Wade Boggs

This week, Indians designated hitter Eddie Murray probably will become the 20th member of baseball's 3,000-hit club, joining teammate Dave Winfield as the only active players in that fraternity. Other major-leaguers near 3,000, and how likely it is that they'll make contact with the milestone:Players .......... ....... CommentsAndre Dawson -- DOWN -- Dawson, 40, has 2,715 hits. Closest numerically but has no chance. Is bit player with .195 average.Wade Boggs -- WHO KNOWS -- Boggs, 37, has 2,436.

The leaders by position in voting for the 1995 American League All-Star team:Pos. Player ........ Team ....... Votes1B Will Clark ...... Texas ...... 7,3132B Roberto Alomar .. Toronto .... 7,9743B Wade Boggs ...... New York ... 8,698SS Cal Ripken ...... Orioles ... 12,155OF Ken Griffey ..... Seattle ... 14,317.. Kirby Puckett ... Minnesota .. 8,698.. Albert Belle .... Cleveland .. 5,893C Ivan Rodriguez ... Texas ...... 6,774Note: Fans can vote on-line for All-Star starters through June 26 on ABC Online, which is available on America Online.

It was a sign of the times when Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Paul Molitor suggested last week that he may retire if the strike continues deep into the season."

Chris Hoiles had to win last night's game against the New York Yankees not once, but twice.And considering what a big win it was, Hoiles probably should be credited with two game-winning RBIs.Hoiles homered in the seventh inning to give the Orioles a one-run lead that quickly turned into a one-run deficit. Not to worry, he came back to drive in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the Orioles' five-run eighth inning.The 8-4 comeback victory enabled the Orioles to move within two games of the first-place Yankees in the American League East race.

While everyone kept waiting for the New York Rangers to complete their collapse in the Stanley Cup finals, the Orioles were doing a nice impersonation of a fold of their own at Camden Yards.Leading 3-2 in the ninth, with their ace closer, Lee Smith, seemingly close to nailing down a win that would have once again tightened the American League East race to one game, the Yankees staged a two-run, ninth-inning rally to win 4-3.The Orioles, who fell to three games off the pace, came completely unglued, committing two errors in the inning, as Smith, the major league saves leader, blew his second save at home in the last three weeks.

I'm hot, you're hot, and the All-Star Game in Baltimore is very, very hot. Oriole Park is the hot ballpark in the hot baseball city and we hear that $60 tickets are getting four figures on the open market.In this spirit of heat, we pause today to talk about the hot corner. Third base. Baltimore is where modern third-base play was invented in the 1960s by Brooks Robinson. Third base tonight will be the hot spot for citizens of Red Sox Nation.Wade Boggs and Scott Cooper have been in one another's face for the better part of five years and they'll be teammates again in this 64th All-Star Game.

The All-Star Game inspires equal parts awe, fear and, in some cases, even dread among baseball's rank and file.Wade Boggs calls it "three days of bedlam." Paul Molitor shakes his head when he recalls the "50 dozen balls and 300 bats" that are waiting on the clubhouse table to be signed. Harold Reynolds remembers the case of nerves he had at his first All-Star outing.Then there is Mickey Tettleton's glazed-eye recollection of his lone All-Star experience in 1989 while a member of the Orioles.

The good-luck baseball card was where it should be, where it has been most of his pro career -- in his back pocket.John O'Donoghue, though, was clearly on unfamiliar ground -- on a major-league mound, facing big-league hitters, in the heat of an early-summer pennant race.The major-league debut of the Orioles' 24-year-old pitching prospect was no overnight success story.But when O'Donoghue walked off the mound in the middle of the seventh inning yesterday, trailing the New York Yankees, 6-3, he had done his job. Which was to keep the Orioles in the game long enough to give them a chance to win.It was for that reason that another sellout crowd at Camden Yards gave the young left-hander a standing ovation, that Rick Sutcliffe met him at the top step of the dugout with the words, "Good job."

The fans have spoken, and they don't hold Cal Ripken's prolonged hitting slump against him.In the first release of the American League All-Star balloting yesterday, the Orioles shortstop held the biggest lead at any position, a whopping 132,849 votes over the Detroit Tigers' Travis Fryman.With a total of 198,427 votes, he is entrenched as the overwhelming favorite to start the 64th All-Star Game at Oriole Park on July 13.Even with his .218 average, Ripken was the American League's second-leading vote-getter in the early fan returns.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles are better -- and in a better position to win the American League East -- than they were last season. But watch out for those New York Yankees with newcomers Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key and Jim Abbott.That's what manager Johnny Oates said in a question-and-answer session with The Sun last week. In fact, Oates said he thinks the Yankees are the most improved team in the division: "Talent-wise, I put New York right up there with Toronto."As for his own team, Oates is expecting big comebacks from Cal Ripken and Glenn Davis to propel the Orioles to more than the 89 victories they had in 1992.