Mets

We're waiting a few more minutes to go down to the clubhouse - game time is slightly later, 7:10 p.m., than we are used to in Baltimore - so here are the lineups. Orioles: Roberts 4, Hardy 6, Jones 8, Wieters 2, Reynolds 3, Pearce 9, Tolleson 7, Andino 5, Hunter 1. Mets: Nieuwenhuis 8, Valdespin 7, Wright 5, Duda 9, Davis 3, Murphy 4, Quintanilla 6, Thole 2. Santana 1. By the way, we hope to hear more on Nolan Reimold today - and no one is expecting good news.

Maryland plans to steer to minority and women-owned businesses 29 percent of the nearly $8 billion a year it spends on contracts, increasing a target that was already among the most aggressive in the nation, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said Monday. The new goal - an increase from the current 25 percent - would if attained have a profound impact on boosting minority-owned construction firms, IT contractors, engineers and other companies in Maryland that have historically struggled to land state government contracts, supporters said.

After a deliberate process that stretched nearly two months, the Mets have chosen Terry Collins as the team's next manager, but the team was holding off an official announcement Sunday until the contract details are finished, Newsday reported. Collins emerged from a group of 10 candidates picked by general manager Sandy Alderson , who trimmed it to four finalists, and the Mets have scheduled a news conference for Tuesday at Citi Field. "We've made our decision," a Mets spokesman said Sunday, "and we are working on the terms of a contract.

The dean of Johns Hopkins Medicine met with graduating students Monday about their opposition to neurosurgeon Ben Carson as commencement speaker after his controversial remarks about same-sex marriage. A spokeswoman for Hopkins would not say what was discussed between the students and Dr. Paul B. Rothman, calling the meeting private. Spokeswoman Kim Hoppe said that Carson is still scheduled as commencement speaker and said reports saying otherwise were "speculation. " The meeting came three days after Rothman said in a letter to the Hopkins community that Carson's comments about same-sex marriage were "hurtful" and against the culture of the medical institution.

The Mets will have a new manager and general manager next year, as Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya won't return in 2011. The Mets declined to pick up the option on Manuel's contract Monday and relieved Minaya of his duties as GM, one day after the club finished a disappointing season with a record of 79-83. Manuel posted a record of 204-213 after taking over for Willie Randolph on June 17, 2008. Minaya had been the club's GM since 2005. •The Pirates fired manager John Russell one day after he guided the club to their first 100-plus loss season (57-105)

• METS: Three-time All-Star 2B Luis Castillo was released despite being owed $6 million this season. Castillo, 35, averaged only 105 games in three full seasons with the Mets and hit .235 last year. … RF Carlos Beltran received a cortisone shot in his left knee in response to lingering discomfort. He has played in only one spring training game, at DH.   • DODGERS: 3B Casey Blake might start the season on the disabled list after hurting his back last weekend trying to beat out a bunt.

Even as I rejoice for the hometown Baltimore Orioles, I'm depressed by the play of another favorite team, the N.Y. Mets. Another spring filled with hope, another summer of depressing reality. But there is one bright spot: R.A. Dickey, who is chasing a 20-win season with an improbable knuckleball that was developed late in his career. Dickey, one of the subjects of the new documentary, "Knuckleball!" appears to be a thinker as well as pitcher. He has already written a memoir, “Wherever I Wind Up,” and has a deal to write three children's books.

NEW YORK -- Steve Trachsel (5-4) pitched six effective innings and hit the third home run of his career to lead New York. Xavier Nady hit a two-run homer in the seventh and a bases-empty drive in the eighth for the Mets. Carlos Delgado also had a two-run shot. Trachsel won his third straight decision, allowing six hits.

NEW YORK -- At last, the Mets' co-owners have used the dreaded word that is baseball's synonym for surrender. The word is rebuild."We're here," Fred Wilpon was saying Tuesday as Nelson Doubleday stood next to him, "to rebuild a championship team."It's a start. In their best sincere suits, the co-owners were behind a microphone in the Diamond Club at Shea Stadium, announcing Al Harazin's resignation as chief operating officer, executive vice president and general manager, while acknowledging that Joe McIlvaine is their choice to take over the reconstruction of this fallen franchise.

Are the New York Mets planning to sever one more link to their past by trading Ron Darling, who became the senior member of the team when Darryl Strawberry decamped to Los Angeles?One person who would like to know is Darling, who admitted recently that he was confounded by the Mets' master plan and by his role in it.But he does know one thing: He doesn't particularly want to become part of the dismantling of the old Mets. And he doesn't want to get lost in the shuffle of the new Mets.Most of all, he doesn't want to struggle through another year like 1990, when he lost his job as a front-line pitcher, sat in the bullpen half the time, finished with a losing record, underwent elbow surgery and then went home to wonder.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles hit four homers against the Mets and closed their Grapefruit League schedule with a 7-1 win over the New York Mets. Three of those home runs caught in the wind blowing out in left field, which has been a constant at Ed Smith Stadium this spring. Center fielder Nate McLouth hit two solo homers, including one off the batter's eye in center field to lead off the second inning off Mets starter Dillon Gee. McLouth also hit an opposite-field homer to left in the fifth off Jeremy Hefner , one of three homers the reliever allowed on the afternoon.

