Major League

After their first face-to-face talks in more than a month yesterday, the Orioles and Major League Baseball still don't have an agreement on financial protections for the team in the face of competition from the Washington Nationals. MLB president Bob DuPuy met with Peter Angelos for almost four hours yesterday at the owner's Charles Center law offices. "This is not like you broke my window and you pay me $40, with people screaming at each other," DuPuy said. "These are complicated issues.

Sports fans around the world must have trouble understanding the petulance expressed by various Major League Baseball team officials about their players' participating in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. That's because in the rest of the world, there is no higher calling than playing for your national team. I saw this firsthand during the years I was The Sun's correspondent in South Africa. The local cricket team was one of the powers in the equivalent of the country's major leagues, but regularly its top players were stripped to head to India or Australia or the West Indies for one the national team's three-month road trips.

NEW YORK - Major League Baseball and its players association said yesterday they will each donate $5 million to a relief fund to help people affected by last week's terrorist attacks, and the unions of other sports have also pledged help. The MLB-MLBPA Disaster Relief Fund will be in addition to donations made by individual players and teams. Players, other on-field staff, league and union employees and fans can also make contributions to the fund. And the National Hockey League Players Association announced yesterday it would donate $500,000 to help the families of police and firefighters killed in the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

At today's Major League Baseball draft, the Orioles' first selection will be an all-conference college pitcher named Bert Simmons. Simmons, a knuckleballer who lives in Woodlawn, won't be haggling with the club over a multimillion-dollar contract. He is a throwback to the days when men played the game for love, not money. There's a maturity about him that's unparalleled in baseball. The reason? Bert Simmons turned 84 last month. Simmons is one of 30 former Negro leagues players to be honored today by being selected in a ceremonial draft before the real thing.

Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki apparently didn't have an ounce of trouble adjusting to life - and baseball - when he arrived in the United States last year. If anything, it was opposing pitchers who found themselves suffering from culture shock. Ichi-mania infected baseball fans all over the country as Suzuki led the Seattle Mariners to a 116-win season and was named American League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player for a performance that included the AL batting title and a major-league rookie record of 242 hits.

It started with boos as the fans saw Orioles manager Dave Trembley point to his bullpen and realized Brad Bergesen's successful major league debut was over. But when Trembley took the ball from Bergesen and the 23-year-old pitcher started accepting congratulations from teammates, the applause began, culminating in a standing ovation for Bergesen, who disappeared into the dugout without even a tip of the cap. On what Trembley had billed as a big night for the organization, Bergesen allowed three runs, only one earned, in 5 2/3 innings, and the Orioles broke a five-game skid with a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox in front of an announced 14,801.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain teamed with House members yesterday to unveil the toughest legislation to date aimed at forcing big league baseball, football, basketball and hockey players to submit to the same rigorous anti-steroid regimen as Olympic athletes. McCain and the Clean Sports Act of 2005's House sponsors predicted swift congressional action. "I am confident we will be able to move this in a timely fashion," the Arizona Republican said at a news conference. Added Rep. Mark E. Souder, an Indiana Republican: "Watch how fast it can move without steroids and amphetamines in Congress.

Almost as if he's required to be quirky, given that he's a left-handed reliever and it's practically law, Orioles closer George Sherrill keeps every memo and sheet of paper distributed by the team. Rather than taking a quick glance and tossing them in the nearest trash receptacle, he tapes one edge to the next and hangs them at his locker, creating the impression that he's more interested in saving trees than games. Sherrill has performed this one-man crusade against waste since his days in Winnipeg, where a guy apparently can learn a lot more than how to stay warm and not surrender his dream of pitching in the majors.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -The latest Orioles star of the future went through his first official major league workout yesterday, and Brian Matusz freely acknowledged that he felt like the newest kid on the block. "It's pretty overwhelming," he said as he prepared to take the field. "I don't really know what's going on yet, but I'm kind of excited to figure out the schedule, meet people and get settled in. Right now, it's pretty exciting. I'm just trying to take everything in, meet as many people as I can and have fun with it."

The Orioles have lost so often and in so many ways in recent years at Rogers Centre that squandering myriad offensive opportunities and blowing a late lead like they did to the Toronto Blue Jays in Sunday's 6-5 defeat seem rather pedestrian. These Orioles, though, are seemingly a creative bunch, and they added a new wrinkle Sunday afternoon: Allowing their former top pitching prospect to hit the first homer of his big league career in a game-changing moment. With the Orioles clinging to a one-run lead in the seventh, starter Tommy Hunter served up a 400-foot-plus shot to Adam Loewen, the Orioles' first-rounder in 2002 who is making his comeback as an outfielder after elbow injuries derailed his mound career.