Setback

CHIEN-MING WANG took a tumble in his pursuit of a starting job with the Nationals. Wang, the favorite to become Washington's fifth starter, left in the third inning of a 8-5 loss to the New York Yankees yesterday with a strained left hamstring. Fielding Russell Martin's grounder near first base, Wang stumbled then fell. As he was falling over first base, his leg went up in the air and was brushed by Martin as he ran through the base. "I fell on my left shoulder. I'm fine," Martin said of the play.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - What the Phillies originally termed a "routine" trip to the doctor for Ryan Howard resulted in another surgical procedure. The first baseman has suffered a setback in his recovery from Achilles tendon surgery and will be sidelined indefinitely after a "small procedure" Monday to clean an infection from his surgical wound, Phillies head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan said Wednesday. During that procedure, no structural damage to the repaired Achilles was found.

Temple's loss to St. Joseph's was costly, just not as costly as some might have expected. The Owls (22-6) are ranked 23d in the Associated Press poll and 25th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, released Monday. They were ranked 22d in both polls before losing to the Hawks on Saturday night at Hagan Arena. "I'm kind of surprised," Temple guard Ramone Moore said of remaining ranked. "I thought we would drop out. "But that kind of shows you what type of team St. Joe's is. " It also show the respect that Temple is starting to receive from the media and opposing coaches.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A day after general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said manager Charlie Manuel had miscategorized a "setback" in Ryan Howard's recovery from Achilles' surgery, the Phillies permitted their head athletic trainer to make public remarks regarding Howard. Howard's visit to foot specialist Mark Myerson is scheduled for today in Baltimore, and Scott Sheridan said the team planned to send the first baseman for a follow-up visit even before a postsurgical problem surfaced in recent days.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A day after general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said manager Charlie Manuel had miscategorized a "setback" in Ryan Howard's recovery from Achilles surgery, the Phillies permitted their head athletic trainer to make public remarks regarding Howard. Howard's visit to foot specialist Mark Myerson is scheduled for Monday in Baltimore, and Scott Sheridan said the team planned to send the first baseman for a follow-up visit even before a postsurgical problem surfaced in recent days.

A Muslim congregation of mostly Main Line converts has been dealt a major legal setback in its effort to build a retirement community for aging members in southern Chester County. A Chester County Court judge has ruled against the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in a long-standing zoning dispute with the East Fallowfield Township Board of Supervisors. The 350-member congregation wants to build 43 carriage-style houses clustered on a 108-acre parcel that it bought in the 1980s.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The recovery process for Ryan Howard will not necessarily always follow a straight line. Such is the nature of a serious injury, like the ruptured Achilles tendon he continues to mend. Whether he has suffered a setback depends on semantics, or who is doing the talking. Howard will leave camp Sunday night to see Mark Myerson, the surgeon who repaired the tendon, in Baltimore. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. called it a "routine checkup," but Howard was seen with a large bandage on the back of his ankle Saturday morning.

NEW YORK - Stocks had their worst day of the year Friday after Greece hit a roadblock on its way to a critical bailout. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 89.23 points, or 0.7 percent, at 12,801.23. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 finished down 9.31 points at 1,342.64. It was the first losing week for S&P this year. Just a day earlier, investors had bought stocks after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the heads of the three parties backing his government agreed to slash wages, lay off civil service workers, and cut government spending.

TRENTON - The legal wrangling continues in a divorced southern New Jersey woman's bid to change her children's last name. A state appellate court has overturned a lower court's order that gave the Burlington County woman permission to give her last name to the couple's two children, who took their father's surname at birth. The three-judge appellate panel ruled Friday that the judge who issued the order wrongly presumed the mother should prevail because she is the children's "parent of primary residence.