Magic Number

The Ravens' running-back-by-committee approach has helped the unit join some elite company in the NFL this season. The New York Giants' Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward became the fourth pair in league history to each rush for 1,000 yards. The Carolina Panthers' DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart became the fourth duo to each score 10 rushing touchdowns in the same season. The Ravens became the only team in the NFL to have running backs who have collected 900 (902 by fullback Le'Ron McClain)

ISOSCELES, OBTUSE, scalene and the ever-popular right-angle. Whatever their form, triangles were the name of last weekend's games on Centennial High's ample playing fields. And the winners were likely teams that made this kaleidoscopic soccer geometry work best. For a place with so much soccer, last weekend actually provided a first for Howard County, a "3v3" tournament, meaning three players on a team in a fast-paced game using significantly modified rules. And, while it was the fourth such annual affair for metropolitan Baltimore, the event conducted by the Soccer Association of Columbia-Howard County almost predictably drew a record number of teams, 204 -- up from 180 a year ago when the Soccer Club of Baltimore ran it in Parkville.

At 50, golden tan and wearing an olive-drab jumpsuit, Israeli desert boots and not much makeup, Lauren Hutton is still spectacular.The essence of this is that she looks precisely her age -- albeit with exclamation points appended to it. Her face is the same as always, with a few more character lines."

DETROIT -- The Baltimore Orioles dealt a severe blow to the pennant hopes of one team Thursday and last night they put another on the canvas.After rallying for a dramatic victory over Boston in the second game of a doubleheader, the Orioles rode a five-RBI outburst by Cal Ripken to a 9-7 conquest of Detroit and left the Tigers' elimination from the American League East pennant race almost a foregone conclusion.Whatever faint chance the Tigers nurtured disappeared when Ripken knocked home two unearned runs in the eighth inning and pushed the Orioles into a three-run lead.

There are no shortcuts in the NFL, which is why it has taken Dick Vermeil three years in each of his refurbishing projects to produce a winner. In Philadelphia, the Eagles ended an 18-year playoff drought in 1978 - Vermeil's third season as coach. In St. Louis, the Rams leaped from perennial loser to Super Bowl champion in 1999 - his third season. And this year - Vermeil's third with Kansas City - he has the rejuvenated Chiefs in position to end a five-year postseason drought. Yesterday's 17-10 victory over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium was further evidence that Vermeil has a gift for resuscitating downtrodden football teams.

As a pickup line, "I'm Joba Chamberlain" certainly beats "I've lost my number; can I have yours?" And, according to a young man who apparently enjoyed a fruitful summer on the Jersey Shore, the pitcher's pitch helped him hit home runs. Ryan Ward, a 29-year-old unemployed resident of Asbury Park, bears a resemblance to the New York Yankees' pitcher. So he started telling people that's who he was. To hear him tell it - to the New York Post, no less - it was great to be young and a pretend Yankee, especially when it came to women.

TORONTO -- When the New York Yankees began plotting their strategy for this weekend's series against the Toronto Blue Jays, it was based on two elements.wanted to, but then I settled down."Until beating Seattle, 1-0, on April 6, Leiter had not won a game in the big leagues since 1989. He spent most of the intervening years rehabilitating from two shoulder operations."To be able to win a game at this time of year, in an important series makes it very special," said Leiter. "But as far as my biggest win, I'd have to say it was that game in Seattle.

The chip on Rudy Gay's shoulder grew last night. For nearly an hour, the 19-year-old from the suburbs of Baltimore sat at Madison Square Garden and waited for his name to be called by commissioner David Stern at the NBA draft. There was speculation that the Toronto Raptors might take him with the No. 1 pick, and Gay twice worked out for the Charlotte Bobcats, who had the No. 3 selection. Among maybe the most level crop of prospects ever seen in a single draft, however, Gay was the odd man out until the Houston Rockets took him with the eighth pick.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Just one more. The Blast beat the Kansas City Comets, 20-18, at Kemper Arena last night, reducing its magic number to make the Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs to one. A Blast win or a Cleveland loss will ensure the fourth-place Blast a spot in the postseason. Putting this one in the win column at first looked like it might be easy. But it was anything but simple, with the Comets - who lost for only the second time at home this season - rallying from large deficits to take a late lead.

Neil Sweren's office was misidentified in an article last week. He is the owner of American Home Loan Inc. in Pikesville.The Sun regrets the error.Neal Sweren began to notice it several weeks ago."People like to hear the number seven in interest rates. Mid-sevens is where people really start gearing up for refinances," said Sweren, of American Home Mortgage and past president of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers.Although it may not be like the refinancing boom that swept through in 1993, when 30-year fixed mortgage rates dipped briefly below 6 percent, the steadily and slowly declining interest rates this summer have begun to fuel another round of refinancing.