Texas Rangers

WASHINGTON -- After days of delicate negotiation, Attorney General Janet Reno will announce today that former Sen. John C. Danforth will head an independent inquiry into the FBI's conduct at Waco, Texas, and whether the agency later tried to conceal information about it.Reno, who has acknowledged that her credibility has been damaged by recent revelations, yielded to pressure to grant Danforth broad powers to subpoena evidence that will allow him to conduct...

Quote: "It's only the third day. I don't know if the same thing is going to happen like last year. I'm like the weather -- when it's hot, I'm hot. I've got to continue to be patient."Sammy Sosa of the Cubs, who homered for the second consecutive game yesterday and hit a major-league record 20 home runs last June.It's a fact: The Cardinals are 1-16 when they score fewer than four runs.Who's hot: The Cubs' Kevin Tapani is 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA in his last seven starts.Who's not: The Astros' Shane Reynolds lost yesterday for the third time in four starts.

First baseman Will Clark will leave today for Florida, where he will begin a brief injury rehabilitation assignment at the Orioles' extended spring training program in Sarasota.Clark will play in camp games Friday and Saturday, getting extra at-bats by leading off every inning. It is the same routine that Cal Ripken employed before returning from the disabled list last week. If all goes well, he'll rejoin the major-league club in Anaheim for the start of a nine-game West Coast swing.Manager Ray Miller seemed confident yesterday that Clark would not need many at-bats to find his stroke.

Major League Baseball teams, emboldened by last year's banner season and home run records, have increased their ticket prices by an average of 9.7 percent for the 1999 season.The Orioles, who didn't increase prices this year, nonetheless have the fifth-highest-priced tickets in baseball. Orioles tickets will average $19.82 each, well above the major-league average ($14.91), according to a survey by Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based newsletter."Baseball marketers clearly are confident that the wave of fan support from a banner year in 1998 will continue this season," said Sean Brenner, editor of Team Marketing Report.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The columnist, who writes about politics to support his baseball habit, asks the former part-owner of the Texas Rangers about possible solutions to the revenue imbalances that threaten Major League Baseball's competitive balance. Gov. George W. Bush seems to relish talking about a subject close to his heart and distant from presidential campaigning, which is a grind akin to a 162-game season.One way to measure a politician's mind is to get him talking about something other than politics.

Can't Hit This!, TIME CAPSULEMajor-league pitchers threw a record seven no-hitters in one season. Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers (below) hurled his sixth career no-hitter. He was the oldest pitcher (age 43) to pitch a hitless game. (Nolan threw his seventh in 1991.)ON YOUR MARK ... ATHLETES vs. ANIMALSFleet-footed cornerback and wide receiver Deion Sanders of the Dallas Cowboys has been timed at 4.29 seconds in the 40-yard dash. That's one quick sprint! But a cheetah is three times quicker!

At The Ballpark in Arlington, TexasDay Time TV StartersTonight 8: 05 HTS Jason Johnson (6-7, 5.89) vs. Esteban Loaiza (8-4, 4.85)Tomorrow 8: 05 HTS Scott Erickson (14-11, 4.76) vs. Rick Helling (13-9, 4.71)Radio: All games on WBAL (1090 AM) and WTOP (1500 AM)Rangers updateSo much for two weeks of cotton candy and peach-fuzz pitchers. Now the scalding Orioles get to chew on the meat of their September schedule with a season-ending, 14-game stretch against playoff contenders. The fun begins tonight against the Texas Rangers, 41-22 since the All-Star break and 6 1/2 games on top in the AL West.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Maybe this isn't the same magical New York Yankees team that rewrote the record book last year and cruised through the playoffs and World Series, but it certainly must have looked that way to the Texas Rangers.The 1998 Yankees swept the Division Series, holding the vaunted Rangers offensive attack to a single run.The 1999 Yankees?Ditto.Future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens shut out the Rangers on three hits for seven innings and Darryl Strawberry provided all the offensive punch on the way to a 3-0 Game 3 victory that propelled the Yankees into the American League Championship Series for the third time in the past four years.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Whatever emotional boost the Orioles might have anticipated from Cal Ripken's return last night was quickly erased by the reality of their many deficiencies. In a game lowlighted by a defense that committed five errors, an offense that grounded into four double plays and a pitching staff that surrendered three home runs in an inning, the Orioles were crushed, 15-7, by the Texas Rangers.They don't come much uglier than this one witnessed by 40,678 at The Ballpark in Arlington.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- After a night in which they twice rallied before receiving a ninth-inning home run from Cal Ripken, the Orioles arrived at The Ballpark yesterday still stunned by how a potentially uplifting moment against the Texas Rangers could be overwhelmed by another Texas-sized dose of clubhouse intrigue.Worse than the 7-6 loss was how it happened.Former Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro yanked a two-run, two-out double off reliever Arthur Rhodes (1-2) to break a hard-fought 4-4 tie in the seventh inning.

