I Hit

Quote: "I knew I hit it good when I hit it, but I didn't know I'd hit it that good." -- Padres' Ryan Klesko, whose home run hit the wall of Union Station, beyond the fence of Houston's Enron Field about 25 feet above field level. It's a fact: Commissioner Bud Selig was in Arizona and watched the end of the Suns-Spurs playoff game on a TV in the stands with Diamondbacks and Suns general partner Jerry Colangelo. Who's hot: Dodgers' Gary Sheffield has homered in five of his past seven games while hitting .382.

Police are asking for help locating the driver involved in a hit-and-run incident early Saturday involving a construction worker on Interstate 95. The worker, whose identity was not immediately released, was in stable condition. The worker was installing pavement markings in a closed land when he was struck, an initial investigation found. The collision occurred about 12:15 a.m. on I-95 southbound near exit 50 for Caton Avenue, police said. The driver was in a silver or gold-colored GM sedan or Pontiac Grand Prix with damage to the right side headlamp.

"I just came to have fun and enjoy it, and I couldn't care less where I hit or if I get to hit." Brian Roberts, Orioles' All-Star second baseman on AL manager Terry Francona's decision that Roberts will bat ninth in the starting lineup WHO'S HOT The Braves entered the All-Star break with at least 50 victories for the 10th time since 1991. WHO'S NOT The Diamondbacks have gone 15-28 since they were a season-high nine games over .500 on May 25.

OAKLAND, Calif. - -Aubrey Huff endured five of his balls getting caught either on the warning track or at the wall in Seattle. In the same series at Safeco Field, he hit a shot that was initially ruled a homer and correctly overruled into a foul ball. In Friday's series opener at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Huff watched another potential homer die on the right-field warning track. Frustration ensued after each near miss, but the Orioles' first baseman didn't reach his breaking point until the eighth inning Saturday night, when he had a bloop hit with two men on taken away on a diving play by Oakland Athletics left fielder Matt Holliday.

Brody Kean is one of a host of outstanding juniors on the Eagles baseball team, which came out of nowhere to finish as the county runner-up to Arundel. A pitcher-outfielder, Kean is 4-2 with a 1.60 ERA, hitting .316 and playing good defense in left field. His father, Billy Kean, was an All-County infielder at Andover in the 1970s and went on to play at Anne Arundel Community College and Eastern Oregon State University. Brody's great-great-uncle on his father's side was Hall of Famer Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove of Lonaconing, who was 300-141 in 17 big league seasons.

Senior center fielder Dustin Tarlow leads Westminster in batting average (.429), has four home runs to lead the county, two triples, 16 stolen bases, 14 RBIs and has scored 20 runs. Westminster coach Bryan Harman also coached Tarlow as a 12 year-old on the Carroll County Rangers. "He's a great listener," Harman said. "But I say his work ethic is the main thing. He never stops working to make himself better." Tarlow, a member of the National Honor Society, has a 3.8 grade point average and played on the school's soccer team.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Laura Davies has a special interest in the Lady Keystone Open, this week's LPGA event at Hershey Country Club. She says she'll be able to put her driver back in the bag.Davies, a long-hitting Englishwoman who attracted attention in this country when she won a three-way playoff for the 1987 U.S. Women's Open championship, got off to a mediocre start in her fourth year on tour, but recent events have her in a positive mood.Not only has Hershey CC been one of her favorite courses since winning the 1989 LKO (when she birdied the last three holes)

JUPITER, Fla. - A year ago, the Orioles had to keep Jay Gibbons on their roster or risk losing him. This spring, they can't keep him out of their lineup. No longer tethered by Rule 5 draft rules, Gibbons is beginning to project as more than a bench player for the Orioles. He started again in right field yesterday, stroking a second-inning double in a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Expos. Though his batting average has lagged, his loud at-bats and improved play in the outfield are hard to ignore.

CINCINNATI -- It is not unusual for Jose Canseco and Dennis Eckersley to be the center of attention in the Oakland A's clubhouse.What is out of the ordinary is for those two to be central figures in an agonizing defeat that leaves chances of back-to-back World Championships in peril.Neither Canseco nor Eckersley offered excuses after the A's 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last night. And both admitted the A's were in a difficult, though not impossible, situation."I haven't even had time to second-guess myself," said Eckersley, who gave up three straight singles in the 10th inning.

