Pulitzer Prize

Former Oriole Roberto Alomar will find out today whether his stellar career as one of the best second basemen in the history of baseball will outweigh one ugly moment in 1996 that has scarred his reputation ever since. Alomar's name appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this past November, and he is considered the strongest candidate to gain induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame when the results of the balloting are announced by the Hall and the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Mike McAlary,41, the street-smart New York Daily News columnist who broke a shocking story of alleged police brutality and won a Pulitzer Prize for it, died of colon cancer yesterday.During the 1980s and '90s, the Brooklyn-born writer employed his two-fisted style at all three of New York's tabloids -- the Post, the Daily News and Newsday -- and bounced around so much that the News once obtained an injunction to block him from working for the Post in 1993.Mr. McAlary was receiving chemotherapy in August 1997 when he got an anonymous tip that Abner Louima, a black Haitian immigrant, had been sodomized and beaten by white cops in a station house.

Robert Bartley, 66, who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing and became one of the nation's most influential journalists as editorial voice of The Wall Street Journal for decades, died of cancer yesterday. A week ago he was chosen by the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sidney Amber, who celebrated his 109th birthday in January by reciting poetry on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno," died Friday in San Francisco. A well-known centenarian there, he was a rarity among survivors of the 1906 earthquake -- he was an adult when the temblor struck. An amateur boxer, restaurateur and sign painter, he once said the secret to longevity was a triple dose of Worcestershire sauce before dinner.Sam Bailey, 80, a civil rights activist who worked with Medgar Evers to trigger a movement for black equality in Mississippi, died Saturday.

Charles George Werner, 88, an editorial cartoonist who at age 29 was the the youngest person ever to win a Pulitzer Prize in his field, died Tuesday in Indianapolis. With no formal art training, Mr. Werner won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial art in 1938 during his first year at the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.Harry A. McQuillen III, 51, the chief operating officer who managed more than 60 magazines for publishing giant K-III Communications, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound over the weekend in Darien, Conn.

There will be no stopping Bill now that he has the line-item veto.Deer Park Elementary should house the Baltimore County school administration until they get it fixed.As a man of science, William R. Brody cannot admit the possibility of unlucky numbers.And the Pulitzer Prize in drama for assuming that ''La Boheme'' could be a great opera except for the music.Pub Date: 4/12/96

The state of the nation is lewd, lubricious and ludicrous.According to polls, 23 percent of Americans want ''Hail to the Chief'' replaced by ''Stand By Your Man,'' 28 percent don't and 49 percent have no opinion.The worst revelation is that security risks found in the White House are exiled to the Pentagon.Matt Drudge for Pulitzer Prize! Everyone else is playing catch-up. He is our leader.Pub Date: 1/28/98

Baltimore is depopulating like crazy. Sec'y Cisneros is just giving market forces a little push.The General Assembly passes everything at the last minute so that voters don't learn the details until they have forgotten that they cared.Julius Henson is not a shy man, which makes the reticence on his resume all the more puzzling.The Pulitzer Prize for Brevity was omitted again this year.Pub Date: 4/10/96

William K. Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, yesterday was named managing editor of The Sun, the No. 2 newsroom post.The position has been vacant since the departure of Kathryn Christensen on Aug. 13, 1993. Mr. Marimow, however, essentially has acted as managing editor since he was named associate managing editor on Aug. 15, 1993."This makes it official," said Editor John S. Carroll."He has helped build a sense of teamwork and journalistic excellence," Mr. Carroll said.Mr. Marimow's newsroom duties will not change immediately or dramatically, Mr. Carroll said.