Veterans Stadium

Quote: "There were a few times when I thought it was a routine fly ball and then I turn around and it's to the warning track. It's not a fun place to pitch." -- Mets' Al Leiter, who won for the first time in four starts at Coors Field, 14-11 It's a fact: The Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson has three RBIs, two fewer than the number of earned runs he has allowed. Who's hot: The Reds' Dmitri Young is .500 (11-for-22) over the past six games. Who's not: Dodgers catchers have failed to throw out a runner in 20 stolen-base attempts this season.

PHILADELPHIA -- Roz Kelly scanned the thousands of Army cadets in their blue-gray uniforms on the Veterans Stadium parking lot, wondering where the heck she was going to put them all."We're going to have to put them in Highlandtown or Glen Burnie," the Baltimore Office of Promotions worker said.Kelly was part of a five-member Baltimore contingent that visited Philadelphia this month to study how to play host to an American sporting event as legendary as the Super Bowl and World Series: the Army-Navy football game.

PHILADELPHIA -- The hot seat Army coach Bob Sutton has been sitting on most of this season is now scalding, thanks to sophomore quarterback Brian Madden and the Navy football team.Madden and the Midshipmen pushed the mistake-riddled Cadets all around Veterans Stadium yesterday for a 19-9 victory that could possibly force Sutton's exit as head coach after nine seasons.Army finished the season with a 3-8 record and is 44-55-1 under Sutton. Even though Sutton is 6-3 against Navy, talk has surfaced around West Point that his job is in jeopardy with one season remaining on his contract.

As the annual Army-Navy football classic gets under way today at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, some 70,000 fans will witness the 100th clash of the midshipmen from Annapolis and the West Point cadets.Next year, the excitement will be in Baltimore, when the two teams take to the gridiron at PSINet Stadium. It will be the first time that the game will be played locally since 1944.That year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that the game be moved to Baltimore's Municipal Stadium on 33rd Street from the West Point and Annapolis campuses.

The Army-Navy game, an epic matchup of the service academies' football teams that has been held nearly every fall for more than a century, will be played in Baltimore next year.A "major announcement" by the U.S. Naval Academy has been scheduled today at PSINet Stadium, home of the Ravens. Officials are expected to reveal that the game will be played at Baltimore's downtown stadium Dec. 2, 2000, according to several sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity."I will not and cannot confirm that," said Eric Ruden, a spokesman for the Naval Academy.

The Ravens have tentatively scheduled four preseason opponents and are close to securing Aug. 12 as the exhibition opener against the Philadelphia Eagles at Veterans Stadium.The Ravens also expect to play their second preseason contest on the road -- against the Atlanta Falcons, losers of Super Bowl XXXIII -- the following week.The Ravens will wrap up the preseason with two home games, the first against the Carolina Panthers, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 28, and the second against the New York Giants, on Sept.

Complaints about deteriorating conditions at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium had long preceded Saturday's Army-Navy game mishap in which a railing collapse sent nine fans hurtling to the AstroTurf field -- including a West Point cadet who suffered a fractured bone in his neck.The accident may prompt the Naval Academy and U.S. Military Academy to review whether they will play future games at the 27-year-old stadium. A contract between the academies and the city of Philadelphia for use of Veterans Stadium expires in 2002.

PHILADELPHIA -- The same team that lasted 128 games without a shutout suffered its second in three days last night. Adding to the degree of incredulity, the Orioles were undone by the Philadelphia Phillies and a starting pitcher with six wins in 42 previous major-league starts.Not only did the pitching-starved Orioles lose, 2-0, before 27,602 at Veterans Stadium, they sacrificed a precious performance by Sidney Ponson (0-4) and relievers Alan Mills, Jesse Orosco and Armando Benitez.It was the first time since last Sept.

PHILADELPHIA -- Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis lives to play football, and he prepared to take the field at Veterans Stadium last night with a renewed appreciation for his livelihood.Eleven days into his second training camp, Lewis suffered his scariest injury. He was involved in a collision with rookie fullback Kenyon Cotton, and suffered a severe neck "burner." Flown by helicopter to the University of Maryland Hospital's Shock Trauma Center, Lewis soon found out that his injury was not serious.