NAMES AND NUMBERS

At 12:30 in the morning after he had signed his $30.5-million contract with the Baltimore Orioles, played nine innings against the Angels and met for more than an hour with reporters to discuss his new deal, Cal Ripken Jr. put on a sweat suit in the empty clubhouse and conducted his usual postgame workout for more than an hour.

“I understand that through all the games of his streak (1,700 through Wednesday), he’s never missed infield practice, and that is remarkable,” General Manager Roland Hemond said. “His work ethic is an example for every player in our organization.”

Is Ripken worn down by the playing streak? He put that idea to rest last year, batting .349 in September after batting a cumulative .209 in the three previous Septembers. But during the second half of a disappointing season he had gone 58 games without a home run through Friday and had only one hit in his first 15 at-bats after signing the new contract.

A couple of reasons the Atlanta Braves are hoping to play the Pittsburgh Pirates and not the Montreal Expos in the National League playoffs, providing the Braves get that far:

Tom Glavine has a 4-0 record against the Pirates but is 3-11 against the Expos. Glavine is 1-3 against the Expos this year and 18-1 against the rest of the National League. In addition: Expo ace Dennis Martinez is 3-0 against the Braves this year and 8-3 for his career. Atlanta lost a season series, 7-4, to the Expos for the first time since 1976, but won the season series from the Pirates, 7-5.

With his 18 victories, Jack McDowell has become the first Chicago White Sox pitcher with 14 or more for three consecutive seasons since Wilbur Wood in 1971-75. The Cy Young Award? McDowell says he doesn’t have a headline-making personality.

“I’m not someone who has done anything big except win games,” he said. “I think hoopla wins out in those award situations.”

McDowell has received a measure of hoopla for his rock band, but George Brett of the Kansas City Royals seems to think he should keep that quiet.

“I just wish he could sing as good as he pitches,” Brett said. “I saw him at Kemper (Arena) after a hockey game (last winter). Maybe it was the acoustics or I may have caught him on a bad night, but if he could sing as well as he pitches, I might buy his album.”

David Cone, in his bid to become the first National League pitcher since Warren Spahn in 1949-51 to win three consecutive strikeout crowns, could still do it in absentia. He went to the Toronto Blue Jays with a 44-strikeout lead over John Smoltz, the National League runner-up.