Mechanic

Lola M. Baxter, a retired telephone operator and receptionist who greeted guests at the WMAR television studios, died of complications from a broken hip Aug. 26 at Gilchrist Hospice Care of Howard County. She was 101 and had lived in Towson. Born Lola Marie Annen in Baltimore, she lived in the 2900 block of Greenmount Ave. in Waverly and could recall how the International League Orioles played their games immediately behind her family's home at old Oriole Park. She told her children that she watched Babe Ruth play baseball there.

Performance Bicycle 6455 Dobbin Road Columbia, 443-283-1410 www.performancebike.com     What's in store: Focus, a German brand just entering the U.S. market, is part of the store's large inventory of road, mountain and hybrid bikes. Plus gear, clothing and sports nutrition. Each bike comes with free lifetime adjustments. Hidden gem: the Spin Doctor in-house repair shop. Chief mechanic Paul Gobat has 30 years of expertise.

Leo Francis Dudek, a retired mechanical engineer and decorated World War II veteran who was active with the Catholic War Veterans of America, died Sunday of pulmonary fibrosis at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Dundalk resident was 85. Leo Francis Dudek, the son of a crane operator and a cannery worker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Canton. After graduating from Patterson High School in 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Stationed at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, where he served with the 24th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group.

Edward T. Kusterer, a retired mechanical engineer and World War II veteran, died April 4 of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 94. Mr. Kusterer was born in Richmond, Va., and moved to the city's Pimlico neighborhood in 1918. He was a 1934 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School. He was working as a bank teller at the old Maryland Trust Co. on Eutaw Street when he was drafted in 1941 into the Army Air Corps. After being commissioned a second lieutenant, he joined the 99th Bomb Group, 346th Squadron in Oran, Algeria.

Joseph Michael Gardiner, a retired owner of a mechanical contracting business who was a World War II combat veteran, died of diabetic complications March 28 at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 84 and lived in Taneytown. Born in Baltimore and raised in Riviera Beach, he attended St. Rose of Lima School and the Jacobsville Elementary School in Pasadena. He left Glen Burnie High School at 16 to work at the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard to help support the family.

In an attempt to get more sink on his pitches, Orioles reliever Kevin Gregg and pitching coach Mark Connor tweaked the big right-hander's delivery, getting him to lean forward instead of backward as he released the ball. It hasn't worked. Gregg, who is projected to be the club's closer, threw four scoreless innings before the change in mechanics. In his past two outings, he has allowed eight runs in 11/3 innings. "Tinker with one thing and it messes up another thing," Gregg said.