Rain Delay

BETHESDA -- Tiger Woods landed his first tee shot in a fairway bunker yesterday and spent so much of the third round digging out of the sand and rough that he ended up in a giant hole.Grand Slam? The only place you're going to find one of those around here is at Camden Yards. When darkness finally halted play on a hazy, rain-drenched evening at the U.S. Open, Woods was eight strokes off the lead and tied for 21st place with two holes of yesterday's round still to be played before the final round today.

Slow greens and a half-hour rain delay hindered the participants in yesterday's final round of the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Mount Pleasant Golf Course, but Buddy Peoples was able to shoot a 4-under-par 67 to win the title and set a tournament record .Peoples (Crofton Country Club), who won the title in 1992, finished with a three-day total of 210 -- the first below-par combined score in the history of the tournament.What is shocking is that he accomplished that score under some tough conditions.

PHILADELPHIA -- Ed Rendell, the mayor of Philadelphia, didn't show much respect for Todd Stottlemyre, who will pitch Game 4 of the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays here tonight.During a visit to Toronto, Rendell was critical of the Blue Jays' pitching staff, particularly Stottlemyre. "I could envision them [the Phillies] getting swept by a combination of the White Sox's pitching and the Blue Jays' hitting," said Rendell."But not this pitching staff. If Frank Thomas could hit a ball 430 feet off Stottlemyre, I could hit one 270. I'd like to bat against him."

Leo Gomez will have surgery to repair his damaged left wrist either tomorrow or Friday.The decision was made yesterday after consultation with Dr. Hugh Baugher, who will perform the operation. It won't be known until after surgery how long Gomez will be out, but an optimistic estimate is three to four weeks.Gomez has been on the disabled list since July 8 with what had been described as tendinitis. Further examination revealed a cyst, which will be removed during the operation."When I talked to Leo [yesterday]

PHILADELPHIA -- Normally, it's no big deal when a baseball game begins at 1:30.Unless, of course, it's 1:30 a.m.Until real early yesterday morning, you see, no major-league team in anyone's memory had started a baseball game at that late (early) hour.But then along came those history-making 1993 Phillies.According to the Elias Sports Bureau, when the Phillies and Padres started the second game of their long night's doubleheader journey into dawn at 1:28 a.m. yesterday, they almost certainly set a record for the latest a major-league game had started.

The Orioles announced during last night's rain delay that infielder Tim Hulett has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Tuesday.To fill Hulett's roster spot, the club purchased the contract of reserve infielder Tommy Shields, a Fairfax, Va., native, from the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.Hulett will return to his hometown, Springfield, Ill., for the funeral of his 6-year-old son, Sam, who died Thursday of injuries suffered when he was hit by a car Wednesday.Club officials said Hulett would rejoin the team Aug. 3, when the Orioles return to Baltimore to play the Detroit Tigers, though he could not return to the active roster until two days later.

PHOENIX -- Michael Andretti surprised himself and spoiled a great effort by Bobby Rahal, as the defending IndyCar champion won the pole position for today's Valvoline 200 with a record-setting performance.Rahal, a former series champion and second to Andretti in the 1991 PPG Cup points battle, set the target, turning a record-shattering lap of 171.618 mph yesterday as the first qualifier on the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway oval.That broke the mark of 168.334 set last April by Rick Mears, who had won four consecutive Phoenix poles and swept all five oval track poles in 1991.

Jim Kusterer is a guy after any longtime sports fan's heart. Just the other day, Jim dispatched a letter stating, "I read an article by Joe Falls in the Detroit Free Press years ago in which he listed the numbers from 1-to-100, and next to each number the most famous popular athlete to wear that number on their nTC jersey. I think it would make an interesting article."That's conjecture, Jim, but I will say it brings back fond memories of sitting in Tiger Stadium with Falls during a rain delay (or a dull ballgame)

It all started with the telephone ringing late one evening not long ago, just when Joe Friday was getting ready to bust a hippie on "Dragnet."I considered not answering. My house is the same as your house. Any time you answer the phone, you stand a 50 percent chance of being violated by a taped sales message or a smarmy cold caller peddling slow-moving show tickets, rural condos or uninteresting magazines. (Warning: If you ever buy a theater ticket, just one, you get bombed for years.)What can I say?

