Interleague

CHICAGO - Dusty Baker knows all the numbers. He knows the Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. He knows they have never won a playoff series. He knows they lost 95 games last year. He also knows the fans, though he has lived in Chicago only a few months. He knows that all those years of futility have refined in them a strange combination of faith and fatalism. And he knows one other thing: Somebody eventually is going to lead the Cubs back to the summit, as improbable as that may seem.

Who's hot Kevin Millar batted .387 (12-for-31) on the Red Sox's just-completed 12-game road trip. Who's not Athletics starters, after start ing the season 20-9, are 4-11 since May 19. Line of the day R. Hammock, D'backs RF AB ...... R ..... H ..... RBI ..... 3B 5 ......... 3 ...... 4 ....... 3 ........ 2 He said it "He wanted to stay in longer? He had a five-run lead. He could have stayed in there a lot longer if he got them out." Jack McKeon, Marlins manager, on Brad Penny, who complained about being lifted after giving up six runs in 4 2/3 innings On deck Jarrod Washburn of the Angels takes a 6-0 interleague record into tonight's game against the Phillies.

HOUSTON - Orioles manager Mike Hargrove labored over last night's starting lineup for hours, soliciting opinions from several coaches, writing names, erasing them and scribbling them over again. The start of interleague play against the Houston Astros robbed Hargrove's red-hot lineup of a designated hitter, and with everyone hitting so well, he had a hard time sitting anyone. Ultimately, Hargrove decided to stick with Luis Matos in center field, leaving his regular DH, David Segui, on the bench.

The grainy image of Babe Ruth, supposedly calling his home run at Wrigley Field during the 1932 World Series, should get plenty of airplay this week in anticipation of the first regular-season meeting between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs. The three-game series at Wrigley next weekend is what interleague play should be all about -- a modern convenience that allows new-age fans to enjoy a delightful break from the ordinary and grudging traditionalists to relive some of the greatest moments in baseball history.

Barry Bonds says he doesn't use steroids. Never has. Never will. We should take him at his word. Because there is no proof to the contrary, Bonds should receive all the credit he deserves for his terrific career and his amazing home run performance in 2001. But the lingering questions about his dramatically bulked-up physique should prompt the San Francisco Giants' All-Star and every other clean-living baseball player to demand the same thing. Mandatory testing. The steroid controversy that erupted a few weeks ago seems to be blowing over, but it shouldn't.

NEW YORK - The latest buzz created by interleague play will be the loudest this weekend in the Bronx. It will silence the passing 4 train, and perhaps the many detractors of a format that has undergone a significant change this year. For the first time, teams in the American League East will play the National League West, which puts the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camden Yards beginning tonight. What are the chances that images of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale will appear on the video screen, a reminder that the Dodgers haven't been in Baltimore since the 1966 World Series?