Wild Card

The Baltimore Ravens had a chance to seize the AFC Central title, a first-round bye and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl. Instead, after Tennessee beat Dallas last night, Baltimore ended up clutching a wild card. The Ravens will make their initial foray into the postseason Sunday afternoon at home against the Denver Broncos. It will be the first NFL playoff game in Baltimore since 1977, when the Colts lost to the Oakland Raiders in overtime. The Ravens (12-4)

With rainy weather, apathetic fans, unsettled ownership and losing records, the Florida Marlins provided comic relief in recent seasons. Look who's laughing now. The surprising Marlins beat the visiting New York Mets, 4-3, last night to clinch the National League wild card, their first playoff berth since winning the 1997 World Series. They will face the NL West champion Giants in a best-of-five series beginning Tuesday in San Francisco. "We're happy to get in, but this is just the beginning," said Derrek Lee, who drove in two runs.

Philip S. English, the endorsed Republican candidate, and Mario Mele, a member of the Thornburgh administration, can only hope the confusion at the Centre County Republican Committee meeting here a few weeks ago exists throughout the state. The third person seeking the Republican nomination for state treasurer in the April 26 primary was introduced as "George Kennedy, a former state representative. " In fact, his name in John Kennedy, and he is still a state legislator. What he also is, besides a man with perhaps the ultimate politically popular name, is a wild card in the race.

Dear Mr. Numbers: How are Wild Card odds determined? - George Hampton Philadelphia Take the number of balls drawn - 6 in Wild Card - and multiply them in this way: 6x5x4x3x2x1. That equals 720. Do the same thing with the highest six numbers in Wild Card's drawing field starting at the highest number and multiply them in this way: 48x47x46 x45x44x43. That equals 6,744,109,680. Divide the larger figure by the smaller figure: 8,835,488,640 divided by 720, which equals 12,271,512.

The Union will be scoreboard-watching this weekend, hoping to earn one of the top three spots in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference and avoid playing a wild-card game in the playoffs that begin Wednesday. The top three teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences earn first-round byes. The teams with the next four-highest point totals, regardless of conference, will be the wild cards. Those four will play Wednesday and Thursday, with the top-seeded wild-card team facing the fourth seed, and the second going against the third.

Rather than enhancing excitement, the new playoff system that starts next year would have created a boring final day of the 1993 season. While the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves were the 10th pair of teams to start the last day of the season tied for first, everything would have been decided by Saturday if the new system were in place. The St. Louis Cardinals would have clinched the NL Central with a 5-4, 10- inning victory over the Phillies on Saturday, and the New York Yankees would have wrapped up the AL's wild-card berth Friday night with a 9-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

When West Chester East's season came to a close with a 13-3 loss to Council Rock in the Flyers Cup wild-card playoff finals Thursday, Vikings coach Nick Russo shrugged off the lopsided defeat with a smile and an eye to the future. "I think we'll be here next year," said Russo, noting his team's youth and the realization that only five players would graduate. "We'll be around a long time. " There was little Russo could do but to be happy with a 13-4-1 season and to begin planning for next year.

Anna Kournikova lost again in her comeback from a foot injury, beaten by a wild card ranked 248th in the world in the first round of the Kremlin Cup yesterday in Moscow. Galina Fokina won, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, in an all-Russian match. "I had no practice for eight months and lost my touch," said Kournikova, who lost to a qualifier in Germany last week. She was sidelined for most of the year after suffering a stress fracture in her left foot in February. Hockey Jason Spezza, who was selected second overall in the NHL draft by the Ottawa Senators, was sent to the junior hockey Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.

Japan has been one of the world's most enthusiastic, intelligent importers of Western classical music. So you had to approach Tuesday's Kimmel Center presentation of the NHK Symphony Orchestra (in its sixth U.S. tour since 1960) wondering how Japan returns the music to the West. The program had the added attraction of H?l?ne Grimaud playing Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, also a point of curiosity because her 1998 recording of the piece had unconvincing tempos maybe owing more to the late conductor Kurt Sanderling than her. The concert was solid, on the lower edge of an international standard, and had its quirks, such as an almost entirely male lineup and violas seated in front to the right of the podium.

The Chicago Fire have done the Union a huge favor. With the Fire's 3-2 win on Saturday night over Columbus in Bridgeview, Ill., the Union have clinched one of the top three berths in the Eastern Conference and thus avoided playing in the wild-card round of the Major League Soccer playoffs. The top three teams in the Eastern and Western Conference earn first-round byes, and then the next four highest teams, regardless of conference, earn the wild-card positions. The wild-card games are this Wednesday and Thursday.