Orioles pitcher Jason Johnson is following his first victory in eight months with a freakish injury and a trip to the disabled list. Johnson, who ended a streak of nine consecutive losing decisions on Saturday, went on the DL yesterday with a fracture of his right middle finger. He's expected to miss about three weeks. Rather than have Johnson start tonight's series opener in Kansas City, manager Mike Hargrove will give the ball to Sean Douglass, who was recalled from Triple-A Rochester after yesterday's 7-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox. Infielder Brian Roberts was optioned to Rochester, and pitcher Travis Driskill took Johnson's place on the roster.

Brody Kean is one of a host of outstanding juniors on the Eagles baseball team, which came out of nowhere to finish as the county runner-up to Arundel. A pitcher-outfielder, Kean is 4-2 with a 1.60 ERA, hitting .316 and playing good defense in left field. His father, Billy Kean, was an All-County infielder at Andover in the 1970s and went on to play at Anne Arundel Community College and Eastern Oregon State University. Brody's great-great-uncle on his father's side was Hall of Famer Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove of Lonaconing, who was 300-141 in 17 big league seasons.

Senior center fielder Dustin Tarlow leads Westminster in batting average (.429), has four home runs to lead the county, two triples, 16 stolen bases, 14 RBIs and has scored 20 runs. Westminster coach Bryan Harman also coached Tarlow as a 12 year-old on the Carroll County Rangers. "He's a great listener," Harman said. "But I say his work ethic is the main thing. He never stops working to make himself better." Tarlow, a member of the National Honor Society, has a 3.8 grade point average and played on the school's soccer team.

After being selected from the Toronto Blue Jays organization in the 2000 Rule 5 draft, designated hitter-outfielder Jay Gibbons has become the Orioles' second-longest tenured field player behind Melvin Mora. Gibbons hit .277 last season with 13 home runs and 46 RBIs, and played only 90 games because of a knee injury. Does it bother you when people call you injury-prone? -- It doesn't tick me off. People have to understand that I play hard on the field and it's hard to control sometimes, when you go into the wall or something like that, not getting banged up. I've had a couple of injuries the last few years, but hopefully it's past me. What are your best and worst memories during your career in Baltimore?

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last week released its first live downloadable recording -- and, for a brief time at least, was included in the list of top 10 classical downloads on iTunes. The recording, of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps), was culled from concerts in January at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Music director-designate Marin Alsop led the performance, part of a program that celebrated the Peabody Institute's 150th anniversary and featured the BSO and members of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra.

Ashley Marshall, a 5-foot-10 senior, is averaging 11.2 points and 11.1 rebounds and is one of four captains for Joppatowne, which was 13-5 entering the Class 2A East regional playoffs. Marshall has a 3.5 grade point average, is senior class president, senior mentor coordinator, a member of the National Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society and Society of High School Scholars. Which position do you have the most fun playing? The three spot, small forward, because it allows me to go with the rebounds as well as step on the perimeter and take my jump shot.

Defending champion Mexico avoided a major upset yesterday, edging the fourth-seeded Republic of Korea, 3-2, on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning in the single-elimination round of the Cal Ripken 12-and-Under World Series in Aberdeen. Seeking its third consecutive World Series title, Mexico will face another tough opponent today when it takes on the Dominican Republic, an 8-0 winner over Australia, in the international championship game at 1:05 p.m. Oahu, Hawaii, advanced to a third straight United States championship game by outlasting the Bronx, N.Y., 6-3, yesterday.

If you asked Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli, there was little doubt that Chicago pitcher Mark Buehrle was intentionally throwing at B.J. Surhoff in the sixth inning of the White Sox's 6-3 victory at Camden Yards yesterday. "It seemed like he was," said Mazzilli, whose pitchers hit White Sox batters in each of the final two games of the series. "It looked like it was tit for tat. The thing is the first two [White Sox hit] were not thrown at. The third one [Surhoff] was." Plate umpire Brian Gorman agreed with Mazzilli, ejecting Buehrle from the game after he hit Surhoff in the back of his left arm with Sammy Sosa on first and two outs.

"I just came to have fun and enjoy it, and I couldn't care less where I hit or if I get to hit." Brian Roberts, Orioles' All-Star second baseman on AL manager Terry Francona's decision that Roberts will bat ninth in the starting lineup WHO'S HOT The Braves entered the All-Star break with at least 50 victories for the 10th time since 1991. WHO'S NOT The Diamondbacks have gone 15-28 since they were a season-high nine games over .500 on May 25.