They will turn out the lights on the inaugural season at Camden Yards sometime late tonight, but the Orioles' surprising run at the American League East title officially ended yesterday.The Boston Red Sox waited out another lengthy rain delay to defeat the Orioles, 6-1. The loss, coupled with the Toronto Blue Jays' triumph in New York, mathematically eliminated the Orioles from the division race.No great shock there, but the afternoon was a serious downer for the sellout crowd of 45,597, which waited out a 99-minute rain delay only to find out that Red Sox ace Roger Clemens would not be able to make his scheduled start against Rick Sutcliffe.

It wasn't exactly how Matt Wieters envisioned the first game-ending home run of his big league career. With barely 100 people in the stands after a long late-game rain delay, Wieters launched the first pitch he saw from Russ Springer into the left-field seats. His two-run, ninth-inning homer pushed the Orioles to a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays before what remained of an announced 10,548 at wet Camden Yards. When the game finally ended, there were seemingly as many Orioles at home plate to greet and pound on Wieters as there were fans in the crowd.

Anna Nordqvist might be a rookie on the LPGA tour, but she's already showing a flair for the dramatic and a touch of the clutch. For the second straight day, the 22-year-old Swede sank a long birdie putt on her final hole. For the second straight day, it was the margin at the top of the leader board in the McDonald's LPGA Championship. After waiting out a two-hour, 20-minute rain delay, and with darkness approaching at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Nordqvist rolled in a 20-foot putt on the 15th hole to wrestle the lead from Lindsey Wright.

Rays@Orioles 7 P.M. [MASN] Final game of the opening series of the season with veteran Steve Trachsel scheduled to pitch for the O's in his second go-around here. The good thing about watching a game pitched by Trachsel (known as the Human Rain Delay) is that you have plenty of time between pitches to grab a snack. Or do your laundry. Or catch up on your reading -- even if what you're reading is War and Peace.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The first controversy of the 69th Masters festered yesterday during the rain delay - and ultimate postponement of the second round - between two of the tournament's headliners. After rumors surfaced earlier in the day that Vijay Singh had complained to tournament officials about Phil Mickelson chewing up the 12th green with his size-12 spikes during Thursday's opening round, a high-ranking member of the club admitted that a complaint had been lodged by an unspecified player.

The numbers are in: On three typical holes in the final round of the U.S. Open last Sunday, Sergio Garcia averaged 33 seconds before his tee shot and 23 pre-swing waggles. Those numbers come courtesy of Richard Sandomir of The New York Times, who notes that, by comparison, in his famous Honeymooners golfing lesson for buddy Ralph Kramden, Ed Norton committed nine waggles during a 15-second swing preamble. Unlike Norton, Garcia didn't address the ball with a hearty, "Hello, ball!" Others, however, weren't shy about addressing Garcia's waggles, which can be defined as repeated loosenings and regrippings of the golf club.

It's a fact The Pirates did not have a rain delay last Sunday for the first time in their five Sunday home dates. Milestone Rafael Palmeiro of the Rangers became the 39th major-leaguer with 1,500 RBIs. The number 1,002: Games the Yankees have won all time against the White Sox.

POTOMAC -- If Lee Porter felt lonely going out after yesterday's rain delay during the second round of the $3.5 million Kemper Insurance Open, he could be forgiven. How would it feel if you were leading the tournament and your two playing partners decided to go home? That is what happened when Porter returned to the course after the delay without Mark McCumber or Chris Perry, both of whom withdrew during the break. "It was really weird at the time," said Porter, who was 8-under at that point and one shot ahead.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Funny how a rain delay of more than two hours and the cold front that came in behind can play havoc with a major golf tournament such as the 64th Masters. It kept the final pairing of yesterday's third round from teeing off until after 4 p.m. and prevented the two front- runners from finishing up until this morning. It forced those in charge of the tournament to do something never done here before: they permitted CBS to televise the last few groups playing on the heretofore mysterious front nine for the first time in history.

BETHESDA -- Tiger Woods landed his first tee shot in a fairway bunker yesterday and spent so much of the third round digging out of the sand and rough that he ended up in a giant hole.Grand Slam? The only place you're going to find one of those around here is at Camden Yards. When darkness finally halted play on a hazy, rain-drenched evening at the U.S. Open, Woods was eight strokes off the lead and tied for 21st place with two holes of yesterday's round still to be played before the final round today.

Slow greens and a half-hour rain delay hindered the participants in yesterday's final round of the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Mount Pleasant Golf Course, but Buddy Peoples was able to shoot a 4-under-par 67 to win the title and set a tournament record .Peoples (Crofton Country Club), who won the title in 1992, finished with a three-day total of 210 -- the first below-par combined score in the history of the tournament.What is shocking is that he accomplished that score under some tough conditions.