Main Event

WITH THEIR easy victories in last night's primaries out of the way, Ellen R. Sauerbrey and Parris N. Glendening can stop the shadowboxing and start the main event -- a replay of 1994's photo finish in which Mr. Glendening barely won the governorship.It is difficult to draw many lessons from last night's primary. Ms. Sauerbrey predictably displayed overwhelming support among Republican voters in trouncing Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker. Given the growing Republican registration figures, this should give her a solid base for November.

AFTER 14 summers, the Peach Festival sponsored by Pipe Creek Church of the Brethren in Linwood has gained a regional reputation. People come from Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia to relax on the church lawn, soak in the country atmosphere, and eat fresh peaches and ice cream.This year, the event will be held from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 9 at the church, 26 Pipe Creek Road in Union Bridge. The festival is free and wheelchair accessible.Over the years, the event has grown to more than a peaches-and-cream event.

Two days ago, world heavyweight contender Olin Norris did not have a clue as to who his opponent would be in the main event at Michael's 8th Avenue in Glen Burnie last night.But Norris won't soon forget Marion Wilson. "The best 10-18-3 fighter in the world," almost derailed the title ambitions of Norris by battling the former cruiserweight champion to a split decision.Gary Camponechi gave Norris (49-4) a 99-91 margin and Ken Chevalier favored the fighter from San Diego, 96-94. But Jodi Wingfield backed Wilson, 96-93.

The Buffalo Jills are wearing the union label now. And not in their uniforms.Among professional football cheerleaders, the Jills have scored a first. Last week, the 36-member squad voted overwhelmingly to have a union represent them on and off the field -- a decision fueled by poor pay and a desire to improve their image."

UPPER MARLBORO -- Baltimore boxing promoter Stuart Satosky may think twice before bidding for another national cable television show.For the second time in four years, Satosky's scheduled main event was canceled the day of the fight. Last night, unbeaten middleweight Dana Rosenblatt of Malden, Mass., became ill before his World Boxing Council Intercontinental title match with Frank Savannah of Brick, N.J., at the Show Place Arena.ESPN elevated the U.S. Boxing Association junior-middleweight title bout between Washington-area rivals Keith Holmes and Andrew Council to the main event.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission opened the bidding yesterday for its long-awaited sell-off of wide portions of the radio spectrum for a new generation of wireless telephone services.First-round results showed that bidders weren't swept up in the hoopla. Companies played a waiting game in all but a few hotly contested markets, bidding only $379.6 million in an auction that is expected to raise billions.But if the participants were cautious, the cheerleaders were bold.Brandishing a prototype of a Dick Tracy-style wrist phone, Vice President Al Gore mined the metaphor of a "new Gold Rush" and told the throng at the old post office building near Union Station that "we're bringing a revolution into being."

This probably says something about us that we don't want to know, but Howard Stern is one of the hottest New Year's Eve tickets in Baltimore and the rest of the country.That's the advance word on the "Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant," a pay-per-view event airing live at 11 tonight and repeating at 2 a.m. on area cable systems. The cost is $39.95."Advance sales for our three systems in the Baltimore area are really extraordinary," David Nevins, a spokesman for Comcast, said this week.

Yogi Berra's dictum that "it ain't over till it's over" applies in full measure to the so-called deficit reduction bill making its tortuous way through the legislative maze on Capitol Hill.House passage of the bill by just six votes, dramatic as it was, and the Senate's expected approval this week of a much-altered measure are only preliminaries to the main event -- a House-Senate conference committee in which the legislation will be substantially rewritten. Even then, this huge "reconciliation bill" could be changed during later enactment of appropriation bills.

COLLEGE PARK -- Nothing at Ellis Island could rival the moment: Charmaine Cameron became a citizen of the United States yesterday -- and a mother at very nearly the same time.The soft-spoken native of Jamaica who now makes her home in Columbia arrived at the University of Maryland campus expecting to be sworn in as a naturalized citizen along with about 2,000 other Maryland residents.Instead, Ms. Cameron went into labor and refused to leave for the hospital without first taking the oath of allegiance.

It was a great boxing show Thursday night at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie with only one boxer missing.No, I'm not talking about Victor Davis, who was to fight the main event, but came up lame and gave way to his capable brother, Demitrius.Chuck Sturm was missing.It's questionable if the most popular boxer to ever fight in Anne Arundel County will appear here again.This weekend Sturm, a former state wrestling champion at Old Mill and current Glen Burnie resident, was fighting in Philadelphia and has scheduled appearances in Baltimore and Pikesville.

After nearly two years of disruptive road construction that deterred customers and thwarted shop keepers, Main Street in Bel Air is tossing a party and hoping crowds will come. About a half-mile of the street billed as the "heart of Harford County" will be closed one more time tomorrow - not for drilling, digging or paving; but for the Main Event, a celebration marking the end of the nearly $9 million face-lift that began in January last year and closed the road and sidewalks, eliminated parking and brought noise, dust and, at times, tar to the doors of restaurants, office buildings and shops.

