Home Plate

The Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority have picked the final design for the new home-plate screen at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.Again.Five days after saying that lower-box seats behind home plate would be shielded by a 9-foot-high "drape screen," ballpark planners changed course yesterday, announcing they were disposing of the horizontal protection and replacing it with a safer and perhaps less intrusive choice -- a 20-foot-high vertical barrier.The...

The good news is that, in seven years of umpiring amateur baseball games in the Baltimore area, Frank Handley has had to give the thumb to only five adults. The bad news is he had to do it again a couple of weeks ago. But we're going to turn a negative into a positive today. We're going to get the message out - a reminder, really - that parents need to keep the ugly under control and set a good example for children. And parents who see and hear another behaving badly need to speak up. The story comes to us from Nancy Turner, who was so upset at what she saw during a Baltimore County recreational baseball tournament that she wrote me a detailed email about it. The game, on a Sunday morning in May, was for 11- and 12-year-olds.

The good news is that, in seven years of umpiring amateur baseball games in the Baltimore area, Frank Handley has had to give the thumb to only five adults. The bad news is he had to do it again a couple of weeks ago. But we're going to turn a negative into a positive today. We're going to get the message out - a reminder, really - that parents need to keep the ugly under control and set a good example for children. And parents who see and hear another behaving badly need to speak up. The story comes to us from Nancy Turner, who was so upset at what she saw during a Baltimore County recreational baseball tournament that she wrote me a detailed email about it. The game, on a Sunday morning in May, was for 11- and 12-year-olds.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta, who was sent down after four excruciatingly erratic starts with the Orioles, pitched well in his first two starts for Triple-A Norfolk. Last night, his third start with the Tides did not go quite as well. The 27-year-old took the loss after allowing five runs, four of them earned, and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings. One of those runs came when Buffalo's Anthony Gose straight up stole home plate on him. Here's the video: Your browser does not support iframes.

The heater rides in at 91 miles an hour, belt-high and straight, giving Orioles hitter Matt Wieters a good view of what looks like a strike in the making. As it reaches the plate, it dives toward the ground. No mortal can say for sure whether the fastball from Angels pitcher Jered Weaver would have grazed the imaginary border of the strike zone, located at Wieters' knees. But umpire Kerwin Danley has called "strike" on two previous close pitches. Wieters swings, awkwardly. His slow roller ends the inning.

The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to pay Maryland $913,424 for ads behind home plate at Oriole Park at Camden Yards , settling a dispute over a form of stadium advertising that did not exist when the team negotiated its lease two decades ago. The Maryland Stadium Authority voted Tuesday to approve the terms of a proposed agreement that calls for the payment to be made over five years in installments of $182,684.80, starting this fall. The agreement must be approved by Maryland's Board of Public Works.

The white, stretch limousine was 66 feet long, another way to say that leg room was not a big problem. The windows were frosted, presumably so people outside could not peer in at the leg room.There was a moon roof, a privacy partition, a television and, in the back seat, a fully equipped bar.Late yesterday afternoon, this luxury car had an unusual job: Pick up a home plate.Baseball paraphernalia seldom rides in such comfort. But this was a special occasion. As part of yesterday's final-game ceremonies, the Orioles announced they would uproot the plate at the stadium and plant it again in Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

DALLAS - Frustrated in their search for free-agent pitching help, the Orioles are considering assisting their pitchers by moving home plate at Camden Yards closer to the backstop, according to club sources. No decision has been finalized, according to club officials, but one must be made in the next several days as renovation of the field approaches a critical stage. Drainage tiles already have been installed beneath the outfield and are scheduled for installation beneath the infield this week.

Melvin Mora hopped on one foot to grab a plate of food in the Orioles' clubhouse yesterday, making sure to keep the left one, with an ice pack attached to it, from touching the floor and grimacing from the pain radiating from the right. Across the hallway, Los Angeles Angels catcher Mike Napoli leaned on a pair of crutches, his left foot encased in a walking boot after X-rays didn't reveal any broken bones. Napoli had to be carried off the field. Mora limped away - the only victory he could take from his high-impact slide at home plate that produced the game's final out in the Orioles' 4-3 loss to the Angels before an announced 25,058 at Camden Yards.

