Billy

Here's how we measure the impact of William F. ``Sugar'' Cain: ''One of the biggest thrills for me was seeing my brother, David Harcum, score 28 points against Dunbar when Skip Wise was on the team,'' Larry Harcum said Saturday as he sat in Dunbar High School's auditorium and listened to speaker after speaker pay tribute to Cain, coach of the Poets' football, basketball and baseball teams for 32 years.Cain died Feb. 6. His memorial service was held two weeks later. The ``final time out for a legendary coach,'' it was called.

NEW YORK - Hidden within one of the most benign of New York establishments, the neighborhood deli, dwells a silent killer. Crouched beneath the ice cream freezer or curled in innocent repose between the aisles of condiments and canned soup, he waits patiently for his moment to pounce. Not only have many New Yorkers been face to face with this cunning deli dweller, some have been known to reach out a hand and, yes, rub the fiend behind the ear. The fiend in question is not insidious bacteria or even Steven Seagal.

COLLEGE PARK -- It should be old hat to an old pro like Len Elmore, but the former Maryland All-American center can't help feeling a little nostalgic every time he walks into Cole Field House."

I was shuffling books around my library on a recent late summer Saturday afternoon and for some reason or other, paused and opened a somewhat faded blue volume. It was "The Letters of Alexander Woollcott," edited by Beatrice Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey, that had been riding around my shelves, unread, I might add, for years. The posthumous volume of correspondence of the noted anthologist, author, commentator, New Yorker contributor, radio celebrity, actor, celebrated snob both intellectual and otherwise, and perennial Algonquin "Round Table" wit, was published by Viking Press in 1944, a year after his unexpected death.

Bill Hall never heard the words Agent Orange until his wife was pregnant with his second son, a full 10 years after he returned from service in Vietnam.He had never heard of the dioxin-based herbicide when his first son, Billy, showed the first signs of a degenerative neurological condition that would leave him paralyzed, blind and confined to his bed or wheelchair -- totally dependent on the care of others.When his wife, Alice, became pregnant again, he started hearing news reports about Vietnam veterans who suffered from cancer and other diseases and blamed Agent Orange -- a chemical sprayed from planes to clear forests and expose the enemy.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Even as kids, born four years apart, Cal and Bill Ripken played on the same team. Cal always worked it out that way.The neighborhood gang would gather to play football or baseball or whatever the sport of choice happened to be, and Cal, possessing some athletic pre-eminence, would be picked to be captain of one team. Sometimes he bartered for his brother -- You take that guy, I'll take Billy -- and sometimes he picked him first, straight away.But always, they played together, Cal figuring that even if Bill wasn't as big as the other, older guys or as strong or as fast, he would find a way to win. Winning is what Cal cared about, and as far as he was concerned, Bill wasn't a pesty little brother.

Two prominent La Salle University basketball players, including former Calvert Hall star Gary Neal, face sexual-assault charges in Philadelphia today after a two-week investigation into an alleged rape of a 19-year-old woman last month on the school's campus. Mike Cleaves, a sophomore guard from Paterson, N.J., turned himself into the Special Victims Unit of the Philadelphia police and has been charged with a long list of sexual offenses, including rape. According to Special Victims Unit detective Harry Young, an arrest warrant was signed last night for Neal, a sophomore guard from Aberdeen.

After six rocky years, which included a multi-million-dollar signing bonus, several position changes and a drug suspension, the Orioles will be cutting ties with former first-round pick Billy Rowell. Rowell, the ninth overall selection in the 2006 draft, can become a minor league free agent as soon as the World Series ends, and the Orioles will not make him an offer to return, according to an industry source. It will put the final exclamation point on what is arguably the biggest draft bust in franchise history.

It was never a matter of memorizing dead spots on the parquet or the way the lip of the south rim bent ever so slightly. The lighting? Nothing out of the ordinary, Andrew Toney reports. In fact, said the former Philadelphia 76ers guard, the only thing special about the creaky court on 150 Causeway Street was that it served as the stage for his most famous role: the Boston Strangler."My first step out of the locker room, I was in range," Toney says. "It was easy. I have no explanation for it. It was just easy for me to score at Boston Garden."

Pimlico Race Course Russell takes jockey title; Vazquez wins trainer crown The Pimlico Race Course spring meeting ended Saturday with jockey Sheldon Russell and trainer Juan Vazquez winning individual titles. The 36-day stand began April 4. Russell topped the jockey standings for the second time in three years with 28 first-place finishes, two more than Xavier Perez and apprentice Victor Carrasco . The 25-year-old had six multiple-win days during the meet, including three wins May 4. "I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to ride for who I ride for," Russell said.