Pace

The baseball season is no longer young. That can be a hard thing to accept for fantasy players, who've spent the past few weeks thinking their bad choices from draft day will become good ones based on a few twists of fortune. But we're about one-third of the way into the season, and if your team is mediocre or just lousy at this point, it may actually be mediocre or lousy. On the bright side, with more than four months left, few teams are beyond fixing. To begin repairs, we must decide how to value players who have either exceeded or undershot preseason expectations.

So we've reached the point when, if you tell me that Alex Rodriguez is on a pace to hit 62 homers and drive in 171 runs, it actually means something. That's not to say A-Rod's remarkable first half guarantees excellent performance over the final three months. It's just to say that 73 games is a substantial chunk of a season. Even if he plays mediocre ball the rest of the way, Rodriguez will finish with outstanding numbers. So that means we have a large enough body of work on which to pick fantasy All-Stars.

Sitting in his wheelchair a few feet from jurors yesterday, James Bransford Pace pointed twice to the man he says participated in a robbery and shooting in November that left the Broadway dancer paralyzed from the chest down.Nearly a year after the shooting ended his dancing career, Pace testified for about two hours in Baltimore Circuit Court. While his sister, Linda Jett, dabbed away tears, Pace showed little emotion as he recalled being accosted and shot Nov. 27 at Saratoga and St. Paul streets while walking back to his hotel.

In response to criticism that it is too diversified, Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. said yesterday it will simplify its business as its stock price continued to slide.Shares in the Baltimore-based education company have lost 56 percent of their value since February. Sylvan's shares closed yesterday at $15.1875, down $1.3125.Sylvan also reported a $9.2 million net loss in its third-quarter earnings, which it attributed to the impact of disposing of PACE, its corporate consultant, training and professional development firm that suffered declining revenue after Sylvan acquired it in 1995.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. industrial production rose in June, the seventh month without a decline, led by increased demand for automobiles, computers and electricity, according to a report yesterday.Output at factories, mines and utilities rose 0.2 percent last month, capping a 3.9 percent second-quarter annualized increase, the Federal Reserve said. The quarterly pace was the fastest in 18 months and triple the first quarter's rate."U.S. consumer and investment spending has provided a foundation of strength" for manufacturing and the economy, said Tim O'Neill, chief economist with Bank of Montreal and Harris Bank in Toronto.

The trial of a man accused in a November robbery and shooting that left a ballet dancer paralyzed from the chest down began yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court with the presiding judge deciding on two defense motions.John C. Rogers, 31, of the 600 block of Pitcher St. is charged with armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder the day after Thanksgiving.James Branford Pace, 29, of New York, the victim, was in Baltimore to perform in the American premiere of "Jolson: The Musical." He was accosted at Saratoga and St. Paul streets while walking to his hotel, shot in the neck and robbed.

At Emily Adams' ballet studio in Greensboro, N.C., Bran Pace stood out. Not just because he was one of her few male students, or because he was a college-aged beginner, or because of his angelic good looks. He stood out because at the end of class, when all the other students went home, Bran stayed."Let's do it again," he would say.So Emily Adams would stay late too, watching Pace do the steps over and over until he got them just right, working long past the point when other students would give up in frustration, finishing a dance combination only to start it all over again.

Sitting in his wheelchair a few feet from jurors yesterday, James Bransford Pace pointed twice to the man he says participated in a robbery and shooting in November that left the Broadway dancer paralyzed from the chest down.Nearly a year after the shooting ended his dancing career, Pace testified for about two hours in Baltimore Circuit Court. While his sister, Linda Jett, dabbed away tears, Pace showed little emotion as he recalled being accosted and shot Nov. 27 at Saratoga and St. Paul streets while walking back to his hotel.

The Orioles have big games to play this week at Camden Yards, which, if anything, proves how easy it is to have big games to play in 1999.You'd think that two months of losing baseball followed by two weeks of winning baseball wouldn't be enough to put a team in position to think big, but the Orioles were doing just that last night as they waded into a homestand against the Red Sox and Yankees.Coming from behind to beat the Sox on Albert Belle's three-run homer will only increase the size of their dreams.

After hearing testimony that contradicted the state's star witness against a man charged in the shooting of New York ballet dancer Bransford Pace, jurors went home last night without rendering a verdict.They are expected to resume deliberations today before Baltimore Circuit Judge Alfred Nance. Judge Paul A. Smith, who has presided so far, went on vacation today.John C. Rogers, 31, of the 600 block of Pitcher St., is on trial, accused of participating in a robbery in November that led to a shooting that left Pace, 29, paralyzed from the chest down.

