Winnipeg

Site: Memorial Stadium.Time: 2 p.m.Line: Baltimore by 2.TV/Radio: HTS/WJFK (1300 AM)Tickets: 18,000 still available yesterday.zTC Records: Winnipeg 12-4, Baltimore 11-5.Last week: Winnipeg overcame a 34-7 deficit to beat Hamilton, 46-44. Baltimore beat B.C., 48-31.Last meeting: Winnipeg overcame a 25-10 deficit to beat Baltimore, 39-32, on July 28 in Winnipeg. QB Matt Dunigan threw for 435 yards and four touchdowns to put both teams at 2-2 in the East.On the sidelines: Winnipeg's Cal Murphy is 69-30-1 in his seventh CFL season.

Almost as if he's required to be quirky, given that he's a left-handed reliever and it's practically law, Orioles closer George Sherrill keeps every memo and sheet of paper distributed by the team. Rather than taking a quick glance and tossing them in the nearest trash receptacle, he tapes one edge to the next and hangs them at his locker, creating the impression that he's more interested in saving trees than games. Sherrill has performed this one-man crusade against waste since his days in Winnipeg, where a guy apparently can learn a lot more than how to stay warm and not surrender his dream of pitching in the majors.

Site: Winnipeg (Manitoba) StadiumTime: 8:30Line: Winnipeg by 6TV/Radio: No TV/WJFK (1300 AM)Records: Baltimore, 2-1 in Eastern Division; Winnipeg, 1-2 in EasternLast week: Baltimore beat Shreveport, 40-24, and Winnipeg was routed by Calgary, 58-19.On the sidelines: Cal Murphy, in his 12th year with the team, is coach and general manager. He has a career record of 74-46-3, and the Bombers have won three Grey Cups under his leadership. Don Matthews is in his 10th season as a CFL head coach, first in Baltimore, and has a career record of 98-60-1.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - When the lights came up and a long ovation ended, former President Bill Clinton must have been taken aback by the sight of all those bright red seat backs. Presidents do not speak to empty chairs. But Clinton spoke to almost 900 of them here one night this week. More than a third of the 2,305 seats in Centennial Concert Hall went unsold for Clinton's Tuesday night lecture urging nations to cooperate to cure disease, eradicate poverty and battle terrorism. And a few seats were vacated, as the lights came on, by people eager to beat the rush to the coat-check room as Clinton prepared to field questions.

Toronto got its wish, Ottawa got its free pass and Baltimore got second place.Consider the stage set for Baltimore's first appearance in the CFL playoffs.And once again, the Eastern Division path to the Nov. 27 Grey Cup runs through Winnipeg. Or, as Baltimore rush end Elfrid Payton calls it, "Winter-peg."The CFLs (12-6) will make their postseason splash Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Toronto Argonauts (7-11) in Memorial Stadium.That pairing was determined yesterday, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (13-6)

Through the years, my job as a sports reporter has taken me to a lot of interesting places -- New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, Quebec and Montreal for hockey games, San Francisco for a Super Bowl, even to London for Wimbledon.Most of the time, my friends willingly suggest they slip into my suitcase or come along as a photographer. But when the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League opened their season in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last fall, no one offered to join me."Good luck," said one. "Stay warm."

The last time Baltimore and Winnipeg met in a Canadian Football League game, an Eastern Division title was on the line, ++ the weather was brutally cold and windy, and the visitors from Baltimore got a memorable taste of Canadian nationalism.Eight months later, the picture has changed drastically. The Baltimore Stallions are the class of the CFL's new, five-team Southern Division of U.S.-based teams. The Blue Bombers, trying to recover from the loss of quarterback Matt Dunigan to free agency, are stumbling in the Northern Division.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- It was the first game of an 84-game season, but for the Washington Capitals, it was one that shouldn't have gotten away.They sat around in this windy, central plains city for three days plotting victory. And then, when they had it in their hands, when they had a 4-3 lead with 10:07 gone in the third period, they let it slip away.That was the hard part. That's what had Caps coach Terry Murray looking a little grim last night, after his Caps lost to the Winnipeg Jets, 6-4, before a sellout crowd of 15,363 at the Winnipeg Arena.

Right wing John Druce knew he might not be in the plans of the Washington Capitals. Yesterday afternoon, he sat in the locker room after practice and talked about how he had "to make the Caps want me." He hoped he could pull it off tonight and tomorrow in the last two exhibition games of the NHL preseason.Instead, when the Caps play the Skipjacks, their AHL farm team, tonight at the Arena, Druce will be packing for Winnipeg.Last night, Druce was traded to the Jets for right wing Pat Elynuik, who has scored at least 25 goals in each of the last four seasons.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - When the lights came up and a long ovation ended, former President Bill Clinton must have been taken aback by the sight of all those bright red seat backs. Presidents do not speak to empty chairs. But Clinton spoke to almost 900 of them here one night this week. More than a third of the 2,305 seats in Centennial Concert Hall went unsold for Clinton's Tuesday night lecture urging nations to cooperate to cure disease, eradicate poverty and battle terrorism. And a few seats were vacated, as the lights came on, by people eager to beat the rush to the coat-check room as Clinton prepared to field questions.

