Louis Blues

BaseballLos Angeles Dodgers -- Purchased the contract of OF Scott Pose from Triple-A New Orleans. Assigned Pose to Triple-A Albuquerque. Signed IF Casey Candaele to a minor-league contract.BasketballBoston Celtics -- Extended the contracts of assistant coaches Don Casey and Dennis Johnson.Dallas Mavericks -- Signed G-F George McCloud to a second 10-day contract.Sioux Falls Skyforce (CBA) -- Signed F Evers Burns (Maryland).CollegeAtlantic 10 Conference -- Announced that Virginia Tech, Dayton and La Salle have accepted invitations to join the conference, effective July 1, 1995, with competition beginning with the 1995-96 season.

ST. LOUIS -- Washington defenseman Al Iafrate scored two goals last night to help the Capitals defeat the St. Louis Blues, 4-3, at The Arena.The victory was the third straight for the Capitals, who are 6-1 in their past seven games.Iafrate's second goal of the game gave the Capitals a 4-2 lead at 13:56 of the third period. With Blues defenseman Rick Zombo screening the goalie, Iafrate hit a slap shot through goalie Jim Hrivnak's legs.Brendan Shanahan scored at 19:40 to cut the lead to 4-3."

Dale Patton, the founding president of the Baltimore Blues Society, died Wednesday of cancer at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. He was 51 and lived in Monkton. In his 20 years of bringing blues music to Baltimore, he led a group that now has more than 1,000 members who gather five times a year at the Rosedale American Legion Hall to hear nationally known musicians. "He had the ability to run a major corporation, but he didn't do that. He ran the Blues Society instead, " said Donna Andrews, a friend who lives in Northeast Baltimore.

BaseballOrioles -- Agreed to terms with DH Harold Baines and IF Tim Hulett on one-year contracts.Boston Red Sox -- Signed IF Jeff Richardson and IF Jose Munoz to minor-league contracts.Chicago White Sox -- Announced a working agreement with Single-A Prince William for the 1994 season.Cincinnati Reds -- Promoted scouting supervisor Larry Barton Jr., to senior adviser for baseball operations. Named Terry Abbott pitching coach and Tommy Dunbar coach of Double-A Chattanooga and Steve Oliverio pitching coach of Pioneer League Billings.

ST. LOUIS -- Center Adam Oates, who leads the league in assists, was traded yesterday from the St. Louis Blues to the Boston Bruins for center Craig Janney and defenseman Stephane Quintal.Oates is expected to be in uniform today when the Bruins play the New Jersey Devils in Boston. He is the league's seventh-leading scorer this season with 59 assists and 10 goals."He is multidimensional, and we feel he can get the puck to any wing at any time," Bruins assistant general manager Mike Milbury said of Oates, 29, who scored more than 100 points in the previous two seasons, including 115 last season with 25 goals and 90 assists.

The Baltimore Skipjacks no longer hold the record for the most consecutive victories by a professional hockey team.Saturday night, the Peoria Rivermen defeated the Kalamazoo Wings, 7-2, in an International Hockey League game to break the Skipjacks' record of 16 wins in a row, set during the 1984-85 American Hockey League season.The National Hockey League record is 15, set by the New York Islanders during the 1981-82 season."It was hard here the last two or three years," said Rivermen general manager Dennis Cyr. "But last summer, the St. Louis Blues decided to spend a lot of money, signing free agents and sending us some excellent rookies.

I've known Tom for so long that I can't remember when I first met him. But when I did, I'm sure it involved one of us getting smashed into a locker. Every lifelong friendship starts in its own way. It happened, I think, during our first week at St. Louis Country Day, where we were among the 67 squirming 11-year-old boys still trying to figure out how to tie our school neckties, not to mention which teachers gave you detention for getting it wrong. Eight years of such stuff, evidently, was the key to getting into colleges such as Harvard and Yale.

Tucked away in the Adirondack Mountains in New York for th next three weeks,the National Hockey League's Washington Capitols will attempt to find the right combinations to build on their success of last spring.General manager David Poile has trotted the team off to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a series of practices that will determine who goes where when the organization returns south for an exhibition doubleheader Sept. 29 at the Baltimore Arena, against the Philadelphia Flyers organization.Before that,though,local fans in Baltimore will get the first look at the 1990-91 Caps this Friday night, when they face the New York Rangers at the Arena.

How do you identify Mike Keenan?A) Stanley Cup champion coach in New York in 1994.B) A welsher, who ran out on his Rangers contract.C) St. Louis coach.D) A genius.E) The opposite of a genius.Well, yes, you say. He is all that.And now, with his team struggling to stay in the Western Conference playoff race, Keenan becomes an even easier target."Yeah, if he keeps going the way he's been going, he'll be the St. Louis Blues' old coach," said Brendan Shanahan, the former St. Louis favorite whom Keenan traded to Hartford earlier this season.

ST. LOUIS -- Only 29,623 fans dropped in for that final, farewell game at Busch Stadium on Dec. 13, 1987.Cardinals owner William V. Bidwill had made no secret of his interest in moving his NFL team. But fans of the Big Red reacted with a municipal yawn, underscoring the reputation of this city as loyal only to baseball. One fan brought a sign to the final game: "Keep the Cardinals, discard Bidwill.""I'm surprised no one in town has rallied around the team and tried to keep us here. It's typical of the lack of respect we receive in this town," said offensive tackle Luis Sharpe.