Unload

It's only May (remember when it was "only April"?), and it's not like Dan Quayle is president or anything, so it's still probably a little early to panic. But, tell me, what do you think of the Mickey Tettleton for Jeff Robinson trade?I mean, right now.Do you think it was a good idea to unload the Mick to make way for Ernie Whitt et al?Do you think Jeff Robinson is headed for the bullpen?L Do you think Frank Robinson is headed for a deep depression?It's only May and statistics are not yet what you'd call meaningful, but, as of now, Tettleton is off to a Tettleton-type year, which, for good or ill, is a lot more than any of the Orioles' catchers can say.To examine the offensive, uh, production of the three Orioles catchers, one should first avail oneself of a magnifying glass.

SILOPI, Turkey -- Bedrya Rashid found lunch growing by the gravel lot on the edge of Turkey's model refugee camp here yesterday -- a plant leaf called chandar in Kurdish, not something she normally eats or gives to her family."

Because of an editing error, late editions of the Sunday Business section contained an incorrect description of how labor contract provisions affect ship-loading operations at night at the port of Baltimore. Under the old contract, longshoremen's pay would begin at 7 p.m. even if loading could not begin until hours later that night. Since a crew at night costs about $2,500 an hour, most ship owners would choose to delay loading until 8 a.m., the next regular starting time.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

"We were the best of friends when we first got married, but now Alan and I have only the shell of a marriage. Inside, there's nothing," says Jane, a 42-year-old teacher and mother of two school-age children."I'm sure everyone thinks things are just fine," she adds, and on the surface, they are. "We go out with friends and have a good time; we're there for our kids; we function like every other couple." Function is the key word, she explains, because as far as she's concerned, their marriage is more like a business relationship -- and a barely civil one at that.

Soccer shenanigans?Is it true that your paper gave an ultimatum to FIFA concerning coverage of the World Cup, that in order to make soccer more interesting to Sun personnel, your demands were: Use a "rabbit" ball, shorten the field, and have the San Diego chicken running on the sidelines?Zbigniew PiatekBaltimoreC. Ripken, Oates are OKI am in the Air Force stationed in Germany and am an avid Orioles fan. My sister sends me the Sunday Sun regularly, and I just received the Aug. 2 edition. I can't help but respond to the first two letters.

An article in The Sun's Business section yesterday contained incorrect information about the current rules governing the unloading of ships in Baltimore. Although ships can be unloaded after 7 p.m., dockworkers must be paid starting at 7 p.m. even if the work does not begin until hours later. For example, if a ship arrived at midnight, the union crews would be paid for the five hours from 7 p.m. to midnight, plus whatever time was actually required to unload the ship.The Sun regrets the errors.

PHOENIX - The Orioles might be a team to watch on the free-agent market this year, but they sure didn't jump yesterday, when the market opened, the way the Philadelphia Phillies did last year. As soon as the 2002 opening bell sounded, the Phillies made formal offers to Jim Thome, Tom Glavine and David Bell. Eventually, Philadelphia wound up signing Bell and Thome, whose six-year, $85 million contract was the biggest any player signed all offseason. This year, the Orioles have strong interest in Montreal Expos right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, the most coveted player on the market, but so far, they're using a more conservative approach.

A nyone looking for Marcus Antwan Pearson knew to find him on the edge of Normal Avenue, a small, hopeless stretch of one-way street pointing toward Harford Road in North Baltimore. Here, he dealt crack cocaine alongside other young men in T-shirts and baggy jeans, red bandannas hanging like flags from their back pockets. In a day, he could make $1,700, which he spent on cheap hotels and feel-good highs from Ecstasy, marijuana and women. Pearson had grown up tall - 6-foot-2 - and narrow in East Baltimore, where he was born.

CHICAGO -- Sears, Roebuck & Co. is about as proud of its 110-story headquarters, the world's tallest building, as it is of its famous catalog -- which it killed a couple of years ago.Now, after six years of trying to get rid of its headquarters, the retailer is turning over the soaring black glass office tower to its mortgage lenders. Sears said last week that in exchange for getting out from under $850 million in debt -- twice what the building is worth -- it gets a $195 million fourth-quarter gain.

The search for the killers of Baltimore millionaire J. Schuyler "Sky" Alland was at a standstill in the summer of 1992. Whoever executed the businessman for his $80,000 black BMW apparently had gotten away with murder -- not to mention the car.U.S. Park Police Detective Timothy M. Squires was handling the first murder of his career, but he made a bold promise."He promised that he would find these guys," said Dorothy Alland Leighton, Mr. Alland's mother. "He said, 'Even when I retire, I'll continue to work on this case with no pay until I find who killed your son.' "His promise was fulfilled Wednesday when federal prosecutors wrapped up an intricate nationwide investigation into the February 1992 murder with the conviction of the killer, John Graham Bridges, 30, of Norfolk, Va. A co-defendant, Robert Patrick Gray, 25, of Cockeysville pleaded guilty Nov. 5."