The win was especially sweet for Willie Kalinkos, coach of the Bayside Little League 11- and 12-year-old Major Division team. His club needed to take two from unbeaten Forest Hills to capture the District 26 championship, a feat Bayside accomplished Sunday with a 6-1 victory in the “if” game. Comment.

An instance was brought to my attention last week concerning a Little League team that won a game on the field, yet lost it on a technicality during the annual District 26 11- and 12-year-old Major Division tournament. In other words, a team that earned the win by playing better lost the game well after the final out was recorded — something that should never happen on the Little League level. Comment.

The eight tournaments in Little League District 27 are rapidly coming to a close, with more than half having already concluded. Comment.

Suffolk County or Canada? Those were the travel destinations the Bayside Yankees Junior Americans were facing for the upcoming National Amateur Baseball Federation Regional. Their choice was Canada of course, but thanks to last Monday’s 10-6 loss to the Long Island Tigers, it appeared Joe Kessler’s team was heading east rather than north. Comment.

The Midville Dodgers Junior team had a big week, winning all five of its games. Three of the wins came at the expense of the Bayside Yankees Nationals. Besides dealing with Bayside, the young Dodgers also managed to wrap up the Westchester Baseball Association title by sweeping Shrub Oak. Midville will travel to Maryland on Wednesday to compete in the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional playoffs. Comment.

PHILADELPHIA — Like so many others who play college basketball, Brian James had the dream, the dream of playing professionally. But even though he graduated as the third all-time leading scorer at Division II New York Institute of Technology, the shooting guard from East Elmhurst lacked the exposure to get picked up by a team fresh out of college. Comment.

He’s what you might call a can’t-miss prospect. Comment.

St. John’s fencer Ivan Lee continued his superb year by winning the Division I men’s saber competition at the United States Fencing Championships last week in Sacramento, Calif. The Brooklynite was one of three Red Storm fencers to win medals at the competition. Comment.

Hecuba, former Queen of Troy, is having a bad day. Comment.

After last month’s less-than-spectacular 10-round split decision win over former heavyweight champion “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon, Jamaica native Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett chalked up his performance to a lack of activity. After all, the 30-year-old sparred just 30 rounds in five months to prepare for the bout. Comment.

The Ozone Park-Richmond Hill-Wakefield Little League, serving the communities for 30 years and a Little League chartered member for 28 years will have a Summer-Fall 2001 baseball season to run August, September and October with no weekend. Comment.

The St. Luke’s PeeWee Division boys baseball team, coached by Paul Cataldo and John Massa, captured the CYO PeeWee Queens ‘B’ Section championship by defeating St. Gregory’s, 7 - 1. Comment.

The Green Party, never before a contender in Flushing's inbred political system, is set to challenge the status quo in the coming council elections. Comment.

Giants fans are a loyal bunch. I know one who never pays attention to his wife unless she is wearing a Giants-blue nightie made of Astro-turf. Comment.

Recently I purchased a copy of the first complete history of New York City ever written and was once again intrigued by the story of wampum, the important currency in New Amsterdam and the New England colonies. Comment.

The January - March 2001 newsletter of the Utopia Estates Civic Association warns people not to dial the 809 area code. Unsuspecting victims respond to post-card, answering machine, pager or e-mail messages telling them to call an 809 number immediately. The message may be about a family member who has died or telling you won a prize. Comment.

Welcome to the Point. The Point being College Point. Comment.

Bob Shapiro says entering his Astoria hardware store is like walking into a “time warp,” for little has changed since it was founded nearly a century ago. Comment.

The state Health Department has fined Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills $32,000 for what were termed “cavalier actions” by two doctors resulting in unnecessary prostate surgery on 12 nursing home patients, some of whom appeared incapable of giving consent to the operations. Comment.

After 10 months of being forced to use only the front portion of their driveway due to construction damage caused by their neighbor, Roberta and Michael Duffy of Queens Village have had enough and want it fixed. Comment.

While mourning the death of his 13-year-old Queens Village neighbor, who was shot by a 16-year-old in a dispute over a quarter, Ramon Cameron decided to also take action. Comment.

Assemblyman William Scarborough''s 29th A.D. Issues Task Force meeting on June 30 covered a number of topics. Comment.

