CITIES: Big-Leaguer

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Apart from the work of sensational young pitcher Bob Turley,* nothing very good happened to the Baltimore Orioles last year. A lot happened to Baltimore's Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro. who helped to get the Orioles their big-league franchise—and what happened to Tommy was all bad: his son was involved in a teen-age vice scandal, his wife admitted receiving $11,000 from a city contractor, and the contractor was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the city. For a time, both D'Alesandro and the Orioles were flat on their backs: the ball club in the cellar and the mayor in the hospital with a nervous collapse. Eventually, little Tommy D'Alesandro jumped out of bed and into his elevator shoes to run for a third term. Last week the Baltimore Orioles were down in the basement again, but Baltimore's Tommy D'Alesandro, making his 22nd electoral campaign, came through with a 1.000 record: for the 22nd time, he won.

Skinning Coon. Democrat D'Alesandro faced big-league competition from the Republican mayoralty candidate: Samuel Hopkins, 41, a lawyer and businessman who was born on a Maryland farm, studied at the university founded by his great-great-uncle, Johns Hopkins. Sam Hopkins' cowlicked hair and easy personality seemed so appealing that Democratic District Boss Jack Pollack complained: "He wasn't born in a log cabin and he doesn't wear a coonskin cap, but somehow he manages to give the impression that he was and does." Some of Republican Hopkins' support ers enthusiastically rushed off in the wrong direction, however, creating a rus tic caricature of a campaign around his homespun look. Ten teams of G.O.P. cam paign workers lined up along street curbs to display rhymed signs advertising Sam Hopkins, like Burma-Shave. An octette of Republican ladies, wearing coonskin caps, trooped around town chanting a six-stanza ode to Sam Hopkins, written to the tune of Davy Crockett. Sample stanza:

Born on a farm in the new country, One-room school for his ABC, Admitted to the bar at 25, Honest Abe legend come alive. Sammy, Sa-a-ammy Hopkins, Grass roots son is he.

Outshining the Sun. Tommy D'Alesandro's slogan was: "Elect a big-league mayor!" His campaign cards simply listed the Orioles' home-game schedule and the claim: "50 Years of Progress in Eight Years." For his first two terms, he claimed a lot of progress: 87 new schools, firehouses and other facilities, 1,400 miles of new streets, 21,947 new street lights. His son had been acquitted of all charges, and Tommy D'Alesandro shrugged off the old scandals. "No one," he said modestly, "is infallible. I haven't done everything right."