Maroon

Television 1.America's Got Talent, NBC 2.So You Think Can Dance (Thursday), Fox 3.NBA Finals on ABC -- Game 4, ABC 4.NCIS, CBS 5.CSI, CBS FILMS 1.Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Fox 2.Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Bros. 3.Knocked Up, Universal 4.Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Disney 5.Surf's Up, Sony SINGLES 1.Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z 2.Party Like a Rockstar, Shop Boyz 3.Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin'), T-Pain featuring Yung Joc 4.Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie 5.Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 ALBUMS 1.Epiphany, T-Pain 2.Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna 3.Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney 4.Double Up, R. Kelly 5.It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 DVDS (SALES)

Not only is Vinny Testaverde back in the NFL, but there's also a chance he'll start Sunday for Carolina against Arizona. And there's a further chance that before Sunday is over, we'll have Testaverde, 43, dueling Tim Rattay - two guys who were no closer to the NFL than their big-screen TVs four days ago. So this is how it goes for teams that don't have Brett Favre, Payton Manning or Tom Brady on their rosters. The Panthers' first-string quarterbacks, Jake Delhomme, faces season-ending elbow surgery, and Carolina backup David Carr came away from the last game with a back injury and didn't practice yesterday.

The baseball players aren't the only Orioles being beaten up this year. Even their mascot is under siege.Baltimore police said a spectator shoved the orange-and-black bird off a 7-foot-high platform and onto the right center field warning track toward the end of Tuesday night's game at Camden Yards.John J. Krownapple, one of three people who dress up as the Oriole bird, was recovering at his Columbia home yesterday from a sprained ankle and a bruised shoulder. A 43-year-old Philadelphia man, Louis Gregory Vitaglyano, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

A man with no permanent address died yesterday afternoon at a hospital after being shot on a Northwest Baltimore street. The shots were fired by one of two men who sped off in a car.The two men remained at large last night. Police knew of no motive.Homicide Detective Darrell W. Townsend said Herman Emanuel Ridley, 22, was standing in front of a house in the 1900 block of Ridgehill Ave. in the Mondawmin section of Northwest Baltimore about 12: 20 p.m. when a maroon car stopped nearby.Townsend said one man got out of the car and beat Ridley with his fists.

When Albert Belle used the second three-homer game of his career as a stage to vent his frustrations Sunday afternoon, the Orioles right fielder gave no indication of when he would speak next, only that such sessions would remain uncommon.Belle, who had rebuffed media requests as recently as Thursday in Boston, asked Orioles director of public relations John Maroon to arrange a news conference in the aftermath of the team's dramatic 8-7, 11-inning win over the Anaheim Angels."It was his idea," Maroon said.

As spring training nears for the Orioles, some club officials are up to their ears in audiotape.The number of applicants for the part-time position of public address announcer at Camden Yards is approaching 300, with more cassettes arriving each day postmarked before the Jan. 9 deadline. Spiro Alafassos, director of ballpark entertainment, TTC said he hopes to have Rex Barney's replacement named by March 1, but first comes the process of sorting through the candidates."It's a little steeper than the amount we had envisioned," said spokesman John Maroon.

Of all the things Ray Miller wants to be remembered for in a professional baseball career that began in 1964, this isn't one of them.Though it wasn't his call to end The Streak, he'll forever be known as the manager of record when it happened. Cal Ripken walked into Miller's office 30 minutes before the game and asked to be taken out of the lineup. Miller obliged, and the rest is history.Not long before, Miller had sat behind the desk in his office, twirling a cigar in his fingers and relaying his intentions of starting Ripken for the last week of the season.

The Orioles have begun the search for a new public-address announcer to succeed Rex Barney, who died at his home Aug. 11 after serving as the voice of Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards for 23 years.The Orioles are asking that anyone interested in applying should send an audition tape and resume to P.A. Auditions, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 333 West Camden St., Baltimore, Md. 21201. All tapes must be postmarked by Jan. 9, 1998. Candidates with (( professional voice experience are preferred.

MOUNT AIRY NET organizers are hoping that the Tony Green Memorial Walk/Run is a repeat of last year's successful inaugural event.The fund-raiser is set to begin at 9: 05 a.m. tomorrow at Watkins Park, Route 27, Mount Airy. Participants can begin to register at 8 a.m. The course will follow the newly paved one-mile Richard A. Wilson Trail around the park.Mount Airy NET Secretary and committee Chairwoman Althea Miller estimated last year's attendance at 70, with $600 raised for Mount Airy NET.NET is a nonprofit organization that provides support to those in need and emergency assistance obtaining food, clothing, shelter and other essentials.

Last Thursday's pre-game show appearances by Cal Ripken on the Orioles' radio and television outlets no doubt seemed like your garden-variety discussions with a future Hall of Famer, and in the grand scheme of things, no harm was done to the republic.But Ripken's tour of Home Team Sports and the radio network served as another example of the cozy relationship that exists between just about any club and its broadcasting partners.After a story and column appeared on these pages last Thursday questioning whether Ripken's back injury was hampering his ability to play, the third baseman, who was quoted extensively in both pieces, sought a forum to air his side of the story.

