Racket

She was only 16, only 16, already a 6-footer, and from Baltimore, not exactly the cradle of tennis champions. "I was a pretty unusual package," Pam Shriver was saying the other day, thinking back to the late summer of 1978, when she became the youngest U.S. Open finalist ever.Her racket was the strangest part of it all, though. She just had to walk onto a court at the Open and the crowds started humming. Her racket was . . . was . . . just amazing. It was this big butterfly net laced up tightly with acres and acres of string.

A federal grand jury indicted 18 alleged gang members on racketeering charges, including a detainee at a state-managed detention center, news that could draw more scrutiny to Maryland's beleaguered correctional system. Federal officials say the members of the Bloods, most of them operating out of Howard County, broke into houses, stole money and other items, and sold drugs, including oxycodone, ecstasy and marijuana. Eighteen Bloods members were charged with racketeering, and three others not in the gang were charged with selling drugs, federal officials said.

Jaime Fisher didn't cause a racket when he won yesterday's men's 35-over singles championship of the Baltimore Tennis Classic at Clifton Park, he just needed to borrow one to get through the draw.Fisher broke strings in all three of his rackets during his early-round matches and, at one point in the tournament, had to send someone to his house in nearby Mayfield to get the only other racket he knew of -- the one he has been trying to sell for a friend."Now when I sell it I can say 'Hey, this is the racket that won the Baltimore Classic,' " said Fisher, who won the Baltimore Hardcourt Championships and the Perring and Baltimore opens this summer.

Submitting sports notices The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. Monday. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Tennis The Glenmont Tennis League, a recreational league for adult women, is looking for additional players for the 2012 season. Email suefilson@verizon.net or call 410-730-6565 to be added to the mailing list. Rugby The Howard County Hurricane Express girls rugby team is holding a recruiting event Dec. 11 for the upcoming winter/spring season.

The inaugural Howard Head Memorial Tennis Tournament was a tribute to the memory of the man who invented Head Skis and Prince Tennis Racquets. It was held last Sunday at Head's club, the Baltimore Country Club, (BCC) with 20 teams playing men's doubles on BCC's beautiful grass courts. Even more people watched and stayed for the crab feast. Head's widow, Marty, flew in from her home in Vail, Colo., to give trophies to the winners of the tourney. Before his death, the Heads had a home in Baltimore.

Among the words I was pretty sure I'd never hear on TV were these: "As you might expect, God has an awesome tennis game."An awesome golf game, sure.You'd figure God, who is as old as the hills (actually, even older), to be a golfer, not a tennis player.But there He was, on my TV set, in his tennis whites. The set didn't blow up, which I took as a good sign. He's got a racket in hand, mandatory shorts under the obligatory robe, and he's ready to hit a few.This is absolutely true -- as seen on the USA network during the U.S. Open tennis tournament -- and maybe slightly blasphemous.

He stands 5 foot 3 and weighs 105 pounds, yet wields a powerful racket.He's routinely beaten the No. 1 singles tennis players at Loyola, Gilman and local high school power McDonogh.Dustin Friedman is the nation's top-ranked 14-year-old according the United States Tennis Association."His racket skills and his offensive tennis are far superior to most kids his age. He probably would beat any of the high school players in Baltimore," said Tommy Bender, who along with Don Candy, former mentor for Pam Shriver, coaches Friedman.

WIMBLEDON, England -- The 16-year-old kid was pitching a fit. Down 0-2 in the last set, her first service game lost, and here was Martina Hingis pouting, rolling her eyes, chucking her racket into the dust on Centre Court at Wimbledon.The racket was finished.But the kid wasn't.Hingis picked up a new racket and reeled off six of the last seven games to beat Jana Novotna, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, and win the women's singles title at Wimbledon yesterday.At 16 years, 9 months, Hingis became the youngest Wimbledon champion this century.

It just wasn't Sean Hendricks' day to win.Hendricks broke the strings on both of his tennis rackets within a space of five minutes, played with a spectator's, reaggravated a pulled hamstring and groin muscle and lost to Lonnie Greene, 6-2, 6-2, in the men's open final of the 1994 Municipal City Championships yesterday."

