Grass

Good morning -- Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer -- With grass and dirt stains, did the loser have to do the wash?

The weather is warm without being scorching. The breezes are benign. And the weekend has an extra 24 hours. These are ideal conditions for an outbreak of "landscape fever," an affliction that sweeps across the region during Memorial Day weekend. Clad in garden gloves, wearing hats, their skin slicked with sunscreen, the afflicted will be outdoors rearranging the terrain, planting, trimming, laying down decorative stones. Bill and Sandy Fritz, for example, will be pulling up old stones and putting down a new flagstone path at their southern Pennsylvania home.

THE YEAR in which Germany's capital moves back to Berlin and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insists it is a great nation is the same year the Swedish Academy had to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Guenter Grass. He had been mentioned for 20 years."The Tin Drum," his breathtaking novel that cries out for honor, was published 40 years ago. Awarded to a living writer whose works have withstood the test of time, the Nobel Prize is for doing "something important" at a young age and living long afterward.

Rite Aid Corp. said yesterday that it expects a $67.9 million second-quarter loss, which the drugstore retailer blamed on store closings and relocations and on rising interest costs stemming from its January acquisition of PCS Health Systems Inc.In preliminary, unaudited financial results for the quarter that ended Aug. 28, the company said it lost 26 cents per fully diluted share.The loss reflects pre-tax charges of about $34 million related to the costs of closing or relocating 106 stores during the quarter, Rite Aid said.

MIAMI -- Infielder Jeff Reboulet was available to play last night after receiving treatment for some tightness in his right hamstring.Victimized by the sloppy field conditions during Tuesday's doubleheader at Pro Player Stadium, Reboulet pulled up as he beat out a bunt in the eighth inning of the nightcap. He grabbed at the back of his leg and bent over at the bag as trainer Richie Bancells rushed from the dugout. Reboulet stayed in the game and received treatment afterward."I think it was more of a cramp first and then I kind of strained it," he said before sitting out last night's win. "It started out like a cramp because it was tight all around and I felt it pull a little.

One day after the abrupt resignation of Rite Aid Corp. Chairman Martin L. Grass and the company's disclosure that it had inflated profits by $500 million over three years, industry experts said Grass' departure was necessary to gain the confidence of investors."

WIMBLEDON, England -- Give this man red clay and hot sun. Let him slide on a court for hours, bending shots while driving his opponents into the dust.But keep Gustavo Kuerten away from grass and rain.Until this year, that used to be the book on Kuerten. But not anymore. The Brazilian clay-court specialist has become a grass-court ace, blasting his way into the Wimbledon quarterfinals yesterday by beating Lorenzo Manta of Switzerland, 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3."I'm a grass-court player," Kuerten declared with a broad smile breaking across his face.

PINE VALLEY, Nev. -- LeRoy and Sandy Sestanovich ran their eyes over the Nevada range land his family has ranched for a half-century. It looked like a charred piece of toast.There was no life, only the blackened skeletons of juniper trees and the scorched stumps of sagebrush. In a canyon lay the remains of one of their bulls, a dried-out hide draped over bones in a hauntingly stark image.In what is by far the worst fire season on record in this arid state, about 1.6 million acres of northern Nevada burned last summer, an area twice the size of Rhode Island.

Could chopping an athletic field into squares keep it green?Several football teams, led by the Ravens at PSINet Stadium, think so. They have adopted the latest in high-tech fields: real grass, cut into half-ton sections and assembled like a puzzle.The idea behind the "modular" system is replacing worn spots with fresh turf. Chunks in the center of the field, where football play is concentrated, are exchanged with greener sections from the sidelines. A team can even buy a second field and move pieces back and forth.

Martin L. Grass seemed to have it all: He led one of America's top drugstore chains, lived among the horsy set on a 10-acre estate in the posh Green Spring Valley, earned $1 million a year, and was chauffeured back and forth to work each day in a $3 million helicopter.His wealth earned him prominence in arts and health circles, as he gave generously to numerous charities. He was featured in Business Week and Fortune magazines, praising his stewardship of Rite Aid Corp. and enhancing his standing on Wall Street.

Has anyone noticed what an incredible gardening season this has been for Baltimore? By mid-September, my backyard normally looks dried up and ready for plowing under. The brown grass requires a deep raking, handfuls of new seed and prayers. Not this year. Urban growing conditions are usually so bad, I throw in my trowel and buy hothouse-grown pots of mums and asters to overcome the damage created by the August mini-droughts we normally get. This year, I've had to find every stake in my cellar to prop up plants that have grown to Jack-and the-Beanstalk proportions because of the overly generous rain.

