Mania

Darryl Gee, the first Columbia-produced player to be successful in pro soccer, was fired yesterday as coach of the Maryland Mania, four days after the new A-League team lost its first game.A. J. Ali, the Columbia-based Mania president, described Gee's departure as "amicable probably best for both sides." The cause, he said, "boiled down to administrative differences."Ali declined to elaborate, other than to acknowledge the dismissal was for a combination of factors on and off the field, among them lack of preparation of the team to play at the A-League level in preseason scrimmages.

The Maryland Mania will make its Baltimore-area debut in the A-League on May 9, Mothers Day, after having played the first league game in its history April 29 in Raleigh, N.C.The home opener for the new, local entry in pro soccer's top minor league will be a 4: 05 p.m. affair against the Charleston (S.C.) Battery at UMBC Stadium, the team's home for at least two seasons.Like all 30 A-League teams, the Mania will play 28 league games in a season that begins on the West Coast on April 9 and ends Sept.

Employees of the U.S. State Department who work abroad are members of the Foreign Service. Or at least the State Department capitalizes Foreign Service . But many journalists do not. And the Associated Press Stylebook  has no entry expressing a preference. As the stylebook editors know, I'm easy. Decide that capitalization merely represents bureaucratic mania for uppercasing as much as possible, and I'm cool with lowercase. Decide that the Foreign Service is a formal division of government deservedly entitled to the dignity of capital letters, and I will fall into line.

MEDAL MANIA As the Summer Olympics enter the final weekend, keep track of who's taking home the medals. For real-time updates and archived coverage, go to www.baltimoresun.com/olympics. REALITY TELEVISION See a video of television critic David Zurawik discussing the fall TV season's abundance of reality shows. www.baltimoresun.com/zurawik

Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker rejected Maryland Mania's plans to build a temporary soccer stadium in Cedar Lane Park yesterday, citing area residents' concerns about noise, traffic congestion and parking.The team had requested a permit to build a 5,000-seat temporary home on Cedar Lane Park's Field 5 for the team's 20 home games. The season would last from April until August, with playoff games the first or second week of September.Since a meeting last month with area residents and team owners, county recreation and park officials say they have received more than 200 signatures, letters and calls opposing the proposed $250,000 stadium.

Astros: Ken Caminiti was 2-for-3 with an RBI single and is batting .386 (27-for-80) with 27 RBIs in the past 20 games.Cardinals: A sellout crowd of 45,536 pushed attendance above 3 million for the fourth time in franchise history, with six home games to go. St. Louis has topped 3 million the past two years because of Mark McGwire mania.

A group of concerned Columbia residents met last night with county officials and the management staff of the Maryland Mania Soccer Team to hear details of a proposed temporary stadium in Cedar Lane Park.Maryland Mania has requested a park permit to play on Cedar Lane Park's Field 5 for one year, beginning next year. Maryland Mania representatives said the soccer season would last from April until August, with play-off games scheduled for the first or second week of September.If the permit is approved, the team would finance the conversion of the field into a 5,000-seat temporary home for the 1999 season.

WHEN BRIAN Kroneberger Jr. gets a call from a client about an Internet stock, the questions are fast and few:"What is it trading at?" "What's the high?" "What's the low?" Finally: "Buy me `X' amount of shares.""There is no rationalization," said Kroneberger, a broker at Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. who often warns clients that Internet stocks can fall as fast as they go up.Despite the risks, Internet stocks are Wall Street's latest craze, and no wonder. In just six weeks, shares of Broadcast.

ON DEC. 31, 1999, when the Dow Jones average closed at 11,497.12, Mrs. Kathy Karpers of Towson, a former schoolteacher, became our contest winner with her forecast of year-end DJ 11,500. Her prediction was made last February, when the Dow hovered around 9,300. Mrs. Karpers and her husband will be dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Ticker at the winner's favorite restaurant, the Brass Elephant. Second place goes to Mark Banfield of Chester Spring, Pa., a financial planner who predicted DJ 11,490.