Spring

Spring emerging The lowdown -- Mr. Groundhog predicted an early spring this year. But, is his prediction right? Check out the Awakenings walk Saturday to look for clues that spring is on its way. Awakenings is Cromwell Valley Park's first class in its Senior Nature Series. Participants will first awaken their senses and then follow the trail to observe the emergence of spring. If you go -- The event takes place 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The park is at 2002 Cromwell Bridge Road. Admission is $2 for members, $4 for nonmembers.

New spring, same old top story. There are plenty of intriguing subplots as baseball breaks from its winter hiatus and pitchers and catchers start playing long toss this week in Arizona and Florida. But, as usual, none can top the sport's most consistent newsmaker, the incomparable Barry Bonds. Throughout this decade, Bonds has been a must-read spring story: Can he still play at a Most Valuable Player level? Will he hit a historic number of home runs? Is he healthy? Is he cracking under media scrutiny?

New York-- --New York's Fashion Week -- the biannual presentations by the country's top designers -- ends today, wrapping up a style vision for spring that is both breezy and tailored, long and short, pale and bold, solid and printed. Designers showed a little bit of almost everything on their runways, giving shoppers many choices of spring styles to wear after a fall season of tights, shoe-boots and leather jackets. Looking for a decade to channel? Spring's got several. "I'm very excited about this spring because we've sort of got a change in silhouette, from all the baby doll and all the volume," says designer Rebecca Taylor, "to a more fitted and feminine look -- maybe slightly '40s inspired."

Gorgeous green spring came suddenly to Minnesota this year after weeks of tedious budding and blooming, a great burgeoning of foliage, and Bleak Street became the Via Paradiso, and we pale stoics took out pen and paper and wrote, "O love love love you are the best who ever was" or words to that effect, and we sat outdoors in the evening and thought of various reforms we mean to institute. More joyfulness, kindness to strangers, a general quickening of spirit, etc. I once knew a man, a true iconoclast, who drank bourbon for breakfast and chain-smoked Pall Malls and held severe views about women, the church, American lit and society in general, a sort of post-beatnik, and every spring he vowed to reform and clean up his house, which had holes in the ceiling where he had poked his broom handle at the squirrels who ran around in the attic.

VERO BEACH, FLA. -- About two hours south of where Steve Trachsel was facing the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday, Hayden Penn was preparing for his own start, one that might decide his whereabouts when the 2007 baseball season begins. With less than a week left in spring training, Penn is still in major league camp, and team officials maintain he has a shot to be on the Opening Day roster. But with all signs pointing to the Orioles' rotation being set and numerous candidates having emerged for the final two spots in the bullpen, Penn's margin of error will be extremely slim when he starts tomorrow in one of the split-squad games.

Today's fashion-forward hats are a far cry from yesterday's demure Easter bonnets, but they all have one thing in common: A wonderful hat celebrates spring and reveals a woman's most feminine side.Monica's beret may have brought hats to the attention of Americans recently, but industry experts say it doesn't have much to do with the fact that hat sales are up (10 to 15 percent every year since the mid-'80s, according to Casey Bush of the Headwear Information Bureau). Credit instead new materials that are light, flexible and durable; styles that are feminine and practical; and the current interest in sun protection for both face and hair.

When spring football got under way at the Naval Academy, two objectives were at the forefront."First, we want to develop a defense that doesn't give up the big play," said fifth-year coach Charlie Weatherbie.Ah yes, the big play. It was a back-breaker last year when the Mids went 3-8 and surrendered an average of 34 points per game, 104th-worst among the 112 teams playing NCAA Division I football."Secondly," continued the coach, "we've got to have an offense that holds onto the ball better than we did."

PitchersRicky Bones: Once projected as a spot starter, will remain in middle/long relief.Scott Erickson: Winless with an 8.38 ERA in five spring starts, could his preferred pairing with Lenny Webster return?Mike Fetters: Managed to dispel health concerns. Saved Cuba exhibition.Juan Guzman: Second in AL in exhibition ERA. Best pitcher in camp.Doug Johns: Third left-handed reliever barely hung on to 11th spot.*Scott Kamieniecki: "Strained" hamstring continues to resist treatment. Will likely miss April.

On the runways of Milan and New York, menswear designers showed ankle- baring pants, pink jackets and streamlined suits with sheen. But which of these and other trendy looks will actually make it into area stores this spring?Fashion coordinators and local menswear store owners say the interest in high style and European fashion is here, but the clothes have to be functional and comfortable as well. In other words, we'll be seeing more flat-fronted pants (although pleats still rule) but "clam diggers" probably won't be big in Baltimore.

THIRTEEN YEARS ago this month, I was squinting into the low, spring sun, smiling in satisfaction at a carefully groomed vegetable garden. Despite my clumsy weight, I had managed to plant a crop of lettuce and spinach, and I felt that I was ahead of the game.I was. But so was my daughter, who was born hours later and a whole month early.Since then, her March birthday has always arrived with a sense of urgency for me. "My garden should be in by now," I fret to myself. "I am late."Kids will make you late for everything, from church to bed. There have been years when my lettuce and spinach seeds never made it out of their colorful packets.