Jack Kidwell watches his six-man crew lay the strips of sod that will cover the field for M&T Bank Stadium's first soccer game next week with the peaceful air of a farmer who knows his land has been well-tilled. "I've been doing this for 50 years," says Kidwell, 76, a native of tiny Boydton, Va., in a drawl as gentle as a Tidewater breeze. "You learn a few things in that time. One of them is it takes time to do this and do it right." Kidwell is founder, president and co-owner of Duraturf Service Corp.

THE PROBLEM: : Overgrown bushes and weeds block pedestrians' path on a sidewalk in Northeast Baltimore. THE BACK STORY: : The grass is green and lush on Sinclair Lane. Unfortunately, so are the weeds and shrubs. Lottie Sweat walks north on Sinclair Lane, in neighborhood of Frankford, to get to the post office at least once a week. But for months, weeds and other greenery growing taller and wider have encroached on the sidewalk along a short stretch between Parkside Drive and Bowleys Lane, requiring pedestrians to detour into the roadway.

When soccer clubs Chelsea and AC Milan come to Baltimore this month as part of the World Football Challenge, they'll be playing soccer inside M&T Bank Stadium on the best pitch that money can buy. The Ravens just have to ship the natural grass in from Virginia and install it before the two teams arrive. Even though the synthetic turf inside M&T Bank Stadium is considered to be among the best in the NFL, soccer at the highest level is almost always played on natural grass. So as part of the agreement to host the game, the Ravens have arranged to install temporary sod on top of their own turf for the July 24 game.

City officials have pulled the plugs on Thursday's opening concert of the popular First Thursdays series in Mount Vernon Place because of landscaping concerns - and for future concerts, listeners will have to stay off the grass. "We were told there were maintenance issues that hadn't been addressed in time for the concert," says Stephen Yasko, station manager of WTMD (89.7 FM), who announced the cancellation Thursday afternoon after failing to reach an agreement with the City of Baltimore Department of Recreation & Parks.

So far, the Orioles have lived up to their offensive potential, but wasn't this also supposed to be a much-improved defensive team? Weren't we led to expect a little more splendor in the grass? The arrival of free-agent shortstop Cesar Izturis was expected to solidify the defense up the middle, and speedy Felix Pie was supposed to combine with Adam Jones and Nick Markakis to turn the O's outfield into a no-fly zone. The reality has been much different, with Pie struggling to get acclimated to left field while Izturis and several teammates are having trouble adapting to one of the slowest infields in the major leagues.

Lamb is a popular dish in the spring. There are religious reasons. In Christian tradition, a lamb is symbolic of the risen Christ and is often the centerpiece of the Easter meal. In some Jewish homes, lamb is served during Passover, reminding believers of the Old Testament account of how households that adorned their door posts with the blood of the paschal lamb were spared from destruction. In some of Maryland's ethnic communities, lamb is the first choice for a ceremonial meal, regardless of the season.

On Dec. 28, 1958, while the Colts-Giants game played on the basement television, my father and I watched as our Lionel train set circled a miniature landscape made of lichen trees, grass sawdust fields and speckled paper mountains. The little maple trees and lawns were made by a local company, Life-Like Products, housed in a sprawling Union Avenue stone mill. A few months ago, as the city's Preservation Commission voted to place this building, the Druid Mill, on its landmark list, I met Jay Kramer, who told me of how his father and uncle established a company that put the green in Christmas gardens.

It is hard to be a dedicated gardener when the November winds arrive. It is so much easier to watch from the kitchen window as the last leaves fall while you're making a pot of soup. If the mosquitos of August keep you indoors, the cold rain of a November weekend certainly will as well. Besides, the holidays are coming at us like a speeding train, and the gardens drop to the bottom of a to-do list that now includes turkey-roasting and Christmas card-writing. I know what I should be doing in the garden this month.

Artificial turf is made for field hockey. It's fast. It's true. It accentuates all the fine passing and stick skills that girls develop in the Futures Program, at camps and through indoor field hockey. Many girls have told me they love playing on turf. Even some who had not played on it before said it didn't take long to adjust. They all want to play fast and show off their skills, something that's often hard to do on grass. Turf certainly won't hurt soccer either. Although more of the game is in the air and the ball bounces more, the short passing game is truer on a smoother surface.