Older Brother

Quote: "They will take a piece of my heart with them when they tear down this place."-- Hank Aaron on Milwaukee's County Stadium, which will be host to its final home opener today when the Brewers take on the Cubs in expected 30-degree temperatures.It's a fact: The Cubs avoided a potential 900th all-time loss to Cincinnati when the game was postponed by rain. They are 926-899 in the series.Who's hot: The Giants' Barry Bonds had two doubles, going 2-for-3 to raise his average to .412.Who's not: Expos right fielder Vladimir Guerrero committed two errors against the Brewers.

An Anne Arundel County judge sentenced a Laurel man yesterday to life in prison for the Valentine's Day 1995 shooting death of Angelia K. Hamilton, 22, a mobile telephone store clerk -- a murder for which police and prosecutors say there is no motive.Judge Clayton Greene Jr. ordered the sentence to run consecutively to the life term the murderer, Shaun J. Holman, 26, is serving for other crimes.The sentence was harsher than prosecutors had asked for when they sought a plea agreement with Holman.

FOR MOST OF HER almost 7 years, Susannah has been a kind of demilitarized zone for my children, her across-the-street neighbors.She - and her parents and older brother - moved in when she was just a week old and she was a newborn curiosity to my son and daughter, who were just 7 and 5 then. But babies are boring after about 10 minutes, and Susannah did not show up on their radar screens for almost two more years.By then, my Joe was her Joe. He was 9 years old, but he must have looked to her as if he'd stepped down from Mount Olympus instead of from across the street.

An 8-year-old Carroll County boy who shot himself in the head Saturday with a handgun he got from a closet at his home died yesterday at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a spokeswoman there said.Karen Infeld, the spokeswoman, said Christopher Jenkins of Old Hanover Road in the Silver Run area north of Westminster died at 5: 25 p.m. in the pediatric intensive care unit at Hopkins.State police at the Westminster Barracks said Christopher's parents, John and Shellie Jenkins, were at work in Westminster shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday when Christopher unlocked a master bedroom and got a .25-caliber handgun from a closet.

They raised the roof in the right-field bleachers yesterday. Naturally, Eric Davis was there to lend two hands.A day long-anticipated but never completely assured came to pass when the Orioles right fielder reclaimed his position for the first time since undergoing June 13 surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his colon.The long journey that has included chemotherapy treatments and the loss of an older brother ended when Davis jogged to the Camden Yards outfield at 1: 32 p.m. and swam freely within a wave of appreciation.

Neil Reagan,88, the older brother of former President Ronald Reagan, died Wednesday of heart failure in Los Angeles."We will miss him terribly," Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, said in a statement. Mr. Reagan, the former president's only sibling, mostly kept a low profile during his brother's two terms in the White House.He was born in Tampico, Ill. When Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College in Eureka, Ill., he encouraged Neil Reagan to join him. The older brother graduated with a degree in economics in 1933 and married Bess Hoffman in 1935.

INDIANAPOLIS - The telephone call came earlier this week. It was long distance, and one of Sydney Johnson's big brothers was on the line.Steve Johnson was not calling from Baltimore, where they spent much of their childhood. He was in Belgium, where he plays pro basketball. "One of the things he told me was, 'You're going to beat UCLA like we beat Duke,' " Sydney Johnson, Princeton's point guard and captain, said yesterday. Steve Johnson played on the California team that upset two-time defending champion Duke in the 1993 NCAA tournament, and that game was on Sydney Johnson's mind in the wild, waning moments of Princeton's 43-41 victory over last year's national champion Thursday night at the RCA Dome.

The boy loves games of chance. He loves slot machines and playing cards and instant-win lottery tickets. He learned at an early age to count coins, and to bet them. He learned in the hospital that money comes in get-well cards.Michael Hirschbeck learned to play gin in the hospital, too. His father taught him, during the long weeks of waiting, between the chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant and seizures and pneumonia and days when he was too sick to even eat a cup of ice chips. He never asked a lot of questions, even the day his parents told him he had the same disease as his older brother, who was already dying, and that it would take his baby sister's bone marrow to save his life.

A man charged with robbing a Dash In food store Monday morning falsely identified himself as his older brother when he was arrested, county police said.Timothy Lee White, 34, who has no fixed address, was charged '' with making a false statement Wednesday.His brother went to the Western District station after reading his name and address in a newspaper article about the robbery, police said.The older brother showed his driver's license and birth certificate to prove his identity, police said.

A 44-year-old Jessup man, who served about four months in jail for stabbing his brother to death in July 1991, is accused of a crime spree earlier this year that included two armed hold-ups and knifing a man.Johnny Lee Mouzon of the 7300 block of Wye Avenue in Jessup is being held without bond at the Howard County Detention Center, charged with attempted first-degree murder and a variety of other crimes. Howard County District Court Judge James N. Vaughan yesterday postponed Mouzon's bond review hearing on the recent charges to give him time to consult with a lawyer.

