Playing Field

These geniuses who have come up with a plan to save Memorial Stadium are to be commended. They want to convert the stadium into offices, keeping the playing field as a garden courtyard. Yet, with all due respect to men with master's degrees, I'd like to point out that I barked up this tree first, but with a slightly different woof.In this space seven or eight years ago -- you could look it up -- I suggested turning the stadium into condominiums, a place where people could live in the atmosphere of a nostalgic baseball dreamland.

Biggest blunder: Packers QB Brett Favre throwing an interception from his knees after getting tripped by OG Aaron Taylor in the second quarter. Detroit LB Reggie Brown batted the ill-advised pass once, caught the carom and raced 45 yards to a go-ahead touchdown in the Lions' 26-15 upset.Best performance in a supporting role: Marcus Allen, the 37-year-old RB who serves as Greg Hill's backup and short-yardage runner, brought the Chiefs back from a 10-0 deficit to beat the Seahawks, 20-17, in overtime.

Aparna Wilder began playing field hockey because it was the only sport offered in the fifth grade at Park School, but her connection to the game runs deep.Field hockey is part of her heritage -- on both sides of the family.Her mother Rani Wilder grew up in Bombay where the game's popularity rivals that of football in this country. She started playing year-round as a third grader and once represented her state in India's junior national tournament.Her father's mother Marion Wilder was captain of a Wheaton College (Mass.

WASHINGTON -- On any Wide World of Sports scale, I weigh in as sports-orexic. The sound of football on television strikes my ear like a nail across a blackboard. I can't pick Marcus Camby out of a superstar lineup. I don't even use sports metaphors.So how is it possible that I spent two nights last weekend with my game face on, watching the NCAA Women's Final Four basketball tournament? Who was this woman tuned to ESPN, counting fouls, cheering at turnovers and analyzing point guards?Well, a funny thing happened during my winter sojourn at Stanford.

A lot more opens today at Camden Yards and ballparks around the country than just another baseball season. The Orioles, now settled comfortably in their trend-setting new stadium, will field the strongest team in years. That the club will do so is largely due to its new local ownership. That alone launches a new era for the Birds. And baseball itself is embarking on an era of its own, with three divisions in each league and expanded playoffs. Some fans like the idea, others detest it. But it marks change in a sport that changes very slowly.

Why not build it 50 miles south?Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman announced plans last night to build a 70,000-seat, football-only stadium with a grass playing field that would open for the 1996-97 season.Braman said he would finance construction of Eagles Stadium. He said he had hired Brookwood Corp. of Atlanta to study the feasibility of building it.Construction would begin in January 1995 at one of two sites in South Philadelphia, near the Eagles' current playing field, Veterans Stadium, Braman said.

The ground rules at Oriole Park at Camden Yards:* Foul poles with screens attached are outside of playing field.* Thrown or fairly batted ball that goes behind or under the canvas, also canvas holder, and remains: two bases. Ball rebounding in playing field: in play.* Ball striking surfaces, pillars or facings surrounding the dugout: in dugout.* Ball striking railing around photographers' booths: in play.* No break in backstop screen: ball in play.* Ball left of green stripe on rightfield wall and above lower fence: home run. Ball on or to right of green stripe: in play.

The Baltimore Baseball Club logo from 1892 appears on the ends of all aisle seats, and the batters in the logo will face the playing field.

The TV Repairman:Back in the days when baseball started showing up on television with a little bit of regularity, they placed a camera high behind home plate and bolted it to the floor. It could scan right and left over a course of about 150 degrees. Primitive by today's standards, to be sure, but there was an advantage to that arrangement: The camera showed what was going on on the field.These days, you get the idea if a gamecast director or producer is apprehended showing too much of the action (and inaction)

MILWAUKEE -- When Sal Bando retired after the 1981 season, few people in baseball pictured him stepping into a gray suit complete with suspenders and sliding behind a front-office desk.Yet here he is, the rookie general manager on a team with a rookie manager, catcher and shortstop that suddenly has challenged the leaders in the American League East.The accepted blueprint after his playing days were over called for Bando to stay in uniform, moving from third base to the dugout as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers.