Talk about your TV timeouts. The World Series of Poker Main Event, the biggest poker tournament of the year, will suspend play when it gets down to the final table (nine players) in mid-July and then resume nearly four months later Nov. 9. ESPN will broadcast the conclusion Nov. 11 at 9 p.m. ESPN is tentatively set to begin televising pre-Main Event tournaments July 22 (all telecasts are on Tuesdays) and Main Event coverage begins Sept. 2. A preview show of the final nine players is scheduled for Nov. 4. Final table survivors will pick up where they left off in the summer on Nov. 9 and play down to two. The one-on-one match is set to begin at about midnight Nov. 10. The timing means that the final two-hour show will air only a half day or so after a new champion wins millions of dollars, thereby giving the telecast more immediacy than normal.

Earning a few bucks between semesters is what a lot of college kids hope to do during the summer. And Jeff Madsen, a senior at Cal State-Santa Barbara, is no different. Except in Madsen's case, the haul this summer has been a little more than $1.4 million - and counting. The 21-year-old film student not only became the youngest person ever to win a World Series of Poker championship, but he has done it twice. About a week ago, he set the age record when he took down a no-limit hold 'em $2,000 buy-in tournament at the Rio All-Suites Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

The debate over whether winning poker is more a result of skill or luck will probably never be completely settled. But for those who subscribe to the philosophy that being good really is better than being lucky, the current World Series of Poker being held at the Rio All-Suites casino in Las Vegas is providing convincing evidence. Even with record-setting numbers of players competing for the 45 gold bracelets that are up for grabs through the seven weeks of competition, famous names - some already with championship bracelets on their wrists - continue to hack their way through the massive fields to final tables and even win some tournaments outright.

Results from the recent poker Tournament of Champions had a familiar ring - local whiz Steve Dannenmann finished right behind Australian pro Joseph Hachem - but the payoff wasn't nearly as lucrative as it was a year ago. When those two finished one-two at the World Series of Poker main event last summer, Hachem pocketed $7.5 million and Dannenmann won $4.25 million. But when both were bounced Sunday in the early stages of the 27-person field of the Tournament of Champions at the Rio casino in Las Vegas, neither got a penny of the $2 million pot. The final table, with Ireland's Andrew Black as the chip leader, began play late yesterday.

If you play poker and sometimes wonder if you'll ever figure out the game, you have plenty of company. And not just among fellow card players. Television is still trying to get a handle on how to best present a game that has been a short-term small-screen phenomenon but whose very nature - long periods when little happens - makes it a challenge for producers. Examples of contrasting TV styles are ESPN's World Series of Poker broadcasts, which are produced more like documentaries focusing on personalties across the breadth of an entire tournament, and the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour that zeros in on the hand-by-hand action at a single six-person final table.

Baseball Dodgers@Nationals Where -- RFK Stadium, Washington When -- Tonight, 7:05; tomorrow, 1:20 p.m.; Sunday, 1:05 p.m. What now? -- If fans from Baltimore didn't take the drive last weekend to see the Orioles play at RFK, the odds aren't good for a big crowd for the Los Angeles series. Tickets are available for all three games on Washington's Web site. Online -- nationals.com Running Run for the Nations Where -- Ma & Pa Heritage Trail, 702 North Tollgate Road, Bel Air When -- Tomorrow, registration at 8 a.m., youth race at 9 a.m., adult race at 10 a.m. What now?

Donald Trump has his apprentices, and now poker pro Daniel Negreanu has his protege. A 27-year-old Connecticut accountant won an unusual poker tournament prize yesterday when he outlasted nine other players in Toronto and earned the opportunity to be tutored by Negreanu in the art and science of holdin' 'em and foldin' 'em, plus a bankroll to enter four $10,000 buy-in tournaments. Brian Fidler, the winner, plans to attend the World Poker Tour event at the Mirage in Las Vegas this month and the World Series of Poker main event at the Rio in Vegas this summer, as well as two yet-to-be-decided big-time tournaments.

Within the past couple of years, a slew of chic stores and restaurants have opened in Mount Airy, turning a small-town Main Street into a popular shopping destination. The shift started about five years ago, when several store owners got together to form the Downtown Business Association. Together, they staged such events as a Second Saturday Stroll. On the second Saturday of the month, stores stay open later. Sometimes, musicians are hired to serenade shoppers. The association also organizes festivals in the spring and fall, nonprofit events featuring artists, music, food and other entertainment.

At last year's World Series of Poker main event final table, a bewhiskered older gentleman in a straw hat took center stage at the game he loved for one final time. Walter Clyde "Puggy" Pearson, who had won the main event in 1973, commandeered a microphone and sang his trademark tune, "Roving Gambler," and I'm sure there were quite a few folks watching who wondered: Just who is this guy? It was this quirky old fellow's contribution to poker that probably led to more than 5,600 people gathering to play in last year's championship and millions more developing an infatuation with the game over the past few years.