Warning Track

In the middle of his 2,031st consecutive game, iron man Cal Ripken went the extra mile.Prodded by teammates Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla, the Orioles' record-setting shortstop took a virtual victory lap around Camden Yards during a tumultuous 22-minute, 15-second ovation last night.Under a full moon and with President Clinton looking on, the bare-headed Ripken jogged along the warning track, shaking hands with fans, groundskeepers, security personnel and even the California Angels lined up in front of their dugout.

I DON'T KNOW the fellow's name but he must be the only Orioles fan alive who thought it a wonderful development that Jack Voigt, former Bird, happened to be in left field for the Brewers over the weekend.As we know too well, the Brewers swept three games from the Orioles at Camden Yards; and Voigt, who was batting .229 before the series, had some fun for the winners. He hit a home run Friday night off Jimmy Key. He went two-for-four Saturday. He hit another home run Sunday off Mike Mussina.

His strong start has been overshadowed a bit by his good friend and fellow Orioles mainstay Brian Roberts, but right fielder Nick Markakis leads the first-place Orioles -- that will never get old, will it? -- in batting average and has made significant contributions in each of the team’s four season-opening wins. The finest play, of course, was has game-saving, Web-gemming grab on Saturday. With two out, two on and Baltimore leading by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tampa Bay’s Ben Zobrist smashed a Kevin Gregg pitch deep to right field.

From above and beyond the Bromo Seltzer Tower that stands beyond left-center field, gusts of wind began to drive into Camden Yards in the early innings last night. Orioles left fielder Brady Anderson felt them at his back, while they blew into the face of shortstop Cal Ripken, changing directions as they swirled through the ballpark.On a night when the pitching of the New York Yankees needed little help, these winds finished off the Orioles, robbing them of their one late-inning hope to tie a game that ended, 2-1, before a sellout crowd of 46,536.

At the ballpark:Baseball's the national pastime, my eye; eating and drinking is. Watched a guy make four trips out to the concession stands (or other) plus conduct high finance with three vendors circulating the stands. The ticket price was only an incidental expense for this dude.The night Henry Aaron larruped home run No. 715 in Atlanta, at least 10 percent of the sold-out crowd was on the concourses stoking up.* One fleeting glance at the Yankees makes you wonder how that cast got right up around .500 at the All-Star break.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Standing uncomfortably alone without a sense of control, Jose Mercedes found himself in the compromising position of having walked four consecutive hitters in the third inning of yesterday's game against the Anaheim Angels. Orioles pitching coach Sammy Ellis already had exhausted his one mound visit for the inning. Brook Fordyce had tried everything a catcher could do for his struggling pitcher. Now Mercedes stood with a full count, two outs, a one-run lead and the bases loaded against Angels right fielder Garret Anderson, one pitch away from manager Mike Hargrove coming for the ball.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- As of Tuesday, the Orioles' starting rotation becomes whole again. With a productive side session, Scott Kamieniecki confirmed yesterday that he has sufficiently recovered from a groin pull and an inflamed right elbow to leave the disabled list Tuesday, when he will make his first start since April 24 against the Minnesota Twins."

The writer of these letters, Jim Bready, retired Evening Sun editorial writer, is the author of "The Home Team." a history of baseball in Baltimore.Welcome to the 1993 showdown. How big a moment this is, thoseof you who played in previous All-Star games know already. Those of you who are first-timers in this thing, glad you made it and are here, but don't for a minute mistake the seriousness of all this. Tell yourselves, keep telling yourselves, here is any season's biggest test.The World Series is all very nice, but after all half the players on each team don't belong there; they got carried into it by the really good players.

Cardinals: Cleanup hitter Ron Gant was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring. . . . Before the game, the No. 2 jersey of Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, who's been a player, manager and coach for 44 seasons with the team, was retired.Dodgers: Eric Karros, who walked twice and lined out to the warning track in center field and hit into a double play, is in an 0-for-24 slump.Mariners: Left-hander Randy Johnson, who has left his past two starts early and hasn't pitched in 10 days due to back and calf injuries, is scheduled to start today.

Quote: "We walked too many guys. It's ugly, but we got a win." -- Marlins manager Jim Leyland after 12-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.It's a fact: Matt Williams of the Diamondbacks recently hit a ball off the warning track and into the swimming pool beyond the right-center-field fence in Bank One Ballpark. It was announced in the press box as "a ground-pool double."Who's hot: Pirates catcher Jason Kendall, a career .247 hitter in April, is hitting .366 (30-for-82) with two homers and 13 RBIs.