Mania

By the time the Kansas City Royals left Baltimore with a four-game series split, they had seen enough of a certain 20-year-old rookie infielder. Orioles third baseman Manny Machado's first four major league games came against the Royals, and Machado was 6-for-16 with three homers and seven RBIs against Kansas City. Five of his six hits were for extra bases  -- three homers, a triple and a double. And after these first four games, you can add the Royals among those impressed with the 20-year-old phenom.

Hours before showtime, 10-year-old Gabrielle Atienza peered through a chain-link fence at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, watching as thousands of Justin Bieber fans streamed onto the grassy racetrack infield. Try as she might, Gabrielle couldn't get tickets to last night's sold-out show — the biggest in state fair history — but she was going to get as close to the teen pop idol as she could, which was at least a football field away. Sporting a Bieber T-shirt, button, lanyard and the words "Justin" and "Bieber" written in magic marker on her cheeks, she and her sister had waited since mid-afternoon in a gap between two hedges at the far end of the infield.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Substitute Orlando Bueso scored on a free kick in the 81st minute as the Richmond Kickers topped the Maryland Mania, 1-0, last night.The loss dropped the Mania to 1-6 going into tomorrow's game against the Lehigh Valley Steam at UMBC. Despite playing the Kickers tight throughout much of the match, the Mania failed to finish any of its nine shots on Richmond goalie Alex Deegan.The Kickers have won 13 of their past 14 home games, and are 6-1 in the Atlantic Division.Pub Date: 6/05/99

Victory wasn't in the cards for the Maryland Mania in its A-League home opener at UMBC Stadium yesterday. With goals in each half, the Charleston (S.C.) Battery won, 2-0.But to Mania players' credit, the performance never approached the disorder some might have feared, especially in wake of the front-office turmoil leading up to and through last week's discordant change of coaches after one game.The Mania brought an announced crowd of 1,104, including soccer-mom Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and her daughter, to its feet with several nice first-half scoring chances.

The Maryland Mania staged a coming-out party at UMBC Stadium last night, winning an exhibition game with the lower-rated Northern Virginia Royals, 3-1.Play was ragged at times, but the Mania, with only a couple of scrimmages played, revealed a pair of quick forwards and a midfield that at times was suffocating."

The Maryland Mania turned over a new leaf yesterday in its brief A-League existence, but except for the positive of playing on real grass in Arnold instead of plastic in Catonsville found only more bad memories.First, the team, obviously dispirited, probably by front-office cash-flow struggles and the departure of a couple of players, came out flat on its new home field at Anne Arundel Community College and lost its fourth 1-0 match.This one really hurt, because it was to the Eastern Conference's other 1-8, last-place team, the Toronto Lynx.

The inability to put away good scoring opportunities plagued the Maryland Mania last night during its 1-0 loss to Lehigh Valley at UMBC Stadium before an announced crowd of 1,133.Mania coach Paul Kitson attributed the new A-League team's third straight loss -- and shutout -- to lack of concentration. "Some changes will be made if players can't get the job done," he said.Kitson was particularly upset about his attack's failure on a scramble inside the Steam's 6-yard box in the 28th minute.

D.C. United, competitively the Western hemisphere's best pro soccer team a year ago, predictably took the Maryland Mania to school yesterday. But given that both teams used the exhibition to try new player combinations, the 3-0 final score adequately reflected play.United scored its three goals off four shots in nine minutes early in the first half before an announced 1,785 at River Hill High School's stadium in Clarksville. And Marylanders played visible roles in each.Marco Etcheverry, last season's Major League Soccer MVP, gave Mania defenders and rookie goalkeeper Brock Yetso (Centennial)

Darryl Gee, the first of several professional players produced by Columbia's youth soccer system, has signed a two-year contract to coach the new Maryland Mania, which will begin play next spring in U.S. soccer's top minor league, the 28-team A-League.The job for the Columbia-based team will be Gee's first coaching position in professional soccer. But his livelihood since his playing years ended in 1991 has come from coaching youth players and teaching their adult leaders in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

The Maryland Mania, the highest-level outdoor pro soccer team from the Baltimore area since 1991, opens play in the A-League tonight against the Raleigh Flyers on the North Carolina team's pitch.Mania players arrived in Raleigh yesterday afternoon in rain and began planning to play their opener on a messy field, as well.The Flyers will be playing their second game, having lost their opener at home to the Jacksonville (Fla.) Cyclones, 2-0."You're never really ready to start, I guess," Mania coach Daryl Gee said yesterday.