The Indo-Guyanese population in Queens was difficult for census takers to count because of its origins on two continents and difficult to represent on the City Council since the people are divided among several council districts. One Richmond Hill group is hoping to change both situations. Comment.

The heat is not on. It''s been a relatively cool summer and the threat of a power shortage does not appear imminent. Perhaps this is why several elected officials are withdrawing their support for a plan to build two natural-gas-powered turbines in exchange for a promise from the New York Power Authority to shut down the turbines in October 2004 if other power stations are up and running. Comment.

At long last, the work is about to begin on the ballfields in College Point. The city has finished hauling off 210,000 tons of contaminated landfill. And now, nearly five years after it was padlocked by the Department of Sanitation, the sports complex is back to square one. Comment.

The badly decomposed body of a young man who had been missing for a week was found behind the Seville Diner in Douglaston Saturday afternoon, police said, after a mysterious anonymous phone caller contacted the man’s family. Comment.

A paramedic from St. Albans was killed in an accident Friday when the driver of the ambulance she was working in lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a support pillar of the elevated F line in Brooklyn. Comment.

Although the subways have improved overall in the past year, the No. 7 line has been derailed from its four-year run as the city’s best because even the famed red bird line has fallen victim to overcrowding and other problems. Comment.

A Jamaica man who captured a rape suspect in a subway station and the victim of the attack were among dozens who implored transit officials not to eliminate token clerks lest the stations decline into dens of crime and terror. Comment.

Three columnists of the Whitestone Times, including two who have written for the newspaper since it was founded in 1991, were honored at a celebration last Thursday commemorating the 10th anniversary of the newspaper. Comment.

The Queens Zoo welcomed a new member to its family when a Canadian Lynx gave birth on May 1. Venus, named after tennis star Venus William, was born to mother, Marie, and father, Keith. Comment.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle unsealed an indictment last week that charges a Flushing resident and two other men with illegally smuggling Chinese immigrants into the United States, including one who died in New York. Comment.

Queens Borough President Claire Shulman has ordered officials to hold a monthly meeting to track progress on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental study of Flushing Bay after a meeting replete with complaints the engineers were dragging their feet. Comment.

An Ozone Park man pleaded guilty Monday to murdering rap star and Rochdale Village native Freaky Tah of the Lost Boyz in 1999, the Queens district attorney said. Comment.

Carol Gresser has made some new friends in her campaign for Queens borough president — friends who could help the Democratic candidate win the seat this fall. Comment.

For the fifth year in a row, residents of Bellerose are the victims of horticultural highwaymen who pinch the blossoms off their hydrangea bushes. Comment.

With bubbles wafting through the bright Saturday morning more than 50 happily shouting children shattered the quiet of 27th Avenue to announce the seventh annual Community Unity Day to the Two Coves community of Astoria. Comment.

Anyone with questions about a new four-story office building under construction on 42nd Avenue should come over and introduce themselves, the owner of a company that is planning to be the building’s main tenant said this week. Comment.

Construction on Linden Place, a road in College Point that traverses Flushing Airport and has remained closed to traffic because of persistent flooding for more than a decade, is scheduled to begin this summer. Comment.

A Brooklyn man was arrested Friday and charged in two June sex attacks in Laurelton, including an assault against a 15-year-old girl as her mother and a tot were forced to watch, police said. Comment.

A New Jersey prosecutor is considering bringing a rape charge against former New York Knick star and Springfield Gardens native Anthony Mason, who was accused of statutory rape in 1998 but cleared after his DNA failed to match samples taken from teenage sisters. Comment.

After a 14-month investigation, the authorities Tuesday arrested five people, including a Flushing man, accused of participating in a gambling ring based in Queens that straddled six states and two Central American countries. Comment.

The biggest difference between Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg and the rest of the crew hoping to grab the keys to Gracie mansion is that the media mogul has never held political office. Comment.

Their hands are taped, their gloves laced and the three-knock-down rule has been waived as 98 candidates battling to win elected office in Queens enter the ring. Comment.

Five mausoleums were vandalized on two nights at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside last week, but an active investigation has produced no leads in the case, police said. Comment.

A 2-1/2-year-old boy who was severely beaten and found unconscious in his South Jamaica home last week died from his injuries July 11, police said. Comment.

