Tag

I've noticed over the years that more base runners go halfway on deep fly balls rather than tag. Are the percentages better when you go halfway or when you tag? Tec McCutchen, Frederick DEAR TEC / / I'm assuming you are talking about big league baseball by your comment about watching it over the years. This base-running decision is not a matter of straight percentages. There are very few opportunities to successfully tag up from first base and make it to second. Second base is centered in the middle of the diamond and almost all big league outfielders can throw the ball accurately to second from any of the outfield positions.

County police arrested an Annapolis man Sunday on charges of stealing a car license tag.Theodore Albert Gilman, 29, of the 1200 block of Marda Lane was charged with theft.Police stopped a 1981 Toyota Celica that was traveling south on Ritchie Highway near Aquahart Road in Glen Burnie shortly after 4: 30 p.m. because it had no front tag, police said.The driver told Officer Michael Galligan that the tag that was on the car did not belong to him, police said, but that he found it in his yard.

I am crossing the street, well within the hatched pedestrian pathway. Ahead, the green light that spells "WALK" verifies that I am proceeding in the right direction, in the right place, and at the right time. Then I freeze, suddenly aware that my life will end in a fraction of a second. A zooming car has run through a red light and I am about to be hit hard, run over and killed. One of my last thoughts will not be to note the license tag number of the speeding car as it crushes me. I can't read it fast enough, and I'm beyond caring.

The Ravens placed the franchise tag on Terrell Suggs yesterday, keeping the Pro Bowl linebacker-defensive end for another season while trying to work out a long-term deal. "This is news to me," Suggs said yesterday of being franchised. "I didn't know. Last year they called me when they franchised me, and I expected the same thing this year. There is nothing I can really do about it." When asked whether he were angry or whether the Ravens might eventually sign him to a long-term deal, Suggs said: "We'll wait and see. I'm at the airport and on a plane from Arizona back to Baltimore.

Price tag blocks changes in federal benefits Federal workers have generally viewed Democrats as more attentive to their needs than Republicans. But since Democrats took over Congress in November, groups that represent workers, executives and retirees are split when it comes to the age-old question: What have you done for me lately? Legislative directors for groups that represent retirees and senior executives have identified two roadblocks. For the senior executives, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by California Democrat Henry A. Waxman, has shifted staff resources from drafting legislation to investigating wrongdoing in the executive branch, said Bill Bransford, general counsel of the Senior Executives Association.

LIFE IN THE Free State is always filled with challenges, but never before have we faced the emotional Mount Everest that lies before us now. I speak here, of course, about Maryland's new license plate, this ... this farm thing. Is it me, or is this the weirdest license plate you ever saw in your life? In fact, this new "ag-tag" is weird on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin. First, there's the color, this red-ish, orange-ish, yellow-ish mix which immediately evokes ... well, not Maryland, that's for sure.

Champion Industries Inc., a Huntington, W.Va.-based business form printer, announced yesterday that it had agreed to buy Baltimore-based U.S. Tag & Ticket, the nation's oldest maker of paper tags, for $1.1 million in stock.Tom Burdette, president of the privately owned tag company, a division of U.S. Tag & Label, said that Champion planned to keep operating the 30-worker East Baltimore plant.Mr. Burdette said the tag company's owners had turned down other, more lucrative offers from competitors who planned to shut the Baltimore plant.

Although it's long been expected the Ravens will use the franchise tag on Jamal Lewis, general manager Ozzie Newsome suggested yesterday that is not a certainty. The Ravens have 15 days before an NFL-mandated deadline that will force them to either place the tag on their all-time leading rusher or let him become an unrestricted free agent. If the Ravens use the tag on Lewis, they can stop him from becoming a free agent with a one-year tender worth $6 million. If they decide against it, Lewis would enter a loaded running back market, which is expected to include Seattle's Shaun Alexander, Indianapolis' Edgerrin James and Carolina's DeShaun Foster.

This debate might be moot, since Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti has already said the team would not put the franchise tag on Ray Lewis. Then again, he also said Brian Billick's job was safe right before he fired him. As it pertains to franchising Lewis, the question isn't "will they?" It's "should they?" If the Ravens believe putting the tag on Lewis increases their chances of making a Super Bowl run next season, then they should not hesitate to do it. The Ravens have a responsibility to do what's best for the team, not what's best for any individual player, even one as great as Lewis.

While the Ravens ended any mystery surrounding the franchise tag - general manager Ozzie Newsome said yesterday they plan to use it to keep Terrell Suggs off the free-agent market - some uncertainty remains. If the Ravens and Suggs can't strike a new deal by tomorrow, how will Suggs, a Pro Bowl linebacker, take being tagged for a second straight season? Suggs, who has talked about his desire to stay with the Ravens (even suggesting a hometown discount), recently said he wants a long-term deal, not the franchise tag. "If they don't see me in their future long term, do not draw me out when I'm 26," Suggs told TRA Sports 910 in Phoenix on Friday during NBA All-Star festivities.