League Officials

IT'S HARD to develop a fan base when the league has only one superstar. It hard to market the league when the national headquarters was until recently in, of all places, Canton, Ohio. It's tough to draw media attention when the league doesn't have a national television contract. Welcome to the National Professional Soccer League, home of your Baltimore B-L-A-S-T! "I love the indoor game, and I still get a kick out of it," said Ed Hale, who became owner of the team for a second time in the spring of 1998.

On a cool, clear day made for football, Art Modell was laid to rest. Just 12 hours after the Ravens won their opener, 44-13 over the Cincinnati Bengals, more than 400 people - including quarterback Joe Flacco, running back Ray Rice and linebacker Ray Lewis - gathered at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation to pay homage to Modell, the team's former owner, who died at 87 on Sept. 6. "Art was a special guy who did so much for the game and community," said Flacco, adding that the Ravens were inspired by Modell's spirit Monday night.

The man at the center of the Baltimore Urban League's financial crisis is a study in contrasts: a dynamic leader who cared about his community, but who could not keep the organization from financial disaster. Roger I. Lyons' acumen and experience in the world of nonprofit social organizing brought millions of dollars to the Urban League. Yet he was nearly fired in 1994 when questions arose about use of his League credit card for personal expenses. Now the organization is desperately seeking a $600,000 to $700,000 bailout and Lyons, the group's president, has been asked to resign by Wednesday.

The NBA would like yesterday's sentencing of former referee Tim Donaghy to 15 months in prison to put a cap on one of the most unsettling episodes in the league's history. But despite what league officials might wish, that's just not the case. There is still the matter of the results of the league's own investigation - the Pedowitz Report, named after former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, who is conducting the probe - into how Donaghy managed to get away with providing inside information to gamblers and evade NBA detection for so long and whether there is any substance to concerns that games refereed by other officials were somehow compromised.

The game of baseball lost a great coach and community worker Wednesday when James Marc Rickels of Sykesville was fatally struck by lightning after a Little League game, friends and league officials said yesterday."

The Laurel Football Association has enrolled in the Maryland Football Association, ending a dispute with the Anne Arundel County recreation department over the falsification of player documents. In January, the county's Department of Recreation and Parks threw the association out of its league. County officials said association board members, coaches, parents and players repeatedly falsified documents over the past two seasons. The county blamed league officials. Laurel appealed the decision to the county Board of Appeals, was rebuffed and filed a second appeal with the recreation department.

The Carroll County Men's Softball League helped lead the fight for the Carroll County Sports Complex.Now it has decided to leave after playing there just three years.Its governing board announced Friday night the league's intentionto play elsewhere this season.The primary reason, officials said, is a planned $20 per hour lighting fee. League teams voted, 19-3, last week to leave the complex.The new fee means teams would have to pay about $40 per per game instead of the $12 field preparation fee per doubleheader last year.

The Major Indoor Soccer League has changed the format of its championship round to land a date on ESPN2. The round was scheduled to have a best-of-three format, but it will change to a home-and-home, two-game style. That will allow ESPN2 to televise the second and decisive game of the final round on Sunday, April 30, at 1 p.m. If the two teams split the first two games, the champion will be determined by a "golden goal" session at the end of Game 2. The higher-seeded team usually chooses to have Game 2 at home in case that overtime session is needed.

CHICAGO -- Richie Phillips, the Philadelphia lawyer who represents the Major League Umpires Association, yesterday filed an unfair labor practices charge against the American and National leagues.Phillips said league officials are planning to lock out the umpires, beginning Opening Day, until a contract agreement is reached, and replace them from a pool of 200 amateurs."We're very, very far apart," Phillips said. "There is hope, assuming they want to get serious and work out a deal. But if they're intent on a lockout, there is no hope."

The NBA would like yesterday's sentencing of former referee Tim Donaghy to 15 months in prison to put a cap on one of the most unsettling episodes in the league's history. But despite what league officials might wish, that's just not the case. There is still the matter of the results of the league's own investigation - the Pedowitz Report, named after former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, who is conducting the probe - into how Donaghy managed to get away with providing inside information to gamblers and evade NBA detection for so long and whether there is any substance to concerns that games refereed by other officials were somehow compromised.