Search-and-recovery efforts for a 13-year-old Maryland boy who disappeared while in the ocean at Garden City, S.C., resumed Friday morning, according to police. The teen had been in the Atlantic Ocean with friends early Thursday afternoon when he disappeared, according to Sgt. Robert Kegler of the Horry County Police Department. Kegler did not identify the boy. But a South Carolina TV station reported that friends had identified him as Lonnie Hill, and that he played for a Greater Glen Burnie Junior Sports League team.

Not only is Vinny Testaverde back in the NFL, but there's also a chance he'll start Sunday for Carolina against Arizona. And there's a further chance that before Sunday is over, we'll have Testaverde, 43, dueling Tim Rattay - two guys who were no closer to the NFL than their big-screen TVs four days ago. So this is how it goes for teams that don't have Brett Favre, Payton Manning or Tom Brady on their rosters. The Panthers' first-string quarterbacks, Jake Delhomme, faces season-ending elbow surgery, and Carolina backup David Carr came away from the last game with a back injury and didn't practice yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- Cal Ripken Jr., who usually avoids the political arena, was named a State Department sports envoy yesterday. He plans to remain politically neutral even as he joins forces with the Bush administration to try to bolster America's image overseas. The former Orioles superstar said yesterday that he didn't accept the unpaid post to make a political statement but rather to work with children from other nations on baseball. He's part of an effort, largely orchestrated by longtime Bush confidant Karen Hughes, to expand the role of athletes in diplomacy.

Television 1.America's Got Talent, NBC 2.So You Think Can Dance (Thursday), Fox 3.NBA Finals on ABC -- Game 4, ABC 4.NCIS, CBS 5.CSI, CBS FILMS 1.Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Fox 2.Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Bros. 3.Knocked Up, Universal 4.Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Disney 5.Surf's Up, Sony SINGLES 1.Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z 2.Party Like a Rockstar, Shop Boyz 3.Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin'), T-Pain featuring Yung Joc 4.Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie 5.Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 ALBUMS 1.Epiphany, T-Pain 2.Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna 3.Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney 4.Double Up, R. Kelly 5.It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 DVDS (SALES)

Television 1.America's Got Talent, NBC 2.Two and a Half Men, CBS 3.So You Think Can Dance (Thursday), Fox 4.So You Think Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox 5.Deal Or No Deal (Tuesday), NBC FILMS 1.Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Bros. 2.Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Disney 3.Knocked Up, Universal 4.Surf's Up, Columbia 5.Shrek the Third, DreamWorks SINGLES 1.Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z 2.Party Like a Rockstar, Shop Boyz 3.Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin'), T-Pain featuring Yung Joc 4.Big Girls Don't Cry, Fergie 5.Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 ALBUMS 1.Double Up, R. Kelly 2.It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 3.Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park 4.Relentless, Jason Aldean 5.Daughtry, Daughtry DVDS (SALES)

Television 1.House, Fox 2.CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS 3.Two and a Half Men, CBS 4.So You Think You Can Dance, Fox 5.CSI: NY, CBS FILMS 1.Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Disney 2.Knocked Up, Universal 3.Shrek the Third, DreamWorks 4.Mr. Brooks, MGM 5.Spider-Man 3, Sony SINGLES 1.Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z 2.Party Like a Rockstar, Shop Boyz 3.Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5 4.Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin'), T-Pain featuring Yung Joc 5.Home, Daughtry ALBUMS 1.It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 2.Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park 3.Black Rain, Ozzy Osbourne 4.Cold Summer: The Authorized Mixtape, Young Jeezy Presents USDA 5.Lies for the Liars, The Used DVDS (SALES)

Woman tries to lure girl, 8 Harford County sheriff's deputies are searching for a woman who is said to have tried to entice an elementary school student to get into her car Tuesday afternoon. An 8-year-old girl, a student at Riverside Elementary in Joppa, was outside for recess about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday when she was approached by a woman who attempted to get the student into her vehicle, said Sgt. Christina Presberry, a spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The student ignored the woman and later told her father, who relayed the incident to school officials, Presberry said.

Grabbing a rake and making a neat pile of scattered thoughts and notes: In a Washington Post column this week, Tony Kornheiser said he was sorry for not being his sarcastic self on ESPN's Monday Night Football. In fact, this past Monday, he was serving as a bit of a pincushion for partners Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann. After Tirico mentioned some of Philadelphia's history, in particular as the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Theismann chimed in: "What was that like, Tony?"

Cal Ripken Jr. says he is happy for John Maroon, now that his longtime publicist is going into business for himself. "It's something that he really wanted to do," Ripken said by telephone, while on a multicity tour promoting his latest book, Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way. Maroon, who recently set up his public relations office in Marriottsville, will continue to handle publicity for Ripken, but he is working for himself now and taking on...

Awards The National Association of Home Builders presented Frank Hertsch, president of Morris & Ritchie Associates Inc., with its Smart Growth Achievement award for contributions in land inventory and development capacity analysis. The Alumni Society of the Pennsylvania State University College of Liberal Arts gave its Service to Society award to Towson attorney Michael C. Hodes for his volunteer activities. Certifications Thomas R. Ogle Jr. has been designated as a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor after successfully completing a course of study and examination.