She came from Florida, carrying her late husband's remains and determined to grant him his final wish. When Lana Blefary learned yesterday that Memorial Stadium has been all but torn to the ground, it changed nothing. If Curt Blefary wanted his ashes to be sprinkled at home plate, then she would see it done - even if the old ballpark on 33rd Street has become a fenced-off demolition zone. "I'm going to get in there one way or another," she said yesterday, biding her time at a campground in Anne Arundel County.

Up until the ninth inning, it was a great game, and TBS provided coverage worthy of it. As I said in my review of Friday night's wildcard game, the broadcast team of Ernie Johnson on play by play and Cal Ripken and John Smoltz as analysts is a winner. Johnson's easygoing style creates a solid and steady baseline that allows Ripken and Smoltz to concentrate on taking viewers inside the game. Smoltz was especially sharp Sunday in explaining how C.C. Sabathia managed to keep the Orioles off balance at the plate all night.

The heater rides in at 91 miles an hour, belt-high and straight, giving Orioles hitter Matt Wieters a good view of what looks like a strike in the making. As it reaches the plate, it dives toward the ground. No mortal can say for sure whether the fastball from Angels pitcher Jered Weaver would have grazed the imaginary border of the strike zone, located at Wieters' knees. But umpire Kerwin Danley has called "strike" on two previous close pitches. Wieters swings, awkwardly. His slow roller ends the inning.

The rain held off, and the heat kicked down 10 degrees or so Friday evening, giving everyone at the Ripken Baseball Complex a chance to enjoy the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Cal Ripken 12U Major 70 World Series, a nine-day, international tournament that has been held in Aberdeen for the past 10 years. Beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, the 16 teams taking part in this year's competition paraded onto the field at Cal Sr.'s Yard and were introduced. The team closest to home was Harford County's championship squad, while the International Division's Australian team had traveled more than 10,000 miles to play.

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters knows the San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey well. They competed against each other in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as Wieters went to Georgia Tech and Posey starred at Florida State. They attended the Johnny Bench ceremony together as two of the nominees for the nation's top catcher award. They were both drafted fifth overall, one year apart, and made their major league debuts amid enormous expectations. So Wieters' initial reaction when he saw highlights of Wednesday's collision at home plate between Posey and the Florida Marlins' Scott Cousins, which resulted in the Giants' backstop suffering a fractured bone in his left leg and sustaining ligament damage in his ankle — injuries that may end his season — was one of empathy.

All ballplayers have one. Mark McGwire had "Welcome to the Jungle," Chipper Jones famously uses "Crazy Train" and Mariano Rivera still enters Yankee Stadium to Metallica's "Enter Sandman. " Entrance songs can be mellow, combative, sometimes inspiring. During those 10 seconds when batters are walking to home the plate or pitchers are making the minute-long stroll to the mound, this is the song that'll blast from the speakers to motivate and pump them up. At Monday's home opener, the Orioles will be announced to a fanfare of hip-hop, country, even Scandinavian house music.

June 22, 1962: Boog Powell became the first Orioles player to hit a home run over the hedge at Memorial Stadium. The ball landed 469 feet from home plate.

Right-hander Jake Arrieta, who was sent down after four excruciatingly erratic starts with the Orioles, pitched well in his first two starts for Triple-A Norfolk. Last night, his third start with the Tides did not go quite as well. The 27-year-old took the loss after allowing five runs, four of them earned, and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings. One of those runs came when Buffalo's Anthony Gose straight up stole home plate on him. Here's the video: Your browser does not support iframes.

The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to pay Maryland $913,424 for ads behind home plate at Oriole Park at Camden Yards , settling a dispute over a form of stadium advertising that did not exist when the team negotiated its lease two decades ago. The Maryland Stadium Authority voted Tuesday to approve the terms of a proposed agreement that calls for the payment to be made over five years in installments of $182,684.80, starting this fall. The agreement must be approved by Maryland's Board of Public Works.

NEW YORK - -He didn't even turn around to give it a courtesy glance. Orioles reliever Jim Johnson figured there was no point in doing that. So as soon as the ball left Hideki Matsui's bat, flying toward the right-field seats, Johnson put his head down and started his slow walk off the field, oblivious to the New York Yankees that had started to gather at home plate. "I knew as soon as he swung the bat, it was out of there," Johnson said. "There's no sense in turning around. Game over."