Role

Thanks for your wonderful article about Sam Lacy ("How Sam Lacy helped integrate baseball," April 22). My husband and I were privileged to know Mr. Lacy during the last decade of his life and to hear directly from him what it was like during the days when Jackie Robinson broke into the majors. Sam's omission from "42" is indeed a travesty, to quote his son Tim. An equally apt word would be injustice. We are grateful to you for enlightening The Sun's readers about the pivotal role this modest, quiet, determined and gentle man played in establishing Major League Baseball as we know it today, and in recognizing that Jackie Robinson did indeed have the guts to let his skill do the fighting for him. Jan Roth Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

The primary goal of any leadoff man is to get on base, and Orioles left fielder Nate McLouth is beginning to fill that role nicely. McLouth reached base in his first four plate appearances in the Orioles' 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon. He finished 2-for-3 with a single, double and two walks while scoring three runs and adding an RBI. In his past 19 plate appearance, McLouth has reached base 12 times. "I do feel comfortable there," McLouth said of batting leadoff.

M. Faysal Thameen, a retired structural engineer who headed the city's role in the 1980s construction of the Fort McHenry Tunnel, died of cancer April 9 at his home in Millbury, Mass. The former Parkville resident was 75. "He was a quiet force in the Interstate Division," said former Maryland Transportation Secretary William K. Hellmann, who was recently appointed to the state's Transportation Authority board. "He was soft-spoken, knew his business and was the key coordinator with the designers of the Fort McHenry Tunnel, which was then the largest single contract in the history of the Interstate Highway System.

Gov. Martin O'Malley on Thursday named the head of Department of Natural Resources as his new chief of staff. John R. Griffin, 66, will take over for Matthew Gallagher, who will leave the administration at the end of May to lead the Goldseker Foundation . O'Malley described Griffin as "  the heart and soul of Maryland's environmental agenda" in a release announcing the appointment.  Griffin began in the Department of Natural resources...

Since Steve Blake went to the Los Angeles Lakers three years ago, the former Maryland point guard had rarely been much of a factor - first playing behind Derek Fisher, then Ramon Sessions and finally this season behind Steve Nash. Many Lakers fans felt as if the team had spent way too much when it signed Blake to a four-year, $16 million contract. There were times when Blake's looked like he was playing in the Bermuda Triangle rather than the Triangle offense under Phil Jackson and later Mike Brown.

Thank you for the wonderful coverage of the Woman's Club of Catonsville ("Celebration, sadness for Catonsville Woman's Club," Catonsville Times, March 27) and for reminding residents of their wonderful accomplishments over the past 80 years. On Saturday, April 20,  most of the contents of the building will be sold at a special sale from 8-11 a.m. at the clubhouse, located at 10 St. Timothy's Lane. We will also sell the plants and ground covers surrounding the building. Come and get a little bit of Catonsville history!

It's not enough to give Stefon Diggs more touches this season. Maryland coaches also want to give him more of a leadership role. Coach Randy Edsall said after Friday night's spring game that the team has named the receiver-returner as one of 10 members of its leadership council. The team won't use permanent captains in the fall. Rather, it will name captains game by game. It sounds like Maryland really wants Diggs invested in the team. Not that he wasn't last season. But it's difficult for freshmen - still transitioning to college life - to play leadership roles.

Owen Blye and Zach Palmer might not have much sympathy for each other, but this season, they can empathize with one another. That's because the attackmen are laboring through underwhelming senior campaigns for Maryland and Johns Hopkins, respectively, and have been overshadowed by their teammates. But as Palmer leads the No. 15 Blue Jays (6-4) into Saturday's annual game with Blye and the No. 4 Terps (8-1) at Byrd Stadium in College Park, the duo can mutually agree that they are willing to sacrifice individual glory for team success.

"When we say 'turtle,' you say 'power,'" Jamie Trost called out to a group of eighth-graders. And when the students from St. Jane Frances School in Pasadena hollered "power," they pulled hard on the ropes, hoisting the sails of the Pride of Baltimore II. It was the first part of a lesson, teaching the teens you can't give strong, coordinated tugs without a good grunt, and also how privateers during the War of 1812 got their sleek ships moving...

William B. "Buck" Frisch, a retired McCormick & Co. executive who played a pivotal role in bringing the tall ships to Baltimore during the nation's bicentennial in 1976, died March 30 of multiple melanoma at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 79. The son of a McCormick executive and a homemaker, William Buckley Frisch was born in Baltimore and raised in Pinehurst. He was a 1951 graduate of Towson High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1955 from Dartmouth College.