Skybox

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele has selected Doug Heye, communications director for U.S. Sen. Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, as his U.S. Senate campaign communications director. "Doug will play a leading role in communicating my positive vision for the state and promoting my agenda of empowerment and opportunity for every Marylander," Steele, a Republican, said in a statement. The selection of Heye, 33, has state Democrats clucking about two instances when the spokesman himself made news.

A Bowie woman was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to repay more than $860,000 to people she was convicted of bilking in an investment scheme. The sentence, which includes five years' probation, was handed down to Rachel Reed Chittams, 38, by Prince George's County Circuit Judge Maureen M. Lamasney. Chittams was convicted of embezzlement and securities fraud in what Kate O'Donnell, deputy chief of criminal investigations in the Maryland attorney general's office, said was a "classic Ponzi scheme."

Cal Ripken is auctioning off a night in his skybox at Aberdeen's Ripken Stadium, home of the IronBirds, on eBay. Proceeds from the auction - one of the "sports experiences" offered at www.ebay.com/sports experiences - will be donated to the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. Other charity fund-raiser experiences include the chance to shoot hoops with Magic Johnson, play a round of golf with Jack Nicklaus, go fishing with NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, play video games with master gamer Johnathan "Fatality" Wendell and take a lesson in the ring from boxing great Joe Frazier.

The Orioles have notified roughly half the stadium's skybox tenants that they will have to pay as much as 32 percent more to retain their perches for the next three seasons. Orioles vice chairman and chief operating officer Joe Foss said the new prices are not uniform but he acknowledged all were "double-digit increases." Foss said the team makes a distinction between ordinary ticket holders, who were promised no price increase this season, and renters of luxury suites, who are guaranteed the same premium location year after year.

The Preakness will be run May 20 as scheduled, city housing officials say, if the owners of Pimlico Race Course complete the steps in a proposal given to the city this week to remedy fire-code violations at the 130-year-old Baltimore track. Housing officials, who had threatened to sue the track's owners because of the violations found a year ago, told the city Planning Commission on Thursday that their concerns were resolved after several meetings over the past two weeks. "If you comply with [these requirements]

For $150,000, Action Business Systems President Bill Wallace wants to be able to use his skybox at PSINet Stadium more than 10 times a year.He has done just that by effectively turning the company skybox into a downtown office to sell the complete line of Toshiba products for which he has exclusive rights in the area.Theresa Abato, whose job is managing the Ravens stadium's 108 private suites, hopes more people will follow Wallace's lead, making the stadium into a downtown office park in its own right.

First, a word on the pronunciation. It isn't "sigh net" or "p-sigh net." It's "P-S-I Net."Get used to it. It's a name you're going to be seeing and hearing a lot in coming years. Look for it plastered to the bricks of the Ravens' stadium, glued to the cup holders, beamed through cyberspace and repeated in pre-game shows and radio broadcasts.Herndon, Va.-based PSINet Inc. will insist on such omnipresence, and has paid dearly for it.The company, an Internet service provider, has agreed to pay $105.

In a sign of the good times for professional athletes in America, the skyboxes at Ravens stadium will be populated not just by corporate bigwigs and government VIPs but by friends and families of players like Eric Green, Cal Ripken and a handful of others looking for recreation or a haven.Six Ravens players are considering or have leased suites at the stadium, either by themselves or in combination with others: Green, Ray Lewis, Rod Woodson, Tony Siragusa, Stevon Moore and Michael Jackson.

CHICAGO - On a sunny summer day at Wrigley Field, time, at least baseball time, can seem to stand still.In this most perfect ballpark in America (sorry, Camden Yards, you're only the perfect imitation), some things never change. There is the splendid grass, the ivy-covered outfield walls, the hand-operated scoreboard, the bleacher bums who toss every enemy home run back onto the field in righteous indignation. And, of course, there are the Wrigley rooftops."Look at the rooftops!" Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray used to bellow as TV cameras panned the crowded tops of the 20 or so apartment buildings on Waveland and Sheffield avenues across the street from Wrigley.

For the $50,000 to $200,000 yearly price of a skybox at the new stadium downtown, the Ravens are trying to make purchasers feel they get their money's worth, after games and even after the NFL season.The Ravens are the first team in the NFL to offer suite owners unlimited access to their skyboxes for the entire term of their leases, for any reason -- business-related, football-related or otherwise.Skybox holders need only reserve the suite 72 hours in advance, so it can be secured at all other times, said David Cope, Ravens vice president of sales and marketing.