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. - Nearly a year ago, Virginia attackman Steele Stanwick lay on a couch in his Roland Park home watching the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse final four on TV. Occasionally, his mind would drift and he would find himself on the playing field ... Stanwick doesn't have to dream anymore. The former Loyola High star will start Saturday for No. 1 seed Virginia as the Cavaliers play Cornell in the semifinals. Stanwick is the latest freshman phenom to play attack at Virginia, joining a list that includes Michael Watson, Conor Gill, Ben Rubeor and Danny Glading.

Playing your first season at the varsity level is a tough enough proposition for many high school football players. For Bel Air sophomore Steve Hemmig, the learning curve is even steeper. Hemmig, 15, and his teammates will spend all this season and next season on the road while their school and home field are being rebuilt. The Bobcats (2-2 entering this weekend), in fact, recently played their own homecoming game at North Harford. Despite the lack of a home-field advantage, the 6-foot, 185-pound linebacker has flourished, leading his team in tackles.

Sara Naguib, a senior at C. Milton Wright, was born in Egypt and moved to the United States with her family when she was 3 years old. Her family arrived in Doylestown, Pa., before moving to Ithaca, N.Y., where she began playing ice hockey in a girls program. Naguib, who started playing field hockey in middle school, is a midfielder and two-year starter for C.M. Wright's field hockey team, scoring the goal in the team's 2-1 double-overtime loss to Fallston this season. Naguib also plays defense for the Susquehanna Rapids girls ice hockey travel team.

We're inundated with roaring headlines about athletes using performance-enhancing drugs in the major leagues, the NFL, the Olympics, the Tour de France and even high school sports, but what about college football? There's barely a whisper, much less a roar. Something is wrong with that. Are we supposed to believe that football jocks inclined to juicing do so before they get to college and after they reach the pros, but not while on campus? Please. Rumors of widespread steroid use have dogged the college game for years.

The Aberdeen sophomore midfielder gave up playing soccer for field hockey in the ninth grade and became a starter for the Eagles as a freshman, even though she had never played the sport. She has started every game for two seasons and has two goals and four assists this season. Payne also has a 4.0 grade point average. First-year Aberdeen coach Joanne Patton said that Payne brings skill and a positive attitude to the team. What part of the game do you enjoy most? Being on the team and working together to score.

Ellie Cassilly is beginning her third season as a starter at midfield on the Bel Air field hockey team, with the senior being known more for her leadership qualities than scoring goals (one in her career). What do you like most about field hockey? I guess I'm just really a competitive person, and I get really intense on the field. ... I love it. If you weren't playing field hockey, what would you be doing? I would probably be in some kind of club, like the STARS club, which is a drug-prevention group.

IT WAS GREAT to hear that movie ads for Spider-Man 2 will not sully baseball's playing fields, thus averting another national crisis and keeping the sport free forever more from the evil clutches of corporate advertising. Right. C'mon, who are we kidding? Was putting a Spidey image on the bases and on-deck circles really that big of a deal? You would have thought it was a picture of Osama bin Laden they were talking about, from the hue and cry that erupted. You would have thought they just named Saddam Hussein to throw out the first pitch at the All-Star Game.

Last year at DeWees Athletic Field in Northeast Baltimore where youth football games are played, parents had a pre-game ritual. Stooped over with eyes riveted to the ground, they would wander the field collecting shards of glass that littered the football field. "We would walk the field, and we'd get whole bags of glass," said Kevin Tyler, Northeast Youth Association Executive Director. But this year, thanks to a community effort and grants from the National Football League and the city, DeWees in North Baltimore has been transformed from a glass-strewn lot with shin-high grass to an irrigated, manicured playing surface.

Paul Oliver was trotting out to his position when a stranger approached the softball field. "Hi! I'm Jack Shultz," the man said, extending his hand and explaining he represented a team in Baltimore. "I'm here to scout you." The second baseman was taken aback. Scout him? Oliver hadn't been scouted in more than half a century. That year was 1943. Then, he was 17 years old and playing American Legion baseball in his hometown of St. Louis, following the likes of Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola.

In seven days, investor Richard L. Berman of Rockville will get his wish. So will Mario Barac of Columbia and Stuart Venzke of Greenbelt. That's when a new Securities and Exchange Commission rule kicks in, which is designed to level the playing field between big and small investors. Small investors have long complained that they have been iced-out of the information loop by publicly traded companies. The juiciest tidbits of information, they argue, are often spoon-fed to influential securities analysts, who pass it on to a select group of people - their clients.