A defending champion was overthrown in the men's competition at the Baltimore Marathon on Saturday, and a new event record was set in the women's. Alphonce Yatich of Kenya took first place overall in the marathon with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds - the second-best time in the race's history. Yatich, 25, and Julius Keter - the Kenyan who set the event record last year in 2:11:56 - ran together until about Mile 20, when Yatich took the lead. Keter subsequently dropped out of the race.

WASHINGTON -The pace of job losses slowed considerably during the month of April, adding to hopes that the nation's steep economic downturn may be nearing a bottom. Employers cut 539,000 jobs last month, the fewest in six months and significantly fewer than the 699,000 jobs that had been lost the previous month, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. Still, the job market for Americans is difficult and getting worse. The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent in April, the highest since 1983 and up from 8.5 percent the previous month.

The American wallet is tight but not closed shut. Last week's dismal report on gross domestic product contained the silver lining that consumer spending rose at a decent pace in the first quarter after crashing at the end of 2008. GDP fell at an annual rate of 6.1 percent, but consumer spending increased at a rate of 2.2 percent after plunging at a 4.3 percent pace in the fourth quarter. That's pretty impressive in a period when the stock market fell by a fourth before recovering somewhat.

WASHINGTON - After several months of relentlessly grim economic news, analysts have been looking for any indication that the pace of the economy's deterioration is slowing. Recently, they have had at least some reason to hope. The latest encouraging signs came Wednesday, with the government reporting that orders for machinery and equipment posted surprising gains last month and that more buyers, lured by low prices, returned to the housing market. Orders for durable goods were still relatively weak, and home sales were down 41 percent from a year earlier.

The Ravens aren't expected to kick off the 2009 season at the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, but they could be in line for a season opener at M&T Bank Stadium. There were rumors the NFL would begin this season with Ravens-Steelers, a rematch of the AFC championship game, for its Thursday night game. But the Ravens asked not to be considered for a prime-time game at Heinz Field this season when they submitted their scheduling requests to the league, a team official told The Baltimore Sun. The Ravens have played a nationally televised game at Pittsburgh three of the past four seasons, including the past two years.

It was a moment Jake Pace had dreamed about his entire life. In the first overtime of last year's Class 2A state championship game against Loch Raven, the River Hill midfielder knew he had positioned himself perfectly just inside the penalty area as teammate Tony Riso lined up a corner kick. As the ball curled toward the near post, Pace timed his run through the box to meet it. The Loch Raven defenders tried to clog the penalty area, but they were left helpless as Pace jumped and fiercely headed the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Pace is one of several players in the metro area who has a reputation for making a difference when the game is on the line.

It doesn't take the deepest insight to say that baseball is a surprising, even confounding game. But it's healthy for us as fantasy players to step back every so often and recognize how much the game flips our expectations on their heads. Smart preparation helps in broad strokes, but by June, I inevitably feel that the season has scattered my rational expectations all about. I consider myself a not-stupid observer of the sport. But Milton Bradley, Ryan Ludwick, Nate McLouth and J.D. Drew ranking among the best hitters in baseball?

There are times when it appears that new Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron is being evasive about his plans, but he is in as much flux as some of the personnel he has been shuffling. The move to hire Cameron was one of the most anticipated by the team, and hopefully he can improve an offense that has been one of the NFL's worst during the previous nine seasons. Cameron has been busy trying to put it all together. "Cam's philosophy, the whole thing is built around personnel," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

River Hill junior Jake Pace, a first-team All-Metro soccer player and the county's Player of the Year, has made an oral commitment to play at the University of Maryland. Pace led the Hawks to the Class 2A state championship, scoring a header in overtime to give the team a 3-2 victory over Loch Raven in the title game. Possessing size, strength and ball skills, Pace played on defense, midfield and up front for the Hawks and finished the season with nine goals and nine assists. "We're real happy for Jake and he's real happy - it's real big for the program," River Hill coach Matt Shagogue said.

YORK, Pa. -- Barack Obama's campaign headquarters sits on the edge of downtown York, next to a store selling hip-hop clothing. A few blocks away, Latin music blares from an open window draped with a Puerto Rican flag facing Hillary Clinton's office. Halfway between lies prime real estate that has become the latest reminder of York's troubled racial past. Mayor John S. Brenner wants to erect a statue at George and Market streets as part of an initiative he calls "Healing York," an effort to soothe lingering pain inflicted by a deadly race riot nearly four decades ago. But disagreement over the design is causing damage of its own. At meetings, "people are crying; they're angry," said Adrienne McNeil, a Baltimore County native and executive director of York County Community Against Racism.