Caggiano

As Bandits owner Mike Caggiano was walking by a concession stand last night after two periods and with his team ahead, 7-1, a fan turned, spotted him and hollered, "Great, you got us some goons."Other patrons turned and cheered wildly. "They were going crazy down there," said Caggiano.Maybe the Bandits should have held up play for an hour or two, giving the 3,576 fans in attendance at the Baltimore Arena a chance to go out, round up friends and bring them back to what ended up being a 10-1 party for the home team.

The lone remaining obstacle in the approval of the sale of the Bandits franchise to Cincinnati interests by the American Hockey League has been overcome and, once again, Baltimore is without pro hockey.The new Cincinnati franchise and its majority owner, Jerry Robinson, operator of the Cincinnati Gardens, gained approval from the AHL by signing an affiliation agreement with Anaheim. The team will adopt the parent club's nickname of Mighty Ducks.The sale price of $2 million, plus what the team will pay Anaheim for the players it provides, are only part of the problem the new franchise will have making a go of it in an old building.

After two seasons and 174 games -- representing 69 wins, 86 losses and 19 ties -- it could all end tonight for the Bandits, a franchise that seemed ill-fated from the start of its American Hockey League existence.Beaten in the first two games of their best-of-five, first-round series in Philadelphia, the Bandits are a prohibitive underdog to be swept by the Phantoms at Baltimore Arena (7: 35 p.m.) and join the Clippers and Skipjacks as AHL franchises that failed here.Tentative approval of the sale of the franchise to Cincinnati interests has been given by the league's board of governors.

For some crazy reason -- mostly having to do with parental duty -- I pulled myself away from the television set and the Ravens-Bengals game to go to the Baltimore Arena to watch the Baltimore Bandits play ice hockey against the Kentucky Thoroughblades. Minor-league hockey in a big league town. Sunday afternoon. I gotta be nuts.But I gotta tell ya: I'm not fighting a crowd! In fact, I'm sitting in a seat far better than the one I paid for, and no red-coat usher gives me a hard time about it. There are fewer than 1,000 people in the place.

This week, when the Broadway cast of Cry-Baby launches into its second-act number "Misery, Agony, Helplessness, Hopelessness, Heartache and Woe," the rendition may be particularly heartfelt. It was announced yesterday that the $12.5 million production will close after Sunday's matinee. But that doesn't necessarily mean you won't be seeing Cry-Baby on a stage near you. And you'll certainly be hearing from John Waters, whose 1990 cult film inspired the Broadway musical. "I don't think this means the death of John Waters the musical," says Chris Caggiano, a musical theater professor at the Boston Conservatory and a lifelong Waters fan. "I think there are other possibilities, though they may be off Broadway."

HACKENSACK, N.J. - The caller was a grieving daughter. Her father, a decorated World War II veteran - the Battle of the Bulge - had just died. Could Joe Pallazzo make it to the funeral? Stirred by her words, "My father is a veteran," Joe, of Jersey City, N.J., didn't hesitate. Of course he would be there. Joe had never met the woman. He didn't know her father. He's not a veteran. He's not even old enough to vote. It didn't matter. The demand for people like Joe Pallazzo, 17, a junior at Hudson Catholic High School, has skyrocketed in recent years.

When a player of Dwayne Norris' caliber has to sit out a game with a balky knee and a rookie goalie is getting the call in net, it's imperative that a team play a smart game.But the Bandits never will be accused of doing the same last night at the Baltimore Arena as they fell into a gorge early and didn't have enough to make it back to ground level while losing to the Binghamton Rangers, 6-3.The game was less than a minute old when Baltimore's Nicolai Tsulygin drew a penalty, and another minute along, the Rangers were on the scoreboard with a power-play goal.

The Bandits, in the throes of an off-season that resembles the dreary days of the franchise at its inception, took another huge hit in the personnel department yesterday when parent club Anaheim named Baltimore coach Walt Kyle as top assistant to Mighty Ducks coach Ron Wilson.Fully intending to return here, where he "enjoyed both the coaching and living experience in Baltimore," Kyle suddenly was faced with an offer from Anaheim general manager Jack Ferreira that was difficult to refuse."Career-wise," said Kyle, "it's hard to figure which path to take -- work as an assistant in the NHL or be the head coach of a team's top affiliate."

Hockey is an emotional game, which goes a long way toward explaining all the fights.No sooner did the Bandits skate off the Baltimore Arena ice with a prized 4-2 victory over the powerful Philadelphia Phantoms last night than they were informed by team owner Mike Caggiano that the team is for sale."

THE OCT. 10 editorial regarding construction of the County Coliseum missed the point. Our plans to construct a coliseum in Catonsville are intended to increase opportunities for the Baltimore area as we prepare for the turn of the century.If we want to continue competing for high-profile events which currently bypass Baltimore, action must be taken now rather than 10 years down the road.Growing up in Baltimore, I hold a personal interest in helping the area remain competitive. My plans to construct the County Coliseum are not focused on recruiting NBA and other professional teams to Baltimore.