A SUNDAY WIN With their 8-5 victory against the Texas Rangers, the Orioles have won on Sunday for the first time in three tries this season. The club was 4-21 last year in Sunday games, winning its first and then dropping 15 straight. KINSLER HITLESS On Sunday's first pitch, Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler crushed Brad Bergesen's offering to deep left for what appeared to be a colossal home run. Umpires called it foul, though TV angles showed it might have been fair. Kinsler, who led off Saturday's game with a homer, then struck out on three pitches.

It appears the Boston Red Sox are out of the running for Mark Teixeira. After several outlets earlier reported that club officials were meeting last night with Scott Boras, agent for the free-agent first baseman, Red Sox owner John Henry e-mailed media members and said the team had dropped out of the bidding. According to the Boston Globe Web site, Henry's e-mail, sent at 10:45 p.m., said: "We met with Mr. Teixeira and were very much impressed with him. After hearing about his other offers, however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor."

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Orioles' six-game winning streak survived at least another day. The Orioles' game last night against the Texas Rangers was postponed because of rain and will be made up today as part of a doubleheader at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The first pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. "What you'd like to do is just play," said Orioles manager Dave Trembley, whose team is 6-1. "I would have preferred to play, but obviously, the elements are such where you can't.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Orioles pitcher Brian Burres usually watches tape of his previous performances against the team he is about to oppose, but he decided not to before yesterday's game, and for good reason. The only other time Burres faced the Texas Rangers, he allowed eight earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in the Orioles' historic 30-3 loss in August. Reviewing that tape would serve only to conjure up memories from a past that Burres and the Orioles are trying to distance themselves from every day. They're both off to quite a start.

First, on a personal note, I would like to express heartfelt appreciation for the nice staff person from the Greater Baltimore Committee who grabbed a wad of paper napkins and helped me out of an embarrassing spot a few weeks ago. As I finished a speech at the graduation of this year's GBC Leadership program at DLA Piper in Mount Washington, a long strand of greenish-gray gum suddenly appeared, stretching between my right shoe and the floor by the podium....

The Bill James Handbook 2008, to be published Nov. 1, includes a section called "Young Talent Inventory." And in it, he rates Nick Markakis No. 16 among players younger than 29. James defines "young talent" as players younger than 29 in 2007 and uses runs created for position players and runs allowed for pitchers as a basis for comparison. Here's what he writes about Markakis: "A beautiful left-handed stroke, sort of in the mold of Paul O'Neill, Mike Greenwell or Garret Anderson as a hitter, possibly even Billy Williams."

Arlington, Texas -- No matter how bad their record is and how many blowouts they've endured, the Orioles have maintained all along that they haven't quit, that they haven't given up on a season that has dealt them one humbling blow after another. Last night, they found themselves in familiar position, trailing the Texas Rangers by four runs after the third inning and another short and ineffective outing by a starting pitcher. They cut the lead to one run in the fourth, only to watch their beat-up bullpen give two runs right back in the bottom of the inning.

During the early months of the 2007 baseball season, I took it upon myself - on a number of occasions - to talk Orioles fans off the proverbial ledge as the club floundered for the 10th straight season. Now, I'm standing on it myself. The team that was supposedly turning a corner has turned south again, this time in such dramatic fashion that I could have sworn I heard Jim Hunter's voice crack during that 11-run eighth inning in Tuesday night's 15-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Things have gotten so bad that the big media question going around the clubhouse afterward was which game was worse, that one or the 30-3 fiasco against the Texas Rangers that sent the Orioles into their current spiral.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS -- When he recorded his last strikeout on a night full of them, Erik Bedard pounded his glove with his fist and then hugged his catcher, Ramon Hernandez. It was a display of emotion the Orioles have rarely seen from the stoic Bedard, but it certainly was fitting for the occasion. In the Orioles' 3-0 victory over the Texas Rangers last night at Ameriquest Field, Bedard tied a franchise record with 15 strikeouts, including 10 of 12 batters at one point. He faced the minimum number of batters, as the Rangers had two hits and no walks and had both base runners erased on double plays.

Maybe you can sympathize with NFL Most Valuable Player LaDainian Tomlinson. He watched his great season end prematurely Sunday and then had to watch a bunch of childish New England Patriots players mock teammate Shawne Merriman at midfield after the game. That kind of thing has to hurt, but the Chargers are a little late to the party if they just now have come to the conclusion that it's bush league for NFL players to engage in crudely choreographed celebration. And the notion that Merriman's trademark sack dance somehow falls within the boundaries of football etiquette while a post-game spoof of it does not is almost as silly as the sack dance itself.