Saves

Maryland roadsides are abloom as never before.State workers and countless volunteers are planting wildflowers in grassy areas along highways that have been mowed in the past. Red poppies, black-eyed Susans, blue cornflowers are adding color to roadsides -- all this in the name of saving money.Since 1992, the State Highway Administration -- one of Maryland's largest landowners -- has reduced the number of acres it mows by 3,145, to 16,872 acres. "Mowed five times a year, that means a lot of time and money saved," SHA administrator Hal Kassoff says.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson can be depended on to always be at his locker to answer questions anytime he becomes a focal point of a game following a blown save. Those times have been rare, until recently, as Johnson has blown three consecutive ninth-inning leads that all ended in losses.Following the Orioles' 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees in the 10th inning on Monday at Camden Yards, Johnson put the team's season-high six-game losing streak in perspective. “Well, three of them are my fault,” Johnson said.

EARLY-JUNE Journal:START YOUNG! "Since money at 8 percent doubles every 9 years, a child who, at 18, saves $2,000 a year in an IRA at 8 percent will, at 65, have more than double the savings of someone who waits till 28 -- $1,059,000 vs. only $476,000. Thus, an early start brings $583,000 in extra wealth resulting from just a $20,000 investment."A child who saves $2,000 annually in an IRA from 18 till 26 -- and then stops -- will have more at 65 than one who starts at 28 and puts in $2,000 every year until 65 -- by $66,000 -- or $542,000 vs. $476,000.

A review of 12,000 papers on climate change in the May 15 issue of "Environmental Research Letters," found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities. Although we're unlikely to reverse climate change, we can mitigate its effects by reducing our driving, energy use, and meat consumption. Yes, meat consumption. A 2006 U.N. report estimated that meat consumption accounts for 18 percent of man-made greenhouse gases. A 2009 article in the respected World Watch magazine suggested that it may be closer to 50 percent.

Baseball's all-time saves leader Lee Smith, who retired from the Expos on July 15 because of a lack of regular work, apparently wants to return for a 19th season.The former Oriole, who will turn 40 in December, went 0-1 with five saves and a 5.82 ERA in 25 games in 1997. He has 478 saves."I just want to pitch," Smith told the Rolaids Relief Man program. "If Eck [Dennis Eckersley] can do it at [age] 43, I can do it, too.Smith added: "I was throwing 91 or 93 [mph], but it's tough to go out there and pitch every two or three weeks.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- What can Chicago White Sox reliever Bobby Thigpen do for an encore?Trust me, it's impossible for him to improve on his record 57 saves. Thigpen knows this as well as I do. He had a ready answer:"I could go 35 for 35, or 38 for 38 or 40 for 40 and we win the division. It's a better year for me and for the team."A miracle scenario, nonetheless. Absolute perfection is required to rack up 35 saves in 35 opportunities. But there is a near-precedent.In 1984, when the Detroit Tigers won the World Series, Willie Hernandez, their bullpen star, had a dream year: 32 consecutive saves.

BOSTON -- Why doesn't the world care more about Bobby Thigpen? For a stopper whose 57 saves last year is a major-league record, it is a honest-to-goodness puzzlement.Well, the truth is that the Chicago White Sox right-hander is a victim of changing attitudes about saves and statistical overkill that has become a new kind of measuring stick for relievers. Nowadays, he rates as only a second-class citizen in a world that by definition should be reserved for very special people.The numbers he compiled in 1990 might have been just too staggering for the average fan to digest.

LANDOVER -- Jim Carey didn't want to sound smug last night after he did the job again in the net for the Washington Capitals.But the rookie goaltender couldn't help being honest about his situation."

Lee Smith's act is getting redundant.Smith gave yesterday's sellout crowd at Camden Yards one more glimpse of his routine. Another leisurely stroll to the mound, another scoreless ninth inning, another save, another slap at the critics who declared last winter that the major leagues' all-time saves leader was finished.After he polished off Seattle in 1-2-3 fashion to clinch the Orioles' 4-3 victory, Smith responded with a typically carefree shrug when informed of his latest achievement. He became the first pitcher in history to record nine saves in a team's first 16 games.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- He has closed in four cities covering both leagues, a traveling man with a valuable albeit inconsistent role. Now Heathcliff Slocumb, warm-up act, breaks camp with the Orioles in pursuit of stability more than visibility.Slocumb came to the Orioles last January as a marked-down, $1.1 million free agent via Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston and Seattle, a circuitous route pocked with little-noted successes and far more publicized meltdowns. Projected as part of the Orioles' reconfigured middle relief, he'll now be permitted to address his enigmatic tendencies in relative anonymity.