This past Sunday, Winnie the Pooh -- the fictional yellow bear who's inspired such philosophical texts as The Tao of Pooh, Pooh and the Philosophers and Postmodern Pooh -- turned 75. The Havre de Grace Branch Library is celebrating with a belated birthday bash Monday, featuring games, stories and treats. Now most of us know a thing or two about Pooh: He eats "hunny" by the fistful; he hangs out with a miniature pig, a bouncing tiger and a donkey; and he possesses a rather irrational fear of imaginary "Woozles," "Heffalumps" and "Jagulars."

Avalanche: Peter Forsberg became the fourth player in the NHL this season to register 100 points when he recorded four assists in Colorado's 7-5 victory Saturday over Vancouver.Blues: Wayne Gretzky scored his first two goals at his new St. Louis home and the Blues defeated the Hartford Whalers, 6-3, on Saturday.Devils: Steve Thomas scored twice -- including the winning goal 21 seconds into overtime -- as New Jersey beat Pittsburgh on Saturday, 4-3.Islanders: Eric Fichaud made 38 saves Saturday as New York beat Winnipeg, 4-2.Jets: Eddie Olczyk, Winnipeg's second-leading goal scorer with 25, could be out for up to six weeks with a second-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his knee.

LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets used every ounce of energy they had trying to win last night, but neither could get the best of Washington goalie Jim Carey or Winnipeg's Nikolai Khabibulin.Both frustrated the other team in a game that ended in a 1-1 tie.Carey was brilliant with a 24-save performance and Khabibulin was equally so with 37 stops.It took Winnipeg's leading scorer Teemu Selanne's brilliant pass to defenseman Teppo Numminen with 2:29 left in the second period to beat Carey on a power play.

Site: Memorial StadiumTime: 1 p.m.Line: Baltimore by 16Radio: WJFK (1300 AM), WGRX (100.7 FM)Records: Baltimore 15-3; Winnipeg 7-11.Last week: Baltimore beat Hamilton, 24-17; Winnipeg scored 19 straight points in the fourth quarter to make the playoffs with a 36-33 win over Ottawa.First meeting: Baltimore scored 20 points in the fourth quarter in a 43-7 rout of Winnipeg at Memorial Stadium on July 22.On the sidelines: Baltimore's Don Matthews has a 125-69-1 record in 11 CFL seasons and is the fourth-winningest coach in league history.

The Baltimore Stallions put the finishing touches on one of the better regular seasons in Canadian Football League history yesterday at Memorial Stadium.The Stallions did it against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, in what has become typical fashion lately, a 24-17 victory before 29,310 that wasn't flashy or impressive, merely efficient.After a first half in which their offense sputtered most of the time, the Stallions took control by scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions of the third quarter to take a 20-3 lead.

His new teammates kid him about his advancing age, and at 31 slotback Gerald Alphin is getting up there in football years. But since joining the Baltimore Stallions a month ago, Alphin feels younger by the day.Alphin sits in the Stallions' locker room, noting the team's youthful talent. He talks excitedly about the chance to provide veteran help to its Grey Cup championship push, which shifts into overdrive in the Canadian Football League playoffs next weekend. Based on the way he has performed in his first three games in a Baltimore uniform, Alphin has plenty left to give.

OffenseDoug Flutie, Calgary, QBSean Millington, B.C., FBM. Richardson, Winnipeg, RBRay Elgaard, Saskatch., SBDavid Sapunjis, Calgary, SBDavid Williams, Winnipeg, WRRod Harris, Sacra., WRRod Connop, Edmonton, CDavid Black, Winnipeg, GRob Smith, B.C., GBruce Covernton, Calgary, TChris Walby, Winnipeg, TDavid Ridgway, Saskatch., KDefense Jearld Baylis, Saskatch., TH. Hasselbach, Calgary, TWill Johnson, Calgary, ETim Cofield, Hamilton, EElfrid Payton, Winnipeg, LBWillie Pless, Edmonton, HBJohn Motton, Hamilton, MLBKarl Anthony, Calgary, CBBarry Wilburn, Saskatch.

The Grey Cup, donated in 1909 by Earl Grey, is the oldest trophy in all of football and the second-oldest in all of professional sports. It was originally designed to be a hockey trophy, but became the prize for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada.This sterling silver trophy stands 33 inches high and is mounted on a base of black-lacquered aluminum to which engraved silver plates are added. The Cup itself is 13 inches high.It was originally open to teams registered with Canadian Rugby Union.

Three months ago, when they suffered a 43-7 blowout in Baltimore, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers looked nothing like a playoff team. Now, the Blue Bombers have gone through so many personnel changes they hardly resemble the team that began the 1995 season.Due to a combination of injuries, trades and free-agent signings, Winnipeg has dressed 75 players this year, or the equivalent of two active rosters. In Monday's 31-20 loss in Toronto, the Blue Bombers started the same 12 players on offense for the second straight game, the first time that has happened this year.