Caliber

Sam Cassell Jr. is 900 miles from where everyone thought he'd be as a college freshman. But the West Baltimore native and former Maryland signee has spent the past year making the most out of a less-than-ideal situation. Shortly after the NCAA ruled him ineligible for Division I competition following an investigation of coursework he completed at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., Cassell left Maryland for Marianna, Fla., enrolling at JUCO basketball powerhouse Chipola College.

SHADY SHORES, Texas -- Wrestler Kerry Von Erich Adkisson, member of a star-crossed wrestling family that had already lost four of its sons, died yesterday of a bullet wound that was apparently self-inflicted.Mr. Adkisson, 33, a well-known wrestler dubbed "the Texas Tornado," was found dead about 2:50 p.m. by his father, Jack Adkisson, who also wrestled professionally for several years under the name Fritz Von Erich and raised a family of wrestling stars.He apparently used a gun he had given his father two Christmases ago.Kerry Adkisson was only the second of six sons still alive since a string of tragedies began in 1959.

The Ravens are a playoff-contending team because there aren't many good teams in the NFL. At this point in the season, the good teams separate themselves from the bad teams and have established an identity heading into the playoffs. The Ravens are a team that can't beat the good ones and feast on the average ones. Barely. The Ravens pulled out a victory against the Houston Texans in overtime Monday night, but this was far from convincing. In fact, it was embarrassing.

After watching pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada struggle through his first four starts at Triple-A Norfolk, the Orioles are considering giving the Japanese left-hander extra days of rest in between starts. Wada has failed to go more than five innings in any of his four injury rehab starts. In his most recent start Friday night against Buffalo, Wada allowed six runs - four earned - and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. In 17 2/3 innings overall, Wada has 12 strikeouts and 10 walks and opponents are hitting .288 against him. “We're going to take a look at his rest periods and see if there's anything there to consider,” Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said.

The search for the killers of Baltimore millionaire J. Schuyler "Sky" Alland was at a standstill in the summer of 1992. Whoever executed the businessman for his $80,000 black BMW apparently had gotten away with murder -- not to mention the car.U.S. Park Police Detective Timothy M. Squires was handling the first murder of his career, but he made a bold promise."He promised that he would find these guys," said Dorothy Alland Leighton, Mr. Alland's mother. "He said, 'Even when I retire, I'll continue to work on this case with no pay until I find who killed your son.' "His promise was fulfilled Wednesday when federal prosecutors wrapped up an intricate nationwide investigation into the February 1992 murder with the conviction of the killer, John Graham Bridges, 30, of Norfolk, Va. A co-defendant, Robert Patrick Gray, 25, of Cockeysville pleaded guilty Nov. 5."

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The right hand trembles, so he has to drink his Pepsi with both hands. Controlling his vision has become maddening. And when he stands, his legs quiver as if he were going to fall to the floor.In another time, Carlos Norman Hathcock II was the ultimate terminator. As a sniper for the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam -- when the hands were rock steady, the eyes keen, the legs durable -- he was officially credited with killing 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. No sniper killed more people in the 216-year history of the Marines.

As sure as its nude dancers and drink specials drew steady customers, the Ritz Cabaret on South Broadway in Baltimore attracted trouble. A money-laundering scheme launched at the Fells Point nightclub landed three men, including owner Francis Lee, in federal court. A bar brawl cost two Drug Enforcement Administration officers their badges. Illegally hired Hungarian dancers faced deportation. Even the producers of an HBO drama filmed part of the series at the Ritz, only to learn that it was about to be seized by the government.

Josephine Gray, feared for her use of voodoo and charged by federal authorities with collecting insurance proceeds after "causing" the deaths of two husbands and a boyfriend, was charged by Montgomery County police yesterday with murder in the deaths of both husbands. Gray, 55, who is being held by federal authorities, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in an arrest warrant filed by police late yesterday in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville. Gray was charged with killing her first husband, Norman Stribbling, in 1974 and her second husband, William Robert Gray, in 1990.

How good is amateur baseball in the Anne Arundel County area? Pretty darned good.Nine teams from the area qualified for various "world series" this summer, which is an indication of the caliber of summer baseball played around here.The Maryland Orioles, coached by ex-Baltimore Oriole minor league pitcher Tim Norris, was runner-up in the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series in Sylvania, Ohio. Norris' team defeated an excellent Gambrills team to win the NABF regional at Sixth Street Field in Brooklyn to advance to the series.

SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE IN 1918, SEVEN GERMAN SOLDIERS with fixed bayonets charged a Tennessee-born American infantry sergeant. The sergeant, in the split second before his impalement, drew his Colt 1911 .45-caliber automatic pistol.If he'd drawn a six-shooter, you would never have heard of Sergeant York.That feat of arms - it was the key part of a hard day's work that won Alvin York the Congressional Medal of Honor and made him the greatest American hero of World War I - seems like a burnished acorn from the fabled past, when our view of our nation was so unambiguous that we could praise unreservedly those who killed in its name on foreign fields.