Six Numbers

Chris Thomas, former WBAL-TV sports anchor known for his humorous, irreverent style, died from cancer yesterday in Tampa, Fla. He was 55. Thomas, whose real name was Christian Thomas Olrick, left Baltimore 15 1/2 years ago for a Tampa television station. He most recently was host of a sports talk show on radio station WDAE in Tampa. "He was hilarious, pure and simple," Channel 2 sportscaster Keith Mills said. "You see guys today trying to be clever on ESPN, and sometimes they fail. Chris was just naturally funny."

Man found slain on Gutman AvenueCity police are searching for suspects in the early-morning murder of an unidentified man whose bullet-riddled body was found yesterday in front of a house in the 600 block of Gutman Avenue.nTC The victim, whose name is being withheld by police pending notification of his next of kin, was found about 4:20 a.m. The man, who was about 30 years old, suffered at least one gunshot wound to the head, police said.Witnesses told police that the murder followed a brief argument at the house, after which shots were fired.

Bell Atlantic Corp. has developed a technology that lets cellular phone users avoid having to pay when an unknown or unwanted caller dials their number.The company announced this week that its new service, "Calling Party Pays," lets cellular companies give customers the ability to structure their accounts so that the burden of payment falls on the caller -- just as it does with most wire-line calls.Unlike wire-line calls, the costs of completing a local call from a land line to a cellular phone are borne by the receiving party.

NOW THAT Eli Jacobs, the millionaire too busy to own a baseball team, has speculated about unloading the Orioles, I say it's time for some creative thinking.As one who watched the last two times the Orioles were sold -- in 1979 and 1988 -- I sense the same dance about to begin all over again. Cries for local ownership. Then silence.The big money men in this town, if there are any, were too cheap to pony up $12 million in 1979. And I doubt, in these recessionary times, that there's anyone out there with 10 times that much to spend.

Crofton resident Stacia Hyde-Eason says she won't change much about her life after winning a $4.2 million lotto jackpot with a ticket she bought nearly two weeks ago.Hyde-Eason picked up her first annual $136,740 check yesterday in a ceremony at the Giant Food store in Crofton, where she bought her winning ticket May 8. She will receive the same amount each year for the next 19 years."

Maybe you could buy yourself an island where the sun always shines. Lots of people are thinking of what they would do with $15 million. That's what one winner of tonight's Lotto jackpot would take home -- before taxes, payable over 20 years.And the jackpot could swell to a record amount if no one matches the six numbers drawn tonight, lottery officials say."There's a great possibility of it exceeding that record of $21 million," said Carroll H. Hynson Jr., spokesman for the Maryland Lottery Agency.

Crofton resident Stacia Hyde-Eason says she won't change much about her life after winning a $4.2 million lotto jackpot with a ticket she bought nearly two weeks ago.Hyde-Eason picked up her first annual $136,740 check yesterday in a ceremony at the Giant Food store in Crofton, where she bought her winning ticket May 8. She will receive the same amount each year for the next 19 years."

Contrary to the belief of many Lotto players in Baltimore, city residents aren't shut out when it comes to winning Maryland's multimillion-dollar Lotto giveaway game.The state Lottery Agency said yesterday that Baltimore residents have won more Lotto jackpots than any other political subdivision -- 82 out of 436 winners since the game began in November 1983.If anyone has a right to feel excluded, it would be players in Dorchester and Kent counties on Maryland's Eastern Shore. They haven't had a Lotto jackpot winner since the game was launched.

Starting on Oct. 1, making a telephone call in the Washington metropolitan area will require an extra three digits if the call is being made across area code boundaries. The new arrangement also will change the first six numbers for the Defense Department from (202) 694 to (703) 614.The change is being made to provide about 800 new telephone exchange numbers, which will allow the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone companies in Maryland, Virginia and Washington to create hundreds of thousands of new numbers for the Washington area.

After nearly nine months and some $143 million in bets, the Maryland Lottery announced its first $100,000 Keno winner yesterday -- a real estate salesman from Timonium who was amazed that no one had done it before."