Maryland home prices during the spring selling season were down almost 8 percent compared with a year earlier, the federal government said Tuesday. The decline was 11th-largest in the nation, though a far cry from the more than 20 percent price drops in the battered housing markets of Nevada and Arizona. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. home prices in April through June were down about 6 percent from a year earlier. Compared with the first three months of the year, prices were down less than 1 percent nationwide.

Navy opened practice Tuesday, with its eyes set on claiming another Commander in Chief's Trophy - which would be a record seventh in a row - and winning seven games to secure its spot in the Texas Bowl, which will be held at Houston's Reliant Stadium on Dec. 31. Here are four story lines to watch: Protecting Ricky Dobbs A year ago, Ricky Dobbs was the third-string quarterback, a big-armed sophomore with a lot of promise but no experience. Now he is the clear-cut starter and one of the unquestioned leaders of Navy's offense.

After years of fishing, exploring and negotiating, the Orioles finally have settled on a new spring training facility in Florida. Starting in February 2010, the club, which has been in Fort Lauderdale since 1996, will hold spring training in Sarasota and its Ed Smith Stadium, on the western coast of the state. The big league camp will be within a dozen miles of the organization's minor league facility, which is already in Sarasota. "We look forward with great anticipation to becoming an important part of the civic fabric of the Sarasota community and to bringing Orioles baseball to the residents of the greater Sarasota area," Orioles executive vice president John Angelos, who has spearheaded the relocation effort, said in a statement.

COLLEGE PARK -The Red-White spring game offered Maryland football fans a chance to dream Saturday about what might unfold this fall and to begin - very tentatively - to answer questions about who might emerge to replace wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey and other departed front-line players from last season. The White team beat the Red team, 34-24, on a balmy afternoon at Byrd Stadium as receiver Quintin McCree, who will be a sophomore this coming season, starred despite enduring turf toe. McCree, listed second on the depth chart at the "Z" receiver when spring practices began March 24, is among a number of receivers scrambling for playing time.

Lamb is a popular dish in the spring. There are religious reasons. In Christian tradition, a lamb is symbolic of the risen Christ and is often the centerpiece of the Easter meal. In some Jewish homes, lamb is served during Passover, reminding believers of the Old Testament account of how households that adorned their door posts with the blood of the paschal lamb were spared from destruction. In some of Maryland's ethnic communities, lamb is the first choice for a ceremonial meal, regardless of the season.

SARASOTA, Fla. - As the Orioles head north at the conclusion of spring training, they leave behind facilities badly in need of either an overhaul or a wrecking ball, depending on whom you ask. This spring, Major League Baseball received multiple complaints from umpires about the conditions at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, the Orioles' major league spring training home since 1996. The situation is even worse at the team's long-time minor league complex in Sarasota, where three organizations have boycotted playing at Twin Lakes Park this spring over concerns about the fields.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -Coming into spring training, the Orioles had only one starting pitcher who was considered a known quantity. Jeremy Guthrie won 10 games in 2008 for a last-place team and his ERA ranked 14th in the American League, which made him the obvious choice to be the Opening Day starter in 2009. Six weeks later, Guthrie is struggling so badly he no longer looks like an obvious choice to be at the top of the rotation, though there are no plans to alter the pecking order. He gave up eight runs on 10 hits in his final tuneup of the spring in Wednesday's 13-2 loss to the Florida Marlins at Fort Lauderdale Stadium and will exit spring training without a decent performance since he pitched three scoreless innings in his first Grapefruit League start Feb. 28. In between, he left to pitch for the United States in the World Baseball Classic, but that didn't go particularly well, so the Orioles will open the regular season Monday with uncertainty from the top of the rotation to the bottom.

STILL FIGHTING With the Orioles apparently set on going with 13 pitchers and just 12 position players, reserve infielder Chris Gomez appears to be the odd man out for the Opening Day roster. But he made a late case for inclusion Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., going 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored and playing steady defense at shortstop. Gomez got off to a horrible start at the plate this spring, managing just one hit in his first 18 at-bats. That's the reason his average was at .200 after a three-hit day. PENN NOT MIGHTY Hayden Penn gave up six runs over 3 2/3 innings in what was cast by manager Dave Trembley as a make-or-break outing.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -The Orioles really don't need any more pitching suspense, but closer George Sherrill is providing some anyway. Sherrill came on in relief of Hayden Penn on Thursday against the Florida Marlins and allowed four straight base runners and two runs before getting the final out of the third inning, which only added to a body of exhibition work that might have manager Dave Trembley wondering whether to stick to his promise to start the...

1.5 Inches that McDonogh's Justin Gross (45 feet, 4.5 inches) beat Dorian Johnson of Mount St. Joseph by in last year's title meet high jump. No one else got better than 43-5. 3 Point differential in Archbishop Curley's victory over Mount St. Joseph in last spring's MIAA championship meet. 87 Margin of victory for McDonogh over Seton Keough in winning the IAAM championship last year. 115 Points that Western Tech's boys scored in winning their first Baltimore County title last spring.