CITIES: The Little World of Tommy

From his rough & tumble boyhood surroundings in Baltimore's Little Italy, hard by the waterfront, Thomas Ludwig John D'Alesandro Jr. fought his way toward the political big time. He never lost an election, became mayor of Baltimore, and was ready for greater things.

Last September, after a year of dogged effort and two rejections by the Ameri- can League, he won a big-time baseball franchise for his city. He looked forward to the day when he would welcome a major-league team back to Baltimore.

"We'll have a red carpet, "he said. "We'll strew...