Chris,
I don't know the direct answer for your question, but have some ideas for debugging.
-- What version of EGuide? EGuide 4.2 has significant improvements in Excel imports.
-- In general, SAS looks through the beginning of the data set to determine the SAS data type for an Excel column. SAS may be treating "Row B" as numeric if "(A)" is deep in the data set. EGuide 4.2 has nice overrides on the "guessing".
-- File --> Import works differently from File --> Open. Try the other and see if it works.
-- Look through the forum for "excel import" for other people's question that may have your answer.
-- Read "SAS for Dummies" on the topic (first edition for 4.1, second for 4.2+).
-- google search
Doc Muhlbaier
Duke