League Club

JUPITER, Fla. -Orioles manager Dave Trembley could not have come up with a better compliment for minor league shortstop Blake Davis, who had just delivered another solid performance in a roster competition he has no chance to win. "If Davis didn't have 82 on his back, you'd think he's a major league player," Trembley said after yesterday's 3-2, 10-inning exhibition loss to the Florida Marlins, "and he is a major league player as far as I'm concerned....

It's an experiment that's still playing out, an independent baseball league in which the maximum player salary is $15,000 and there's more fun generated from the concept than anyone thought possible. Welcome to the Atlantic League, where the Aberdeen Arsenal holds forth. Bill Ripken, director of baseball operations for the new club, said the idea far exceeds his fondest hopes and believes future acceptance is assured. Crowds have been conspicuous by their absence, but that can change.

Selection of the one city that has all the prerequisites for being awarded a National League baseball expansion franchise is easy. It's Washington, where a game so proud to proclaim and parade as the national pastime has too long denied itself a position of prestige in our nation's capital. Surveys and inspection tours aren't necessary.Washington also has three irrefutable advantages the other contenders -- Denver, St. Petersburg, Miami, Orlando and Buffalo -- can't even begin to include in their resumes:* An available open-air stadium, seating 56,572.

If you're one of the Orioles skeptics who has been sitting at home the past two months waiting for the wheels to come off this suddenly competitive team, it looks like it might be time to shake your head condescendingly at all the cockeyed fans who had started to believe this season could really be different. The Orioles entered Wednesday night's series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays still clinging desperately to a piece of first place in the American League East, but they have undergone a discouraging metamorphosis over the past 10 days that has left them looking again like the divisional lightweight they have been for too long.

In addition to one of the most curious decisions ever handed down by the baseball commissioner's office, Fay Vincent also issued a classic understatement yesterday."

Orioles left-hander Brian Matusz's five-inning, one-run outing on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers continues to make this spring battle for the No. 5 rotation spot tight with less than two weeks to go in big league camp. On Tuesday, Matusz was very aggressive in pounding the strike zone. Both Matusz and Buck Showalter agreed that Matusz probably was too aggressive and needed to try to bury a couple more sliders while ahead in the count to keep hitters off balance.

SALISBURY -- Three years ago, Joyce Dunn didn't know baseball from backgammon. She couldn't tell a line drive in the gap from a routine pop-up to center field, a cutoff throw from a drag bunt.That was before the Shorebirds came to town, before the Wicomico County elementary school principal volunteered to become a combination housemother, booster and Section 115, right-behind-the-dugout, season-ticket zealot for a couple dozen ballplayers she calls "the boys."Yes, "the boys" all dream that the grueling 15,000-mile season of bus rides to bush-league parks in six states will eventually pay off with a shot at baseball's big time.

The 26 major-league baseball clubs have pulled out of this year's winter meetings in Los Angeles because of a contractual dispute between Major League Baseball and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.Major League Baseball officials announced Wednesday that they would not take part in the annual meetings, scheduled for early December in Los Angeles. Instead, MLB is attempting to set up an alternate major-league meeting at another site -- probably Dallas or Chicago.The meetings traditionally have been a joint venture, at which the NAPBL plays host, but the winter meetings gain national attention largely because they have long been the hub of trading activity.

The Comcast Network will televise 15 games of the three Orioles minor-league affiliates based in Maryland, beginning Saturday when the Salem Avalanche visits the Frederick Keys at 7 p.m. An arrangement with CN8 includes six Bowie Baysox games, including two on the road, five Keys games and four Delmarva Shorebirds contests. The three teams are owned by Comcast-Spectacor, which is affiliated with CN8. The schedule: May 12-Salem at Frederick, 7 p.m.; 13-Salem at Frederick, 1 p.m. June 23-Bowie at Reading, 7 p.m.; 24-Bowie at Reading, 7 p.m. July 7-New Britain at Bowie, 7 p.m.; 8-New Britain at Bowie, 1 p.m. August 20-Winston-Salem at Frederick.

With another day of batting practice and infield drills behind him, Orioles second baseman Jerry Hairston said he'll go on an injury rehabilitation assignment next week before hopefully returning to the active roster in September. Hairston, who underwent surgery May 23 to repair a fractured bone in his right foot, projected that he would report to a minor league affiliate by next Thursday, but none is home until the next day. Executive vice president Jim Beattie confirmed that Hairston wouldn't begin playing until after the Orioles conclude their series against the Yankees in New York on Monday.