Jim Johnson's third blown save in as many opportunities obviously was the main angle in Monday night's 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees in 10 innings. Orioles manager Buck Showalter - as he usually does in these kinds of sticky situations - tried to lift the blame off of his player that made the key mistake. “I thought he threw the ball pretty well. He had one pitch,” Showalter said. “We had trouble keeping the ball in the ballpark. That's pretty much it. Not just Jimmy.

The University of Maryland's independent student newspaper will cut publishing to four days a week in the fall, Michael Fribush, president of parent company Maryland Media Inc., confirmed Friday. "We'll beef up our digital presence on Fridays. It'll be a little more economical to publish Monday through Thursday," he said. "[Editor-in-Chief Michael King] would be putting out a Friday issue on The Diamondback but digitally. " The Diamondback has been a weekday publication since its establishment in 1910 and receives no university funding, according to its website.

May 29 has been dubbed 529 College Savings Day -- get it 5/29 and 529, as in the part of the tax code that allows the savings plan? -- and the College Savings Plans of Maryland (CSPM) is teaming up with the Maryland Zoo to promote awareness of the plans.  Here's what they say they have in store:  "First, on Wednesday, May 29, CSPM will be hosting a free, interactive webinar at 12:00 p.m. for anyone who is interested in learning more about Maryland's two tax-advantaged 529 plans - the Maryland Prepaid College Trust and the Maryland College Investment Plan.

Buck Showalter's first glimpse of closer Jim Johnson inside the Orioles clubhouse moments after his remarkable consecutive-save streak came to an sudden end Tuesday night was the sight of Johnson working up a sweat on the exercise bike in the training room. “He's grinding out on a bicycle,” the Orioles manager said, “Getting ready for [Wednesday].” Johnson's franchise-record streak of 35 consecutive converted regular-season save opportunities was snapped Tuesday night as the San Diego Padres rallied for two runs in the ninth off Johnson for a 3-2 win over the Orioles in front of an announced 19,096 at Camden Yards.

Jim Johnson's impressive regular season saves streak came to an end at 35 on Tuesday night when he allowed four singles and two runs in the ninth in the Orioles' 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres . Johnson hadn't blown a regular season save since he gave up six runs in one third of an inning to the Oakland A's on July 27, 2012. He did blow one in the postseason - Game 3 of the ALDS in New York on Oct. 10 - but that didn't count toward the streak. Point is Johnson has been unbelievably good for the last year-plus, and so when he blows one it is newsworthy.

There's a P3 in your future. Maryland is poised to join 34 states and key federal agencies in transforming the way government works. The new mantra, "P3," is shorthand for public-private partnerships. Maryland's P3 legislation, championed by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, enables state agencies to engage business in planning, financing, building and operating public projects, from roads and rail to schools and other infrastructure. These could offset up to 10 percent of the state's capital budget, or $300 million annually, and create thousands of jobs.

Throughout the second half, Liberty goalkeeper Josh Gursky kept the top-seeded Lions even against a relentless North Hagerstown attack.And when the Lions took advantage of a rare offensive opportunity to go up 1-0 on Jason Dunbar's goal with just under 13 minutes remaining in regulation, there was a strong sense throughout the stadium that Gursky simply wasn't going to let anything get past him.That was the case. Gursky frustrated the North Hagerstown attack and finished with 20 saves as the Lions advanced to the Class 2A, West Region final with a 1-0 victory in Eldersburg.

"Who is this guy?" a Towson State men's lacrosse fan asked after watching visiting Loyola goalkeeper Tim McGeeney emerge from a cloud of dust cradling one his 20 saves of the night."Where did they get this guy?" he later pondered as McGeeney snagged a shot over his left shoulder, cradled it, and delivered an outlet pass, in stride, to sophomore Derek Radebaugh sprinting down the sideline. "Is this guy for real?"Yes.In eight games this season -- six wins and two losses -- the freshman keeper out of North County High has been superb, allowing just over eight goals a game and boasting an impressive .659 save percentage.

The devil may have taken Skylar Marion away, his father says, but God had to figure out how to spread him around. Skylar, a 15-year-old Chesapeake High School freshman who loved to tinker with bicycles and spend time outdoors, was killed in a hit-and-run just a quarter-mile from his home in Pasadena in April. The driver of the vehicle that hit him has yet to be found. But in a turn of events that surprised two families in the tight-knit Pasadena community, part of Skylar will continue to live on. His heart, transplanted into the body of an ailing friend, will bind two families together for the rest of their lives.

On a perfect spring day in Baltimore County, surrounded by hundreds of his brother and sister firefighters and mourned in prayers thousands of years old, a hero was laid to rest Sunday. Gene M. Kirchner, the 25-year-old Reisterstown volunteer firefighter who died Thursday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center of injuries suffered when he tried in vain to rescue a man trapped in a burning home, was buried in front of the Fallen Heroes Memorial at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens after funeral services at Har Sinai Congregation in Owings Mills.