Homer

ATLANTA -- It's not every day that a World Series game-winning home run takes second place in a family's athletic accomplishments, but that's the price you pay when you're married to an Olympic gold medalist.Ed Sprague, a Toronto Blue Jays reserve catcher, will forever be known as the man who got the hit that gave a foreign country its first win in the World Series, as his ninth-inning, two-run blast to left boosted the Jays over the Atlanta Braves, 5-4, last night.But Sprague's homer off Jeff Reardon doesn't even make first place at home.

Yesterday's fan-aided home run may have seemed familiar to Orioles fans with good memories. On Aug. 15, 1993, much the same thing happened at Yankee Stadium.That day, the Orioles lost to the New York Yankees, 1-0, on a homer by Don Mattingly to right field in the eighth. Mattingly hit a fly ball that was caught by Tim McKenzie, a 16-year-old fan from Durham, Conn., who reached over the wall. McKenzie prevented right fielder Mark McLemore, who had leaped, from making a play.When asked if he could have caught the ball, McLemore said: "Yes.

TORONTO -- What's one pitch between friends?Last night at the SkyDome, it proved to be not only worth an All-Star Game MVP award but a loss as well.It was one pitch --a hanging breaking ball thrown by Montreal's Dennis Martinez to former Baltimore teammate Cal Ripken Jr. -- that swayed the outcome of the 62nd All-Star Game. Ripken's three-run homer to deep centerfield erased a one-run deficit and propelled the American League to a 4-2 victory."You just can't make a mistake with him," said Martinez, an Orioles teammate of Ripken's for six years.

Mike Stirn, a 32-year-old carpenter from Sykesville, tried to buy a $20 commemorative Cal Ripken baseball at last night's historic baseball game at Camden Yards. They were sold out.But in the bottom of the sixth inning, a ball Ripken hit for a home run bounced into his lap, and Stirn became an instant celebrity."I've been to about 80 games this season, and I haven't had a ball come within 10 feet of me," said Stirn, a season-ticket holder.A man approached him within minutes and offered him 25 crisp, new $100 bills.

If you play baseball for a living, here's the guy you want to be right now: Luke Scott. Forget the 0-for-3 he took in the Orioles' 3-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday. Scott is dialed in at the plate. Look at all he's been through. Last week, he's on the disabled list with a badly bruised left shoulder. He can't move his arm without wanting to scream. Now he's Babe Ruth, only without the hot dog habit, since he's a health nut. Here's the guy's numbers since coming off the DL: 8-for-18 with six homers, seven runs scored, 14 RBIs.

Brady Anderson jogged off the field after the fifth inning.He already had hit two home runs on the night that the player who has taught him the most about baseball, a player who is one of Anderson's closest friends, achieved a milestone.The home runs didn't matter. What mattered as Anderson jogged off the field was the ball in his glove.Game No. 2,130 was official, and Anderson had made the inning's final putout."I didn't realize at the time I had the ball in my glove," Anderson said.He discovered the ball when he got to the dugout.

Washington.For many centuries, the West derived its martial ethic from a book. Homer's ''Iliad'' celebrated combat in close quarters, between symmetrically armed adult male warriors, on neutral ground, far from women and children. Individuals' virtues, such as strength and bravery, not differences of weapons, were decisive. Hence the Homer's disdain for the bow: ''My way is not to fight my battles standing far away from my enemies.''But long-range killing -- by gun, bomb, missile -- became approved almost as quickly as it became possible.

He knew it was gone the moment it left his bat. No question.And the sigh of relief probably could be felt in the outer reaches of the upper deck.Cheers have greeted Bobby Bonilla's every move since he joined the Orioles Saturday. They turned into unbridled euphoria in the fifth inning last night at Camden Yards when he rocketed a pitch from Toronto's Ed Hurtado into the bleachers in right-center field, an estimated 414 feet. The three-run blast gave the Orioles a 9-6 lead and gave those in attendance another reason to scream their approval.

E. Homer White Jr., a former speaker pro tem of the Maryland House of Delegates and Democratic state senator from the Lower Shore, died Sunday of pneumonia at the Salisbury Center Genesis Eldercare. He was 87 and a lifelong resident of Salisbury.Mr. White was first elected to the General Assembly in 1947 and served until 1969, when he resigned to become assistant director of the state Department of Motor Vehicles field services division on the Eastern Shore.In 1974, he was elected to the state Senate and served a single term.

It was a game of errors, pickoffs and bloopers until Brad Tyler struck a blow everyone understood.The Bowie second baseman hit a two-run, seventh-inning homer off Jose Lima to end the futility, and the Baysox held on to beat the London Tigers, 5-2, last night before 3,057 at Memorial Stadium.Both teams had four errors, and two London runners were picked off and another was cut down at the plate in the middle innings.Tyler was batting .176 with no homers in July after being chosenthe Orioles' minor league player of the month for June.