Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas - A couple of wisecracking Orioles couldn't help themselves when they watched Tommy Hunter against the dugout railing shaking hands with members of the Texas media or Chris Davis and Omar Quintanilla chatting with Rangers fans in the stands. "Cut the cord," one player coughed into his glove. "You're an Oriole now," another one jabbed. Traveling to Texas is as much a homecoming as it is another tough road trip for the Orioles these days. Six Orioles on the 25-man roster - Davis, Hunter, Quintanilla, Darren O'Day , Taylor Teagarden and Pedro Strop - played for the Rangers at one point.

If you have never visited Texas -- Texas, Md., that is -- go quickly before the old quarry hamlet disappears.That is likely to happen later this year when McDermott's Tavern -- the town's watering hole -- and two other remaining buildings along Railroad Avenue will be torn down to make way for light-rail lines and an extension of Beaver Dam Road. After that, only St. Joseph's Catholic Church will remain as a landmark in a village that originally was settled by Irish stonecutters in the 1840s.

Orioles fans really represented in Tampa Bay this week, so we'd like hear from any Orioles fans in Texas for the wild-card playoff game. Please send an email to sports@baltsun.com letting us know if you'll be there tonight. Give us a cell or way to contact you.

Bill Clinton may or may not have been given a Texas-size boot in the pants last weekend. The fact that Democratic Sen. Bob Krueger got about 29 percent of the vote and finished second in a race to fill the Lloyd Bentsen Senate vacancy may be more a reflection on Mr. Krueger than on the president. Mr. Krueger, who was appointed in January to sit in the Senate till a special election, has a prior record of doing poorly in statewide races.But the fact that he and all other Democrats got about a third of the votes while Republican candidates got about 60 percent is certainly not good news for President Clinton's party, whoever and whatever are to blame.

Texas just might be taking this "everything's bigger" theme a little too seriously. The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum: The Story of Texas opens April 21 in Austin. Right off the bat, you'll notice the name is big, but you haven't seen anything yet. There's a 35-foot-tall bronze star outside the entrance. The lobby is four stories high and has a 40-foot-diameter mosaic covering its floor. Walk into the next room and behold the Grand Lobby, which sports a 50-foot-diameter granite map of Texas on the floor.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Tracey Anderson scored 17 points to lead Texas A&M to a season-opening 75-47 victory over UMBC last night.Texas A&M forced 30 turnovers by the Retrievers. However, UMBC out-rebounded the all-underclass Aggies, 33-24.Also, the shots just weren't falling for UMBC (0-2), which shot only 34.1 percent.Tony Thompson led the Retrievers with 15 points and seven rebounds, and Alhamisi Simms added 11 points. Kevin Bellinger also had seven rebounds.The Aggies shot 61.5 percent in running up a 40-20 halftime lead.

St. Paul's Bailey Webster wanted to go to a college with a big-time sports program. As the nation's No. 1 volleyball recruit, she had her pick of most of them. Yesterday, the 6-foot-3 outside hitter said she had chosen Texas. "When I went there, I felt like I fit in," Webster, 17, said. "I loved the girls and I loved the teams. I wanted to go to a big school that was good in sports. They're top five in volleyball, No. 1 in football and top five in basketball, so you can't do much better than that.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- If any mixed emotions remained for Rafael Palmeiro, they're gone now. One pitch from Texas rookie Rick Helling -- a fastball thrown behind his $30.35 million back -- and Palmeiro became an Oriole once and for all."The cord has been cut," Palmeiro said. "Whatever feelings were left, it's now over. What really hurts is that I stood out there for a half-hour before the game signing autographs, and those same fans booed. That's pretty sad."Palmeiro seemed most upset by the fans' reaction afterward, but manager Johnny Oates was equally livid that the right-handed ++ Helling threw so far behind the left-handed-hitting Palmeiro.

TURKEY, Texas -- Out on the sculpted caprock and between the rows of cotton, the wind is tearing along like a runaway freight train, raising curtains of dust and playing holy heck with the electric lines. Inside the Bob Wills Center, the people of Turkey are belly-up to heaping helpings of their namesake bird, eaten on long folding tables off plastic foam plates."Hi!" grins a weathered retiree in a plaid shirt and a well-worn cowboy hat. "I'm Ray Whitaker and I live in Turkey, Texas -- just the other side of Gobbler's Knob!"

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Chick Lang Sr., longtime member && of Pimlico management who is considered the architect of the success of the Preakness, has joined Lone Star Park as senior racing consultant.Lang joined Pimlico in 1960, and by the time he semi-retired in 1987, the Preakness had become one of the world's elite races.