A last-minute decision to bar 17-year-olds who register as unaffiliated or independent from voting in nonpartisan contests such as Howard County's school board election has angered and embarrassed county League of Women Voters officials. "I find this so outrageous, I'm beside myself," said Grace Kubofcik, a league co-president, who has been visiting county high schools to encourage 17-year-olds to register before the 9 p.m. Tuesday deadline. Some registered as independents, knowing that they would not be able to vote for a presidential candidate in the Feb. 12 primary if they didn't choose to be either Republicans or Democrats.

New York --On Tuesday morning, the czar of the NBA looked as close to sick as anyone had ever seen him. Staggering to the podium. Surrounded by league officials. Stripped of the arrogance and self-assuredness that normally accompany his every word. But to know David Stern is to know one thing above all else: Someone will pay dearly for this. You don't spend nearly a quarter-century transforming a league into a multibillion-dollar industry only to watch it potentially disintegrate amid an alleged gambling and point-shaving scandal involving a referee and do nothing.

Another NFL player - this time, the Ravens' B.J. Sams - got busted the other day, but don't worry about it leaving any taint on the league's reputation. When all is said and done, the NFL's image will remain pristine. Meet the league's most valuable employee, its executive vice president in charge of Teflon. There has to be someone with that title in the league offices, right? This has been the Year of the Knucklehead in America's favorite sports league, but its position remains utterly unchallenged, while every other sport pays for player misbehavior in dollars and credibility.

The Major Indoor Soccer League handed down the stiffest penalty in its history yesterday when it extended the suspension of Blast coach Tim Wittman for two more years and fined him an undisclosed amount. League officials had already suspended Wittman for the rest of this season two days after the March 18 incident at the end of a Blast-California Cougars game in Stockton, Calif. Wittman allegedly had physical contact with senior game referee Terry Mashino and penalty box attendant Rob Planette at game's end. Wittman was arrested on battery charges and then released on his own recognizance at the site that night.

The Major Indoor Soccer League has changed the format of its championship round to land a date on ESPN2. The round was scheduled to have a best-of-three format, but it will change to a home-and-home, two-game style. That will allow ESPN2 to televise the second and decisive game of the final round on Sunday, April 30, at 1 p.m. If the two teams split the first two games, the champion will be determined by a "golden goal" session at the end of Game 2. The higher-seeded team usually chooses to have Game 2 at home in case that overtime session is needed.

THERE ARE SOME Baltimore fans who believe the NFL has a conspiracy against the Ravens. It's not true, but the league doesn't do the Ravens any favors, either. It's all about image. The Ravens are a small-market team. They have an outspoken coach who has criticized officials, and their star player was once accused of double murder in Atlanta. The Ravens have the reputation of being big trash talkers, and if the Oakland Raiders are Public Enemy No. 1 in the NFL, the Ravens are 1a. So when the league announced that the Ravens were going to play in the first playoff game Saturday against the Tennessee Titans after playing in the last regular-season game Sunday night, Ravens coach Brian Billick wasn't surprised.

If, as Maryland officials allege, Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke sought to keep Baltimore out of the NFL, it would violate the nation's antitrust laws, according to an attorney with a strong record of winning such cases against the league."

The Major Indoor Soccer League handed down the stiffest penalty in its history yesterday when it extended the suspension of Blast coach Tim Wittman for two more years and fined him an undisclosed amount. League officials had already suspended Wittman for the rest of this season two days after the March 18 incident at the end of a Blast-California Cougars game in Stockton, Calif. Wittman allegedly had physical contact with senior game referee Terry Mashino and penalty box attendant Rob Planette at game's end. Wittman was arrested on battery charges and then released on his own recognizance at the site that night.

RAVENS OWNER ART Modell was watching Sunday night when New Orleans Saints receiver Joe Horn made a choreographed cell-phone call in the end zone to celebrate a touchdown. Modell expected a delivery truck to arrive at midfield within the next 30 minutes. "I was waiting for the pizza man to hand out one with cheese, and one with all the goodies. Why not? Anything can happen out there these days," Modell said, laughing. And then his laughter was replaced by silence. "It has become a three-ring circus out there," said Modell, who has owned the franchise for more than 40 years.

The Laurel Football Association has enrolled in the Maryland Football Association, ending a dispute with the Anne Arundel County recreation department over the falsification of player documents. In January, the county's Department of Recreation and Parks threw the association out of its league. County officials said association board members, coaches, parents and players repeatedly falsified documents over the past two seasons. The county blamed league officials. Laurel appealed the decision to the county Board of Appeals, was rebuffed and filed a second appeal with the recreation department.