Satchel Paige

If the recycling phenomenon hasn't touched your household yet, to steal a phrase from the baseball legend Satchel Paige, "Don't look over your shoulder; it might be gaining on you."That's especially true in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel and Howard counties, where new local budgets that went into effect July 1 include strong pushes for recycling aimed at residential areas.In little more than a month, some form of voluntary recycling on a routine basis will involve all 230,000 single-family homes in Baltimore City.

Don't bother inviting Cal Abrams to a major-league baseball game. Even if he were to go, which is unlikely, he would probably grumble through the whole thing.The 1954 Oriole would be scrutinizing the players' every move, weighing their performances against their titanic salaries, viewing the spectacle from the perspective of a man who made $22,000 in his best year and harbors some ill feelings about his baseball experience.At 70, Abrams acknowledges "mixed feelings" about the game, in which he bounced among five teams in eight years, winding up in the minors at 32 with a wife, children, a mortgage and little hope of playing major-league ball again.

Dear Mr. Baseball:What players are being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year?Joseph HumphreyDundalkDear Joseph Humphrey:Your letter comes at a time when Mr. Baseball is completing plans to attend yet another Hall of Fame ceremony, July 30 in Cooperstown, N.Y. As always, Mr. Baseball will be lodging at the home of close friend and renown baseball performer Max Patkin, a distant cousin of the former San Diego Chicken.Your question about Hall of Fame inductees seems simple enough, but takes many paragraphs to answer this year.

For a different sort of summer reading list, we asked readers for favorite books that capture the feel of sand and sea. Our own favorites include Dune by Frank Herbert, In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson and Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Satchel, Larry Tye's new biography of Negro League legend Leroy "Satchel" Paige, also promises the gritty feel of a hot, dusty infield. Here are more reader choices to transport you: * Before the Wind, edited by David Gowdey. This compilation of 25 true sailing stories covers everything from Joshua Slocum setting out to sail around the world to Ted Turner on racing strategy.

Some baseball players who have staged serious and not-so-serious comebacks:* Jim "Deacon" McGuire, 48, played one game for the Tigers of 1912, not by choice. When all Tigers players staged a strike to protest the suspension of Ty Cobb for attacking a rowdy fan, McGuire went briefly from Detroit coach to Detroit catcher. Pretty much retired as a player for six years, McGuire got a hit and scored a run. The Tigers filled the remainder of the roster with another coach, Joe Sudgen, 41, (who played first base)

There wasn't a whole lot Leon Day couldn't do on a baseball field. He played a smooth second base and a slick center field. He was a steady .300 hitter. But it was on the mound where he achieved real greatness as a ballplayer.Mr. Day, raised in Southwest Baltimore from the time he was six months old, was a stand-out of the storied Negro Leagues, the ace of the Newark Eagles pitching staff. In a 1942 game at his home town's Bugle Field, he struck out 18 Baltimore Elite Giants, including catcher Roy Campanella three times.

Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson?That's what a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. employee whose $3,000 baseball card collection was stolen from his locker last week would like to know.Gregory Evans, 33, senior plant operator at the Brandon Shores Power Plant in Pasadena, took his collection of about 500 cards to work Dec. 7 to show a co-worker."I have some very unique cards," Mr. Evans said, "and I brought them all to work to let John [Bullock] see them. He put them in his locker."Mr. Evans later returned to his co-worker's locker to get something.

Leon Day saw himself at the induction ceremony. He saw them place the ring on his finger. He saw himself making his speech. Then he woke up yesterday morning at St. Agnes Hospital and told his wife, "I'm in. I'm in."Yesterday afternoon, he was in. Mr. Day, 78, became the 12th Negro league star elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.The Veterans Committee also elected Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Richie Ashburn, National League founder William Hulbert and turn-of-the-century pitcher Vic Willis, a native of Cecil County.

Vincent Percy Lee, a Baltimore native who played with the Baltimore Black Sox in the professional Negro Baseball League, died Saturday of cancer at Levindale Medical Center in Northwest Baltimore.In addition to the Black Sox, Mr. Lee, 89, played for many Negro League teams during his 23-year career, including the Baltimore Elite Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Miami Giants and Denver Monarchs."He just loved to play baseball," said Louis C. Fields, a friend and Negro League historian who has researched the teams and players for the last five years.

There are few journalism rituals as moth-eaten as lists of top 10 this and top 10 that. And, when done with verve, there are few rituals that can be so engrossing. Take this month's issue of American Heritage magazine. Please! It's a fourth annual survey of the most overrated and underrated, and it gets very smart folks to opine on matters we surely haven't given much attention to (perhaps justifiably). A few examples: * Most overrated Adams: According to conservative essayist Richard Brookhiser, it's John, the second president, and his wife, Abigail.