Office Depot

Moves Baseball MLB: Reduced suspensions of following individuals for roles in incident July 28: Orioles P Willis Roberts from seven to five games, Orioles OF Melvin Mora from four to three games; Red Sox C Jason Varitek from four to three games, Red Sox IF Rey Sanchez from three to two games; and Red Sox pitching coach Tony Cloninger from two games to one game. Suspended Expos P Tomo Ohka six games and fined him $1,000 and suspended Braves P Chris Hammond three games for throwing at batters during game last Saturday; players' association appealed Ohka's suspension.

LAS VEGAS -- Staples Inc., the office-supply superstore chain that recently selected Hagerstown as the site of its largest distribution center, is planning to make another major investment in Maryland, spending an estimated $13.2 million and creating 180 jobs with the development of six new stores this year in the Baltimore-Washington region.Already, the Framingham, Mass.-based retailer has sealed a deal to build a $43 million distribution center in economically depressed Washington County, an 840,000-square-foot project expected to create 700 jobs when it opens in February 1997.

If Nebraska is the nation's breadbasket, Maryland is turning into its storage closet.Dozens of companies are building warehouses from Aberdeen to Landover for staplers, snacks, suits, stereos, magazines, toys, stationery, T-shirts and most anything else you can think of.Merchants have rediscovered what investors figured out 168 years ago when they chartered the Baltimore & Ohio, the nation's first (some say second) railroad: Maryland is close to everything.Starting here, an 18-wheeler can reach a third of the country's people, stores and factories with an overnight run. At Maryland's center is one of the world's great ports.

IN THE CURRENT giddiness, Stanley Fisher rises to the occasion. He is the greatest Bawlamer poet since maybe Hyman Pressman. The way Hymie's limericks once immortalized City Hall types and slippery money, Stanley sings cheery hosannahs to the bookmaker and the beauty shop, the bingo parlor and the Sultan of Swat and, right on time, the champion Ravens. So naturally, Stanley being the hot literary property, he was not to be found at his usual haunts yesterday. At Miller's Deli in the Greenspring shopping center, where he generally matriculates, the regulars said he breakfasted early and headed for the familiar rail at Laurel Racetrack with a few pals.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Office Products Co. said yesterday that it will buy Mail Boxes Etc. for $24.50 a share in stock, or $276.9 million, to expand into retail services aimed at small businesses.The supplier of paper, services and coffee to companies and schools said it will exchange one share of its stock for each of Mail Boxes Etc.'s 11.3 million shares outstanding.The buyer also will convert 1.3 million Mail Boxes Etc.'s employee stock options to its own stock options, it said.U.S. Office Products has expanded quickly by acquiring more than 165 companies in contract stationery, corporate travel and computer network services.

As the news whipped among the gathering of office products retailers, fingers stopped worrying plastic foam cups filled with soda pop, and eyes looked up from note- and scribble-filled pads:The Office Stop chain of "superstores" had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy two days before, meaning that its three Baltimore-area stores would be liquidated."

When an office supply retailer, a boat repair company and a manufacturer of spy-proof computers found their businesses seriously ill and in need of resuscitation, they all took the same action -- they called John M. Collard, a corporate version of Marcus Welby M.D.Mr. Collard is the founder and president of Strategic Management Partners Inc., an Annapolis-based transition and management turnaround company that tries to rescue businesses suffering from such ailments as anemic sales, inadequate cash flow and swelling overhead.

POLICE LOG* Savage: 8800 block of Greenwood Place: Someone kicked in the door of a garage in the rear of the Office Depot store and took an undetermined amount of property between Friday and Monday, police said.

Bibi and Yasser. Whoever would have thought?It is not as easy in Washington as it is in Baghdad and Tehran to distinguish good Kurds from bad Kurds.If four millionaires could sit down and determine who will be the next governor, they would have before now.Staples will acquire Office Depot and the power to close the American in-basket.Pub Date: 9/06/96

A Linthicum woman was robbed of her purse Tuesday by a man driving by her on a Linthicum parking lot, county police said.The unidentified woman was walking to her car on the parking lot of the Office Depot in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway about 6: 30 p.m. when a man drove by, snatched her purse and sped off north on Ritchie Highway, police said.Police LogLinthicum: Someone pried the lock off a construction trailer in the 800 block of Fairview Ave. overnight Tuesday and stole two hammer drills and a telephone.