Official Scorer

Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo isn't committed to running out the same lineup for every game, with a surplus of outfielders giving him enough options that the look can change almost nightly. Who figured that David Newhan would become a constant? After fighting to make the team as a utility player in spring training, Newhan has relinquished his seat on the bench and started five of the past six games. He started in left field again Friday night for the series opener against the Los Angeles Angels and hit his second homer of the season.

This week"Give us any rough weather, but, please, no rain," George Barker of Joppatowne said the other day while sighting in his .50-caliber Lyman Great Plains front end loader in preparation for Saturday's opener of the Maryland muzzleloader season.The recent modern firearms season was marred by moderate weather, and primitive weapons buffs will settle for any conditions that won't interfere with efforts to keep their powder dry. Snow would be nice, ditto for freezing temperatures, but no rain, thank you."

Lara Hall's husband, Jay Hood, recently bought her diamonds for her birthday — baseball diamonds, printed on the pages of a vintage scorebook from the 1960s. The book, an unused Houston Colt .45s scorekeeping manual, cost Hood about $5 on eBay. For a scorekeeping fanatic like Hall, it was the perfect present, and she's been using its empty pages to keep track of the Orioles this season. "It's super fancy," said Hall of the book, noting that it has a detailed diagram of the field on the upper-left corner of each page and a row especially for the number of players left on base, an oddity for scorebooks . Many of the book's pages are now marked with a jumble of lines, letters and numbers that might be indecipherable to the average fan. To some, buying a program and tracking the game has become a less essential part of the ballpark experience in this age of smartphones and scrolling scoreboard statistics.

The 17-inning marathon between Cleveland and Minnesota last Sunday, won by the Indians 10-9, was an official scorer's nightmare. To wit:* The game lasted six hours, 36 minutes, the longest in terms of elapsed time in the history of each franchise.* A total of 47 players participated, 24 for Minnesota.* The two teams combined to use 17 pitchers (Minnesota nine, Cleveland eight), who threw 590 pitches.* A total of 132 baseballs were used.* Twins second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was 1-for-8 and left eight runners on base.

Braves: Walt Weiss led off the game with a bloop single. He began the game in an 0-for-14 slump and with only four hits in his last 40 at-bats. Chipper Jones has four lifetime homers in 28 at-bats against Bobby Jones.Brewers: The official scorer in Monday night's game, who had charged a two-base error to center fielder Marquis Grissom, changed his mind and charged it to right fielder Jeromy Burnitz. Gregg Jefferies' fly ball fell between them in the eighth inning.Cardinals: Ray Lankford struck out twice and passed Mark McGwire for the team lead in that category with 83. The paid attendance of 31,183 was the smallest crowd at Busch Stadium since May 12.Cubs: Chicago is 4-1 against the Pirates this season, but 82-150 at Three Rivers Stadium overall.

Girls basketball New Town's Tucker sharp from field in U.S. rout of Venezuela Jannah Tucker (New Town) had 17 points in 15minutes, including 3-for-4 from 3-point range, in helping the United States overwhelm Venezuela, 114-32, on Wednesday and advance to the medal semifinals at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Merida, Mexico. The United States (3-0), Group B's No. 1 seed, will face Group A's No. 2 seed, still undetermined, Friday. Colleges Navy hires former Terp Letts as wrestling assistant coach Three-time NCAA qualifier and 2011 All-American Mike Letts has joined the Naval Academy wrestling staff.

Weak bats After scoring four runs on seven hits in six innings against defending Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana on Monday, the Orioles mustered just four runs and 12 hits in their next 21 innings against Twins pitching. The team is hitting a collective .192 in 99 at-bats. Mistakes The Orioles made one error in their first two games - although the official scorer could have charged three more against the club. In Game 3, they committed three. Third baseman Melvin Mora booted a grounder, center fielder Corey Patterson threw a ball wildly and left fielder Jay Gibbons dropped a high foul pop. Gomez gets in Infielder Chris Gomez started at first yesterday, becoming the last position player to start a game this season.

COLLEGE PARK--Joe Krivak, still Maryland's football coach, strode into the room with the smile of a man who had just signed a new contract.But he hadn't."

An Orioles official attempted to contact Padres president Larry Lucchino on Friday for clarification on the status of San Diego general manager Randy Smith, two sources have indicated.Lucchino, however, has not returned the phone call, and probably won't until tomorrow. Club officials in San Diego say the Padres want to get through the last weekend of the regular season before reaching some sort of resolution with Smith, who turned in his resignation last week.The Orioles sought permission earlier in September to interview Smith as a possible successor to general manager Roland Hemond.

How to keep score On the giant board at Camden Yards, the score of the game isn't the only number in lights. There are numbers of runs, the percentages of outs to hits and lots of other statistics. But how do those numbers get there? Saturday, come find out what all those numbers mean at the "Scoring Made Official" program at the Sports Legends at Camden Yards museum. The museum will host Jim Henneman, lead official scorer at Camden Yards and former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America.