Knee

Blast forward Tim Wittman isn't exactly thrilled today, despite picking up an award for being the team's Player of the Quarter.Monday, he'll undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, which is to keep the All-Star sidelined from one to six weeks."

The Blast, in a fight for its playoff life, will lose veteran midfielder Billy Ronson today, possibly for the rest of the regular season.Ronson, 35, who has been off his game most of the season, was to undergo knee surgery today. Blast doctor Joseph Ciotola was to perform the operation on Ronson's right knee to determine whether the problem is, as suspected, a partially torn meniscus cartilage that would sideline Ronson for three weeks.The problem, however, could be a cyst in the back of the knee pinching the tendons.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Walt Weiss sat in a folding chair in the Oakland A's clubhouse yesterday and watched one tape replay after another of the Ellis Burks slide that took him out of a double play, the remainder of the American League Championship Series and most likely the World Series. The longer Weiss watched, the louder his knee throbbed and the more certain his fate seemed."The doctors tested my [left] knee today and found a sprained medial collateral ligament," Weiss said softly. "They pretty much said playing any more this year is doubtful, but we'll wait for a week or so and reassess.

Designated hitter Harold Baines, who had appeared in seven of the Orioles' first eight games, will be out of action for at least the next several days because of persistent soreness in his left knee.Baines underwent a magnetic resonance imaging on the knee after the Orioles returned from the six-game trip to Seattle and Texas. The test was negative, but he received a cortisone shot to reduce the inflammation before last night's game."It had been bothering me for seven or eight days, but I could play with it," Baines said.

Even if Major League Baseball resumes in time to celebrate Opening Day 1995, fleet Orioles right fielder Jeffrey Hammonds might not be in the lineup.Seeking to stabilize a right knee that troubled him throughout much of the 1994 season, Hammonds underwent anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery yesterday in Birmingham, Ala.Hammonds, 23, tore the ACL six years ago playing high school football and never had it repaired, which essentially caused the...

Tim Wittman, the Spirit's No. 2 scorer and most versatile player, will undergo reconstructive surgery on his right knee and miss the rest of the season.The extent of Wittman's injury, suffered during Sunday's win overthe Cleveland Crunch, was determined by a magnetic resonance imaging test at Union Memorial Hospital. He has a torn anterior cruciate ligament.Dr. Les Matthews will do an arthroscopic exploratory exam tomorrow and then perform major reconstructive surgery in about three weeks.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Right fielder Jeffrey Hammonds is as curious as everybody else. Like Orioles fans, he wants to know whether his surgically reconstructed right knee will hold up under the stress of playing every day."I can practice making cuts," said Hammonds, who arrived at camp yesterday for his first workout of the spring. "But when I do that, I know which way I'm going to go. . . . I won't really know how my knee is going to do until I play, because I can't plan those moves."Hammonds' anterior cruciate ligament was rebuilt on Oct. 11. The knee was examined by Orioles team doctor Michael Jacobs on Thursday and he was cleared to practice, without limitation.

East Brunswick, N.J. -- She asked him to bend his surgically repaired right knee, and he grew agitated. Fresh off a nearly three-hour drive from Baltimore, he turned to his father and told him they should find another place to resurrect his major-league baseball career.So began the patient-therapist relationship between Orioles .star-in-waiting Jeffrey Hammonds and HealthSouth physical therapist Leslie K. Marcks.Weeks later, Hammonds' mood has kept pace with the condition of his knee. It's getting better all the time.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- California Angels closer Lee Smith, suffering from swelling of his surgically repaired right knee, was placed on the 15-day disabled list yesterday.Smith, the all-time saves leader with 471, injured his knee stepping into a hole while on an off-season hunting trip in Louisiana. He underwent surgery to repair the patella tendon Nov. 12 and has not regained the form that enabled him to save 37 games last season.Team medical director Lewis Yocum drained fluid from Smith's knee yesterday and he was placed on the DL for only the second time in his 17-year career.

A 13-year-old boy was struck in the knee by a bullet yesterday as he walked up the steps to a grocery store in Southwest Baltimore, city police said.Southwest District police said the boy was climbing the steps to Jimmy's Food Mart in the 2100 block of Hollins Street about 12:40 p.m. when he heard several shots and felt pain in his right knee.The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was hit once in the knee and taken to University Hospital, where he was in good condition last night, police said.