Dr. Lorenz E. Zimmerman, the founder of modern ophthalmic pathology, who spent his nearly 60-year career studying diseases of the eye, died March 16 of complications from an infection at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 92. His wife of 53 years, Anastasia U. Zimmerman, a registered nurse who had served as a major with the Army Nurse Corps, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure, also at Blakehurst. She was 89. "Without a doubt, Dr. Zimmerman was the most influential eye pathologist in the last 150 years.

Michael Phelps' latest love interest is 22-year-old Sarah Herndon, according to an interview with the waitress/model from California (the same description as his previous flame, Megan Rossee, whom he dumped just after Christmas). He and Herndon met in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, just before Christmas; fished for lobster in the Bahamas after the holidays and had an evening of sushi and "Zero Dark Thirty" back in Baltimore. Here's a report. By Hugo Daniel For Coleman-Rayner Michael Phelps charmed his latest love interest on a romantic lobster fishing trip - jumping into the water and joking, "This is my home, too, you know.” Sarah Herndon was whisked to the Bahamas by the Oympic champion for a romantic five-day break of fishing, snorkeling and tropical sunsets.

Janet Vance did not feel right around her sister's new boyfriend. And when her sister said he'd been threatening to hurt her, Vance said it was time to call the police. Instead, Lois Jean Vance Smyth promised to stop seeing him. A few months earlier Smyth, then 40, and Kenneth Brunetti had reconnected on Facebook. On May 29, 2011, he lured her to Leakin Park, shot her, left her for dead and stole her car and bank card. "He sat on my couch with my kids, watched my TV," Vance, 42, said, "and he killed my sister.

U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin told members of the House of Delegates Friday that he doubts whether the Congress will meet a March 1 deadline for avoiding automatic federal budget cuts. Cardin, who was in Annapolis to meet with the Baltimore city and Prince George's County delegations, said disagreements between the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-dominated House could prevent lawmakers from agreeing on a deficit reduction plan before that time. The automatic cuts, which would take place under a process known as sequestration would affect both military and domestic programs.

Former Orioles infielder Omar Quintanilla has signed a minor league deal with the Mets, according to a report from ESPNNewYork.com. The Orioles acquired Quintanilla from the Mets in July for cash and he immediately became a contributor at second base, becoming the everyday starter there from late July through mid-August. But as Quintanilla's bat cooled, he made just four starts over the regular season's final six weeks. Quintanilla recorded a .232/.284/.354 batting line with three homers and 12 RBIs in 36 games with the Orioles while providing steady defense at second.

NEW YORK -- Six times. Maybe seven. That's how often New York Mets manager Jeff Torborg lifted his cap and ran one hand over the front of his hairline while waxing optimistic on the Mets' lifeless 5-2 loss to Montreal Expos on Wednesday night. He pursed his lips four times, leaned forward thrice, twice grimaced and -- subject to replay -- glared once, which is particularly significant.This was three days after the post-game dugout shout that followed the Pittsburgh Pirates' sweep, two days after the arms-flailing meeting with John Franco in the outfield and one day after the Mets broke a five-game home losing streak and Torborg conducted his post-game audience while sitting on the front edge of his desk.

To some degree, the 1969 Mets' 27-game improvement was foreshadowed by their losing 37 one-run games in '68, when Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman had made them better than most knew. The teams looking for a lift after not winning their share of one-run games in 2010 include the Tigers (16-26), Cubs (22-32), Red Sox (22-26), Cardinals (20-22) and Angels (24-25). … Lou Piniella 's agreement to work as a special assistant for the Giants is a one-year deal, which will be revisited after the season.

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is asking the council to appoint him to a long-dormant board city officials say is supposed to oversee the city's ethics director. "It is my hope that you will see fit to appoint me to represent this Honorable Body," Young wrote in a letter to fellow council members this week. The seven-member Board of Legislative Reference, which is charged with hiring and potentially dismissing the Director of Legislative Reference -- who also serves as the ethics director -- has not met in years, city officials say. One board member, contacted by The Sun, said he had never even heard of the board.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday the City Council should take the lead on evaluating the performance of the city's ethics director — not an oversight board on which she sits that hasn't met in years. "I really believe the City Council should conduct an annual review ... just like it does with every other agency," Rawlings-Blake said. But City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young said the law is clear that a little-known panel called the Board of Legislative Reference supervises the ethics director, and said he'll take steps to appoint a council member in hopes of reviving the panel.