Racquetball

Services for Thomas D. Yockel, who owned and operated a packaging business, will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Mark Chapel, 30 Melvin Ave., in Catonsville.Mr. Yockel, who was 55 and lived in Ellicott City, died of a braianeurysm Wednesday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Mr. Yockel worked 22 years as a packaging engineer for the Baltimore-based St. Joe Container Co. before founding Metro Packaging in 1981.A Baltimore native, Mr. Yockel liked to race cars, hunt, fish fo sharks, skin-dive and play tennis and racquetball.

They're the Magnificent Seven, no? Except, unlike the old movie cowboys, the picture ends but these guys keep going. Nearly seven years ago, I write a piece about the sporting fellows pictured above, these walking testaments to surgery and second-hand body parts who play racquetball and spit in the eye of geriatric science. When the story's done, I assume that's the end of it. Who knew, all these years later, the thing has to be updated?Because, sure enough, here's Al Cohen, 84 years old now, smacking a shot past Ed Hecker, 82, while Aaron Crane, 77, and Sam Cohen, 82, go scrambling to play the carom and Barney Cohen, 78, Irv Fishbein, 73, and Jay Fay, at 72 the rising young prospect of the group, stand outside the court and holler to get things moving, finish the game, their joints are getting rusty and they aren't exactly getting any younger.

Steve Bisciotti was still a minority owner of the Baltimore Ravens when planning began for the team's new training facility in Owings Mills. After his staff canvassed other National Football League teams about what they liked, or might do differently, in their headquarters, he turned the team's wish list over to an architect. He wasn't pleased with the results. "He said it looked like his junior high," said Kevin Byrne, the Ravens' senior vice president for public relations. "He said he wanted something warm, welcoming and something that looked like it had been here for 100 years.

Wilfredo Cordero, Expos, shortstop: The only .300 hitter in Puerto Rican Winter League this past off-season. Doesn't Montreal have enough good, young players?Tim Salmon, Angels, outfielder: Nearly won the Pacific Coast League Triple Crown and is expected to play every day. He also may strike out every day.Mike Piazza, Dodgers, catcher: Tom Lasorda will give his godson every chance to make it. Good thing he can play.Bret Boone, Mariners, second baseman: The reason Harold Reynolds is in Baltimore.

The registration deadline for the 1991 Maryland Senior Olympics is tomorrow. The Games will be held Oct. 10-12 at Towson State University.Athletes ages 55 and older will compete in events that include aquatics, archery, badminton, basketball, billiards, bowling, cycling, golf, horseshoes, racquetball, softball, table tennis, tennis and track and field.For a registration booklet, call the Maryland Office on Aging at 225-1094, or 1-800-AGE-DIAL outside the Baltimore area. The Games are sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, and last year nearly 1,400 athletes competed.

Twenty-nine athletes who have received a donated organ or have donated one will represent Maryland in the 2012 Transplant Games of America , an annual awareness raising event. The games aim to highlight the importance of organ and tissue donation, while also celebrating the lives or donors and recipients, according to event organizers. This year, the multi-sport competition will be held in Grand Rapids, Mich., July 28-31. The local competitors, in their 30s, 40, 50s and 60s, will compete on behalf of Donate Life Maryland , the nonprofit group that maintains the state's donor registry through a partnership with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Lawrence Dunbar Logan, one of the first African-Americans to become a captain at the former Baltimore City Jail, died of a stroke Aug. 4 at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 77. Mr. Logan was born and raised in East Baltimore, and attended city public schools before earning his GED. He served in the Pacific with the Navy during World War II. Returning to Baltimore after the war, he had jobs as a postal worker and Harbor Tunnel guard before being hired by the City Jail in 1961.

Racquetball-wallyball tourney benefits hospice, education centerA turnout of 122 competitors ranging in age from 9 to 54 played in last weekend's Leisure Racquetball-Wallyball Benefit '93 tournament at the Leisure Racquetball Club in Westminster.A total of 84 individual and corporate sponsors donated food, money and prizes to the charitable affair, which raised roughly $5,000 to be split evenly between Carroll Hospice and the Carroll Education Center.In racquetball, the winners were:* Men's Novice -- Jack Keene, first; Ryan Baer, second.

LUCILLE STORCH, age 81, of Sandra Circle, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, died Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at Port Orange Nursing Home, Port Orange, Florida. Born in Woodlawn, Mrs. Storch, a retired legal secretary, came to New Smyrna Beach, Florida in 2003 from Glyndon. She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and a volunteer at Southeast Volusia Humane Society, New Smyrna Beach. Mrs. Storch enjoyed line dancing, gardening, golf and racquetball. She is survived by her sister Thelma and husband John Reus, Edgewater; step-son Andrew and wife Maureen Storch, Great Falls, Virginia; two step-daughters Sarah Storch of Stamford, Connecticut and Wendy Storch, San Francisco, California; niece and caregive Sandra and her husband Sam Register, Gainesville, Florida, niece Diane Reus and her husband Lewis Rosen New York, New York; nephew Brent and his wife Yvonne Reus, Hardy, Virginia and numerous great-nephews and nieces.

Gary P. Warfield, a retired Harford County educator whose career spanned 25 years, died of respiratory failure Tuesday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 58. Mr. Warfield was born in Baltimore and raised in Bel Air. He graduated in 1967 from Bel Air High School, and in 1973 from what is now Towson University with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. He received a master's degree in 1978 in communicative disorders, and three years later received a master's degree in administrative supervision from Loyola College.