The Clark twins, Travis and Tyler, are described by Hammond baseball coach Mike Lerner as "dramatically" different from each other in personality, but quite similar in nature when it comes to baseball. "Travis is more boisterous, more vocal," says Lerner, "while Tyler is more reserved. But they both play the game with the same intensity and dedication." Tyler, a first baseman, is batting .353, with two doubles and two home runs, and has yet to strike out. Travis, a right-handed pitcher, is hitting .500, with four doubles, four home runs and is 2-0 on the mound with 16 strikeouts in 10 innings.

UMBC's Jeremy Blevins is the little goalie who comes up big in big games. He isn't flashy and doesn't make daring dashes down the field. He isn't spectacular in the goal, but solid. But at crunch time, there isn't a better goalie in the country. "It's not his save percentage that wows you; it's the important saves he makes at the most important times that are the most impressive to me," Maryland coach Dave Cottle said. Cottle should know. Blevins had 11 saves in UMBC's 9-8 triple-overtime win over Maryland on March 14. The Terps had a fast-break opportunity on Blevins in the first overtime, and Blevins made the save.

Nathan Kraisser is a freshman at Centennial High School who has already become a standout in the Eagles' wrestling program. According to Wrestling 411.com, he is the No. 9-ranked wrestler in the country at the 103-pound weight class and is ranked No. 1 in his weight class by the Maryland State Wrestling Association. "His work ethic sets him apart," said Centennial coach Dave Roogow. "I've never seen a kid at this age work as hard as he does. Last weekend, he went through a two-day tournament Friday and Saturday in which he made it all the way to the finals, and I'm almost positive he wrestled at a local club on Sunday.

By now, you are probably savoring memories of a traditional Thanksgiving holiday spent dancing to disco hits, swimming in the frosty Atlantic and hang gliding off huge sand dunes. Huh? Well, my parents have spelled "vacations" a-d-v-e-n-t-u-r-e for as long as I can remember, so this range of strange is normal to me. A brief review of my vacation memories reveals my earliest one: my dad pulling off the road somewhere in upstate New York when he saw a hand-lettered sign that read "Piper Cub Ride's $40."

City police were investigating two overnight homicides yesterday, including the stabbing of a 17-year old boy allegedly at the hands of his older half brother, a police spokeswoman said. The two brothers, one age 17 and the other 27, got into an alcohol-fueled brawl outside their mother's house about 3:42 a.m. in the 3700 block of Liberty Heights Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, Officer Nicole Monroe said. At one point, their mother tried to break up the fight, but she was unsuccessful, Monroe said.

Nearly a week after six masked gunman forced their way into a Catonsville home and three days after the teenage brothers they kidnapped were dropped off at Baltimore County police headquarters, authorities say they are no closer to answering the most basic questions about the incident - including whether the alleged crimes they are investigating actually occurred. Although the teenagers spoke briefly with detectives Friday afternoon, Stephon Blackwell, 16, and his 15-year-old brother, Sterling Blackwell, declined to tell officers anything other than their identities and that they were "alive and well," said Cpl. Michael Hill, a county police spokesman.

The intense search for two brothers who police said were abducted earlier this week as part of a home invasion ended yesterday, when a relative brought the teens to Baltimore County police headquarters in Towson. The teenagers were quickly ushered into interviews with detectives seeking answers to the most basic questions surrounding the case: Who were the six masked men who burst into a home on a quiet suburban block? What happened during the eight-hour siege? And where were the teenagers the last few days, as authorities at all levels of government frantically searched for them?

The Marriotts Ridge football team, in its second year of varsity play, has grown up immensely this season. After coming away with just one win in their inaugural season, the Mustangs closed out this season at 6-4. Senior quarterback Kevin Seker is a microcosm of the team's growth. Seker, who says he is on the shy side, knew he had to step up and take charge with his play on the field and voice as a leader. Seker, who attended Centennial his freshman year, was reluctant to come to Marriotts Ridge when the school opened in 2005, but now he said it was the best thing for him. Also a guard on the basketball team, he is a self-proclaimed sports junkie.

A 27-year-old Annapolis man was recovering at Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday after he was stabbed three times in the stomach while trying to save someone from being beaten in Charles Village. The stabbing is the latest in a string of violent assaults in the neighborhood that borders the Johns Hopkins University and is known for its colorfully painted townhouses, busy restaurants and active community association. The victim, Nathaniel Treat, had been at a Hampden bar called Rocket to Venus with his older brother and a friend early Thursday morning.

Family says excessive force by police killed bipolar man A mentally ill Middle River man died Friday night after police, responding to a domestic violence call, fired on him with a Taser stun gun, officials said yesterday. Ryan Lee Meyers, 40, of the 4000 block of Keeners Road, was shot with the weapon after he refused police orders to drop a baseball bat, authorities said. Meyers briefly continued fighting after being stunned but then went into cardiac arrest, according to Baltimore County police.