Howard Head, a Baltimore philanthropist who made millions developing a revolutionary, lightweight ski and an oversized tennis racket to improve his performance in both sports, died last night at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 76.Mr. Head had complications after quadruple bypass surgery last month, and his condition deteriorated rapidly.He left his body to Hopkins for medical research.Arrangements for a memorial service were incomplete last night.A design engineer at the Glenn L. Martin Co.'s Middle River aircraft plant during World War II, Mr. Head later turned his engineering skills to sports equipment because of a frustration with his own shortcomings on the ski slopes and the tennis courts.

Nearly two dozen alleged members of a prison gang that started in Maryland and spread across the country have been indicted on federal racketeering charges, including accusations of murder for hire, armed robbery and drug running, officials announced Wednesday. The members of Dead Man Inc., who refer to themselves as "dawgs" and espouse an anti-government philosophy, used contraband cellphones to direct activities and spread gang membership into South Baltimore, eastern Baltimore County, northern Anne Arundel County and several other states, authorities said.

A 26-year-old Hyattsville gang leader, who earlier pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison Monday for his role within the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" gang — known as the Latin Kings — according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Brandon Smith was involved in a gang-related shooting outside the Amazura Night Club in Queens, N.Y., January 2009, and he slashed a man's face two weeks later while holding him hostage, according to a statement of facts within his plea agreement, signed in February.

I heard the chairman of the Federal Reserve say he's fighting deflation because it would be bad for the government. It would cause less money to be collected in taxes. He was suggesting inflation would be better for the government even though it will hurt the people when prices rise. So where does the Fed get its money to buy things? If the U.S. Treasury prints the dollars and gives it to the Federal Reserve which gives it to banks, what kind of scheme is that? What would the Fed be if the treasury stopped giving them money?

An accused gang leader who also worked for a city-funded organization to reduce violence pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering Tuesday as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. Todd Duncan, 36, also faced one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, but under the agreement, that charge will be dismissed at his sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Wallner told U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 years at the hearing, scheduled for Jan. 20. Duncan was one of 15 people indicted on racketeering charges in July for involvement with the Black Guerrilla Family, after an initial indictment in May on drug trafficking charges.

A federal jury on Friday convicted two Baltimore men, one of them a Bloods gang member, on racketeering and drug conspiracy charges after two hours of deliberation. Terrence "Squeaky" Richardson, 30, was found guilty of conspiring to sell crack, cocaine, heroin and marijuana as a leader of the Pasadena Denver Lanes set of the Bloods. He was also convicted of racketeering and accused of ordering several murders as part of PDL operations. Gregory Saulsbury, 46, was found guilty of conspiring to deal crack cocaine, even though he's not a gang member.

Before he was locked up, Terrence "Squeaky" Richardson dealt drugs, randomly robbed people and killed his enemies as a leader of a "violent and notorious gang in Baltimore City," prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in a federal racketeering and drug conspiracy trial. And after he went to prison, they said, he ordered others to take care of business, directing them over mobile phones that were illegally smuggled into his cell. "This case is about gangs, drugs and violence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kwame Manley said in a repeated refrain Monday.

NEW YORK - It wasn't the first time Roger Federer had sent a rocket shot at David Nalbandian, but this one had the biggest impact. No one has ever claimed that Nalbandian, who is one of the finest baseline players in the game, is a great volleyer, and on break point to end the second set Federer lashed one at his Argentine opponent, who was at the net. Too fast. Too hard. Too tough to handle. "I thought about taking the racket away," said Nalbandian, who thought for an instant the force of the shot might send it beyond the baseline.

That the Baltimore Orioles have Pam Shriver and other interested parties paying their way into a vast ownership participation presents an enormous problem of identification, but not with Shriver. Her well-known face is easy to recognize in any crowd.The Orioles, with Shriver, have an individual ready to exert a positive influence. She's a vibrant personality, endowed with charm, refinement, an engaging presence and superb athletic ability. The same can't be said about some of her fellow investors.

A Baltimore Bloods gang leader with no criminal record was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison Friday after pleading guilty to a racketeering charge - days before two of his 33 federal co-defendants are to go on trial. Emiliano Aguas, 32, ran a local Pasadena Denver Lanes, or PDL, set of the Bloods gang responsible for "the distribution of large quantities of illegal narcotics" and acts of violence, "including murder," according to a statement of facts read in court. "He was one of the main leaders of this organization, and, frankly, the evidence against him was quite overwhelming," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kwame Manley.