Jackie Robinson

In Washington Ousted president of teachers union pleads guilty to theft The ousted president of the Washington Teachers' Union pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy and mail fraud in the theft of more than $2.5 million that went for such things as fur coats, electronics and sports tickets. Barbara A. Bullock, 65, said she, her former executive assistant and the union's treasurer took the money from the union from 1995 to September last year. The other two are under investigation but have not been charged, investigators said.

ALTHEA GIBSON has been one of my heroes for as long as I can remember. Tennis was the first sport that I loved when I was growing up, and though Ms. Gibson's tennis career was over well before I knew what "30-love" meant, I can still remember heading off to our Detroit neighborhood playground with the wood racket and can of tennis balls my mother bought me. I spent hours whacking balls against a wall and imagining myself winning Wimbledon just as Althea...

AN ARMY travels on its stomach, a city on the creative passion of its citizens - its small businessmen, its neighborhood volunteers, its gadflies, raconteurs and colorful characters. These are the relatively anonymous dreamers and risk-takers, the opinion leaders who care about neighborhoods, who make opportunities for young people, who help government see the right thing and how to do it. These people honor their convictions even when it brings them pain and setback. They do what they do because they can do no other.

SAM LACY WILL turn 100 years old in the fall, and he's still got plenty to say. So naturally, he showed up yesterday morning at the Baltimore Afro-American, as he has for the past 64 years, to write his sports column and take part in the business of the day: writing not only about games but how they connect to the human conscience. He is, in all fairness, slowing down a little. Until three years ago, when he was a mere 96, Lacy would drive in from Washington in the pre-dawn hours, write his column, and then head out to the links for nine holes of golf.

First-Year Hall of Famers Players who were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility: Player Pos. Year Hank Aaron OF 1982 Ernie Banks SS-1B 1977 Johnny Bench C 1989 George Brett 3B 1999 Lou Brock OF 1985 Rod Carew 2B-1B 1991 Steve Carlton P 1994 Ty Cobb OF 1936 Bob Feller P 1962, Bob Gibson P 1981 Reggie Jackson OF 1993 Walter Johnson P 1936 Al Kaline OF 1980 Sandy Koufax P 1971, Mickey Mantle OF-1B 1974 ...

THE MASTER sat at the head table, barely visible to those who had to look around the pillars in the Designated Hitters' Lounge of the Warehouse at Camden Yards. "Master" isn't the only word you could use to describe Sam Lacy, sports editor and columnist of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper for what seems like forever, but really has only been since 1944. Let's see. There's "legend." Maybe "high priest of sports journalism" would suffice. How about "dean of Baltimore sportswriters"?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - This is a city of broad, white beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, home of America's most famous stock car race and a popular destination for college kids on spring break. But Daytona Beach also stands as a significant site in African-American history, linked to three important figures in the civil rights movement - Jackie Robinson, Mary McLeod Bethune and Howard Thurman. Daytona Beach, settled by Mathias Day in the mid-1800s, was as segregated a town as any other Southern city, with plantations growing rice, indigo and sugar cane.

Sharing images clear as day, Ernest A. Burke seemed to have nothing but good memories of being a Negro Leagues baseball pitcher from 1946 to 1949, playing for the Baltimore Elite Giants. Burke, 77, spoke yesterday near an exhibit on the Negro Leagues at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, a display often on loan throughout the year, museum officials said. "We want to make sure [segregation] never happens again," said John Ziemann, the museum's community outreach coordinator. Burke's conversation cut through his athletic career including the rough patches and the chuckles over techniques for throwing knuckleballs, palmballs, sliders and forkballs.

"You should read Jackie Robinson by Carol Greene. Jackie Robinson played track, football, baseball and basketball. Jackie was poor, but he became famous. When he became famous, he still gave money to his mom. He was so famous, he got into the Hall of Fame. - Marty Miller Jeffers Hill Elementary "Young Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream by Joanne Mattern is about a black man named Martin. Martin grew up in a time when blacks and whites were not friends. He made a speech. In his speech, he said `I have a dream that someday all Americans would be treated equally.

"I read the book Go Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman. I liked it best when they had a party on a tree. P.D. Eastman is my favorite author." -- Victoria Lynn vanDommelen Charlesmont Elementary "Would you eat fried worms? That is what Billy had to do in the book How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. Billy makes a $50 bet with Alan that he can eat 15 worms in 15 days. Billy tries many different things to help himself eat the worms, like adding mustard, ketchup and peanut butter on top. Billy wanted the $50 so he could buy a mini-bike.