Although leaders of the city’s largest municipal labor union have voted to endorse City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) in his bid for mayor, union insiders say the endorsement will not likely give him the full support of union membership. Comment.

An Astoria woman lost her leg last Thursday after a school safety vehicle crashed into another car before pinning her against a 30th Avenue storefront, police and hospital representatives said. Comment.

At 76 Ed Bochner is full of profundities, like “We’re all gonna die — we just don’t know when.” His wife, Marilyn, has almost as much life experience as her husband — 71 years to be exact — but demurs at making such statements. “My husband is a real kibitzer — I guess you didn’t know that.” Comment.

By Betsy Scheinbart Comment.

A Fire Department inspector who lives in Rosedale was arrested last week on charges he bribed a supervisor to remove from a database fire-code violations that had been issued to two auto repair garages in Willets Point, authorities said. Comment.

After a routine car stop on the Van Wyck Expressway, police arrested a veteran Fire Department battalion chief last week when they discovered what they said were several prescription pill bottles in his vehicle that were not in his name, the Queens district attorney said. Comment.

A jewelry store owner and well-loved, longtime member of the Woodhaven community was shot to death during an attempted robbery at his Jamaica Avenue store Thursday morning, police said. Comment.

COLES HOUSE Comment.

A potential solution to some of Maspeth residents’ traffic complaints is stuck at a warehouse north of Albany, and the state Department of Transportation is struggling to find a way to haul it down to Queens. Comment.

Gov. George Pataki, the Rev. Floyd Flake, pastor of the Allen A.M.E. Church, and rapper LL Cool J last week celebrated the groundbreaking of a new senior citizens’ residence in Jamaica. Comment.

For Carlos Martez, the maintenance supervisor at Alley Pond Park in Bayside, it was a normal Thursday morning as mornings there usually go. He did his daily sweep of the grounds, to ensure that nothing was amiss, and nothing was. Comment.

They came Friday with saws and woodchippers, and one by one most of the trees lining a municipal parking lot in Bayside were cut down, marking the latest casualties in the federal government’s ever-growing battle against the Asian Longhorned Beetle. Comment.

After hearing the concerns of a group advocating severe cuts in U.S. immigration, Community Board 5 has created a committee to investigate how the tremendous flow of immigrants into New York affects their part of Queens. Comment.

Two teenagers who accidentally ignited the Astoria hardware store fire that killed three firemen will not be criminally charged for the incident, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Tuesday. Comment.

Community activist and third-time City Council candidate Tony Avella announced Monday he had been endorsed by Queens Borough President Claire Shulman in the crowded race to succeed term-limited City Councilman Mike Abel (R-Bayside). Comment.

Jack Olcott, president of the National Business Aviation Association, which looks out for companies using corporate jets, had just heard repeated assertions that nothing could be done to expand LaGuardia Airport. Comment.

“A lot of people are really squeamish,” said Deborah Lang of Bayside as she gave blood at the Bayside Volunteer Ambulance Corps’ first blood drive Sunday. “I think a lot of people don’t really know what a piece of cake this... Comment.

New York area hospitals could face a medical crisis if proposed restrictions on blood donors are implemented, health officials warn. Comment.

BAYSIDE — A gas main break Monday afternoon disrupted construction work at PS 41 in Bayside but did not seriously disturb the surrounding area, a police officer at the scene said. Comment.

COLES HOUSE Comment.

The Flushing YMCA 138-46 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, presents YouthBuild, a job-training program for young adults between the ages of 17-21. Students receive extensive training in different building trades and work on their GED diploma. Job placement is available to all students. 718-961-6880 Ext. 142. Comment.

Douglaston Community Theatre is holding auditions for "NUTS" at the Zion Church Parish Hall, 44th Avenue off Douglaston Parkway. 718-225-7117. Comment.

The idea was to raise money for the well-known Gay Men's Health Crisis by staging a benefit comedy show at Queensborough Community College in Bayside. On hand would be Dave Labaraca and Steve Marshall from The New York Comedy Club. Tickets would be reasonably set at just five dollars. And the venue was large enough to support an ample turnout. Comment.

This is the schedule for a retrospective on films of the 1940s on weekends July 21-Sept. 9 at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. Comment.

Love and war unquestionably are defining elements of the human condition, and it's no coincidence that the themes have dominated motion pictures ever since Edison developed the medium. Comment.