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But Frank (Curly) Lino couldn't attend the Bronx Bombers' exciting come-from-behind, 8-6 victory over the Texas Rangers. He was locked up in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center facing loansharking charges that could mean several additional years in prison.

Lino, 62, is charged with being the source of a $30,000 loan that two  members of his crew were allegedly trying to collect through the usual mob methods -- threats, intimidation, and more threats.

Soldier Richard Riccardi and associate Ronald Massie used Lino's name

Many of the conversations were recorded by the accountant, who was apparently down on his luck, about the same time Lino was enjoying one   last baseball game and then beginning his term at a federal correctional facility in Bradford, Pa., the complaint said.

On Sept. 10, while Lino watched Pedro Martinez strike out 17 as the Boston Red Sox handcuffed the Yankees, 3-1, Massie (right) was "chastising" the accountant for being two days late on a $1360 payment, and worse, "not even calling him," the complaint said.

The next month, Massie and Riccardi met the accountant in a Bronx diner and Riccardi, Lino's cousin, called in the loan,

On Dec. 9, prison officials taped Lino complaining in a telephone call to his son Joseph about the "problem that Richie was having" and saying he had wanted Massie to "take it off my account," the complaint charged.

All three men pleaded innocent. Massie and Riccardi (left) were released on bond. Lino, who was fined $120,000 and owes the government a few more years on his stock fraud rap, was in a surly mood when he appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court to answer the new charges.

When Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak asked, as all judges routinely do the first time they see a defendant, if Lino understood English, Lino snapped: "I know a FEW words, your honor."

"This case is a big misunderstanding," said Lino's lawyer, Joseph Benfante. "I don't know what they're talking about, but whatever it is, it's not Frankie Lino's money."

Federici, 59, grabbed his 20-gauge Remington shotgun, scaled the ladder to the roof and opened fire at the winged marauders. He missed the hawks, but he ruffled the feathers of cops who were passing his Park Side Restaurant, heard the gunfire and arrested him on menacing and weapons charges.

"I was just shooting at hawks," Federici said.

Federici, seen at right getting an earful from Gambino capo Lenny DiMaria in a 1996 FBI surveillance photo taken outside the Park Side, took a plea deal to charges of hunting within the city limits and paid a $90 fine after spending a night in jail.

His lawyer, Mathew Mari, said his client's actions were the result of persistent attacks by hawks against Federici's champion racing pigeons. Instead of being arrested, he should have received a medal, said Mari.

"The hawks were murdering the defenseless pigeons for some time. They were flying away with them in their mouths, blood gushing from the hawks' mouths. For months this went on," said Mari, who added that his "client denies being a member of any crime family. Both he and his lawyer are offended by that. And his name is not Tough Tony, it's Mr. Federici."

In addition, Mari said, Mr. Federici promised to restrain himself in the future, but did not expect any further incidents. "For some unexplained reason, the hawks have stopped coming."

Symbolically, however, the Gotti era ended last week when capo John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico surrendered to federal authorities last week and began serving a 20-month federal prison sentence for gambling.

D'Amico, 62, began bouncing with the Dapper Don shortly after Gotti beat federal racketeering and murder charges in 1987. D'Amico was seen everywhere with Gotti. He accompanied him to the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, to his favorite Upper East Side restaurant, DaNoi, to night clubs and boxing matches at the Felt Forum.

A daily spectator at Gotti's 1992 trial, D'Amico was a spin doctor who blasted his boss's enemies, in particular, federal prosecutors and turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano. His praise of Gotti often sounded like unabashed hero worship.

"A (man like) John only comes along once in a life. They broke the mold with John. He's  original," D'Amico said at one break. "John had two things going for him, he was loved and feared. He's the only person I've seen with both. You call it charisma. He has that. But love and fear was what counted. People don't cross a man they love and fear."

D'Amico, who served on a committee of three capos who advised Junior during his reign, was indicted with Junior (right) on racketeering charges. But because the feds had little evidence against D'Amico, he managed a pretty sweet plea to gambling charges and a relatively light sentence.

His surrender was delayed more than a year so he  could undergo surgery and follow-up care to both eyes, which was complicated by post operative infections, said D'Amico's lawyer James DiPietro.

"The Sopranos" second season is over and everyone in America is trying to figure out exactly how they will get along without it until January.

Meanwhile, check out an excellent critic's notebook about HBO's hit show in The New York Times by Caryn James. Like Gang Land, James loved the line Tony uttered with a wry smile when he put Janice on a bus back to Seattle after she put two into her lover's chest: "All in all, though, I'd say it was a pretty good visit."