ray getting belted by Terry Norris on the cable last Saturday. Producer David Dinkins Jr. asked the unrehearsed questions first to get the fighter answering spontaneously, then Ray sat down and asked the same questions.

MILWAUKEE -- For Craig Lefferts, the best thing about his best start for the Orioles was that he didn't have to watch the bottom of the sixth inning here yesterday in Milwaukee's 9-3 devastation of the Orioles.The worst was that he didn't take advantage of the opportunity."I saw it," said Lefferts, who had been removed from the game after giving up a single to Kevin Seitzer and a double to Paul Molitor, only the third and fourth hits he allowed."If you look at Craig's track record, he hadn't gone past six innings very often," said Orioles manager Johnny Oates.

TORONTO -- There must be some mistake. The Bash Brothers were supposed to be a historical footnote. The Oakland Athletics were supposed to be a kinder, gentler team than the one that bruised the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1989 playoffs. But Game 1 of the rematch had a familiar look about it.The A's hit three home runs, including a game-winning shot in the ninth inning by Harold Baines, to score a 4-3 victory and disappoint a hopeful sellout crowd of 51,039 at SkyDome.Round up the usual suspects.

The TV Repairman:OK, so you're feeling pretty good about Baltimore getting an NFL expansion franchise after management and labor came to a collective bargaining agreement after just five years right?Better not get around to picking a team nickname, colors and who the club is going to pick first in the 1995 college draft just yet, though.The owners, the guys who will be saying aye to two of five competing cities, have just learned they will be pulling in $2 million less TV money than originally planned in the last year of the current contract with the networks and cable.

Please, ESPN, assign Dick Vitale to secondary-type college games, which might be enhanced by his special brand of hype, '' or chain him to a studio chair in lieu of his working marquee games.Rarely (like never) does Vitale add any worthwhile analysis of what's going on in the game right in front of him and his commentary is painfully worn and repetitive. You know the stuff: "Better get a timeout, bay-bee . . . don't turn this baby off . . . are you kidding me? . . . he's a P-T-Per, a diaper dandy," etc., ad nauseam.

If you wonder how the improving quality of Major League Soccer's play stacks up internationally, a hint -- but only a hint -- will be on display at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., at 7: 30 p.m. tomorrow.D.C. United will play host to Leeds United, which finished its English Premier League season last weekend, in a "friendly" (soccer-ese for "exhibition.")Whatever it's called, this game unavoidably will be seen as a measuring stick -- but don't get too carried away -- of how far D.C. United has come since practicing for the first time about 14 months ago. If you go (or watch, HTS 7: 30 p.m.)

The band without a team hasn't missed a note for eight years.Since 1984, the Baltimore Colts Band have shown the sports world that you don't need to be on the sidelines to make good music."

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Pucks were flying all around Baltimore Skipjacks goaltender Jim Hrivnak in the final minutes last night.But Hrivnak refused to wilt under the intense pressure applied by the Binghamton Rangers and made one big save after another, enabling the Skipjacks to live at least another two days in what has become an exciting American Hockey League Southern Division semifinal series.Hrivnak stopped at least five Binghamton shots from point-blank range in the final nine minutes of the game, leading Baltimore to a 5-3 victory in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series.

Suddenly, the Maryland Scholastic Association A Conference lacrosse playoff picture is not so clear. Division winners St. Paul's and Boys' Latin will definitely play host to semifinal games Tuesday at 3:45 p.m., and the championship game will be May 15 at UMBC, but that's all that is certain.Tuesday upsets by Severn (13-7 over Loyola) and St. Mary's (4-3 over Calvert Hall) have put second-place up for grabs in both divisions and left A Conference chairman Jody Martin scrambling to find solutions for several possible scenarios, depending upon the outcome of some pivotal contests the next two days.