Javier

Burbank, Calif. - He has walked down the red carpet with Kid Rock, been a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards, filmed a skit with Jimmy Kimmel, been asked for autographs by celebrities, been a guest on Jay Leno's show, served as honorary bell ringer at the New York Stock Exchange and is rehearsing for his role as this week's host of Saturday Night Live. So what has made the biggest impression on Michael Phelps as the record-breaking Olympic swimmer continues his fish-out-of-water victory parade around the globe?

Featuring a showdown between two of the county's top three scorers, last night's Oakland Mills-at-Howard game generated much anticipation,But Howard senior forward Javier Michaux, who entered averaging a team-high 22.3 points and 9.9 rebounds, led a team effort with 26 points and 10 rebounds in a 73-60 win over the Scorpions (5-4, 1-1)."It really was a team effort," said Howard coach Kevin Broadus, whose Lions improved to 4-6, 1-1. "Javier stepped it up, as did the whole team on defense. We finally played for four quarters and that's what we need to do and haven't been doing."

Spanish League teams cut Sampson, ColemanRalph Sampson, who had been hoping to work himself into shape for another shot at the NBA, was cut yesterday by Unicaja Ronda of Malaga, Spain.Sampson, who played earlier this season with the Washington ** Bullets, is one of several Americans who will be missing from the Spanish League playoffs this weekend.Ben Coleman (Maryland) was released by FC Barcelona after leading the team to the quarterfinals of the European Cup, and forward Harold Pressley (Villanova)

What to do, when everything has been taken from you but your pride and your anger? That's the central challenge of Mondays in the Sun, Spanish director Fernando Leon de Aranda's carefully textured look at a group of laid-off shipbuilders struggling with ... well, struggling with just about everything. Javier Bardem (Oscar-nominated for Before Night Falls) is Santa. Three years ago, he and his fellow shipbuilders staged a massive strike rather than accept cutbacks in their workforce, and the price they paid for that principled action was high.

Quote: "I don't know what he was thinking. I don't know what I was thinking. I was trying to do my pitch. I wasn't surprised about anything. He just came after me, so I said, 'Let's go!' It's part of the game." -- Expos pitcher Javier Vazquez about Pirates' Aramis Ramirez.It's a fact: Padres right-hander Andy Ashby, who is 8-1 in his past nine decisions, has beaten Cincinnati three times this season after starting his career 0-8 against the Reds.Who's hot: Atlanta's Tom Glavine on the road.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Mike Mussina has had cleaner starts and Lee Smith smoother saves than the ones they earned Friday night at Oakland Coliseum.Still, they counted.Mussina earned his 14th victory and Smith his 31st save as the Orioles held on to defeat the Oakland Athletics, 5-4.Mussina threw 133 pitches, survived three foul home runs and one real one, matched a career-high with six walks, struck out two and had only one one-two-three inning.Mussina (14-4) allowed four runs in eight innings and Smith stranded a runner on second to earn the save.

FOOTBALL Class 3A East semifinal: Atholton @ North Harford WHEN -- Friday, 7 p.m. OUTLOOK -- The visiting Raiders, coming off a 48-27 victory over Hammond, earned the fourth seed in the region after a 7-3 regular season. They will be up against the top-seeded Hawks (9-1), who have averaged 26.8 points per game, led by QB Dan Griffin. The Raiders will try to control the clock with a running game led by senior Kelechi Odocha. Class 2A South semifinal: McDonough @ No. 1 River Hill WHEN -- Friday, 7 p.m. OUTLOOK -- The Hawks (10-0)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In Boston in 1948, the saying regarding the Braves' two-man pitching staff was "Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain."Regarding the '95 Orioles: Mussina and Brown and Then They Go Down.Neither Mike Mussina nor Kevin Brown pitched yesterday, and the Orioles did go down, in an embarrassing 9-6 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Embarrassing because the Orioles' pitching staff, if that's what it can be called, walked 14, tying a club record set in 1968.They walked at least one hitter in seven of eight innings.

From the oval-shaped windows of an airplane, Maryland looked enough like Belize that for a moment, teenagers Andrea and Javier Bosch forgot about the lush landscape and glittering beaches of their Central American homeland. "As we arrived it was like `Wow,'" Javier Bosch said. "It's very green here, and coming from Belize, that's what we are used to." Beginning today, however, the 19-year-old twins will realize how different their lives will be at their home for the next four years: the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Nearly as old as opera itself, the colorful, tuneful Spanish genre known as zarzuela, a mix of music and spoken dialogue, has enjoyed almost four centuries of popularity in Latin countries but has made only modest inroads elsewhere. Placido Domingo, whose parents were zarzeula stars, champions the art form whenever and wherever he can. Being general director of the Washington National Opera certainly helps in that cause. Domingo heads the cast in an entertaining production of Federico Moreno Torroba's Luisa Fernanda that opened Saturday night at the Kennedy Center.