Omaha

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Chito Martinez finally got to Royals Stadium, though not by the route that he originally had mapped out for himself.Martinez arrived here yesterday as a member of the Baltimore Orioles organization, which signed him in November as a six-year minor-league free agent."

IN A COLUMN on Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's chances of winning high political office (not good), I said John McCain was "the Senate's only military careerist."Braxton D. Mitchell of Ruxton wrote to ask, "What about John Glenn? Col. Glenn served with distinction in and retired honorably from the U.S. Marine Corps." That's right. Ohio's Senator Glenn was a Marine for 23 years, a year longer than Arizona's Senator McCain was in the Navy.About the same column, Emil Weiss of Las Vegas, who described himself as "a died in the wool Republican," wrote to assert that "General Eisenhower was not necessarily an outstanding president.

"Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist," by Roger Lowenstein. New York: Random House. 463 pages. $25 With the Walt Disney Co.'s planned buyout of Capital Cities/ABC, the biggest winner will be a mild-mannered billionaire who makes his home in middle America and defies the stereotypes of vulture capitalists.Already worth $9.2 billion, Warren Buffett stands to make $2.1 billion from the Disney deal. And that is likely to catapult him from second to first among America's wealthiest individuals.

On Saturday, Michael Phelps will turn 27. No surprise, he'll spend the birthday where he's spent much of his previous 26 years: in a pool, chasing gold. This time, it will be in Omaha, Neb., where the Olympic qualifying trials begin Monday and where Phelps will begin to answer a question that has trailed him for the past four years: How will he possibly top his golden, eight-for-eight performance of Beijing? "What Michael has done is insane. I think people now take gold medals for granted," said fellow swimmer Natalie Coughlin, herself among the most decorated Olympians ever.

HOLLYWOOD -- The Oracle of Omaha is Tinseltown's newest animated hero. But, at least in Warren E. Buffett's crystal ball, he still has no future here. "I can't afford to go Hollywood," he said. "There's no money in this stuff." If anyone knows the value of a dollar, it's a guy with 40 billion of them. Which is why the world's second-richest individual decided to become a cartoon character to teach children financial responsibility. Working pro bono, Buffett will play himself in a 13-part DVD series, The Secret Millionaire's Club, produced by DIC Entertainment Corp.

OMAHA -- Americans are sharply divided over whether gay men and lesbians choose their sexual orientation, a split that shapes attitudes on everything from homosexuals in the military to gay life in general, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.Americans who say individuals cannot change their homosexuality -- 43 percent of those surveyed -- are more sympathetic to the gay view on these issues than the 44 percent who see it as a choice. The country is split evenly, 43 to 43, on whether homosexuals should be allowed to serve in the military.

Mall owners know that shoppers are unsettled by purse snatchings and other petty crimes and government warnings that malls are easy terrorism targets. And then this week there was a madman shooter who took nine lives at a Nebraska mall. As retailers try to lure shoppers to their stores during the critical holiday season, which can account for as much as 40 percent of sales, malls are also trying to send a message that they're safe. Owners and industry experts say that the nation's 1,200 malls have more protection than ever.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- For many major-college football players, the path between the field and the classroom is a treacherous one, strewn with as many academic casualties as athletic disappointments.And then there are success stories such as Pat Tyrance.The senior inside linebacker is a two-time, all-Big Eight player at Nebraska and the Cornhuskers' leading tackler in each of the past two seasons.On top of that, he is an Academic All-American, a pre-med major with nearly a 3.5 grade-point average who recently received his bachelor's degree in biology and last week was honored among the Top Six student-athletes by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

At first glance, nothing about the Woodlawn Vase -- the shiny silver trophy presented annually to the winner of the Preakness -- seems to embody the thrill of the race. Where in its delicate, ornate features are the galloping, straining horses? Where are the bulging muscles, flaring nostrils and glistening coats? Where are the hysterical crowds? At a glance, the trophy hints at little more than that triumphant Kodak moment in which the victor raises the cup for the crowds to cheer and the cameras to flash.

It happened one foggy night at a rocky Pacific bluff called Honda. One after another, nine destroyers of the United States Navy rammed the state of California.Seven of the "four-stackers," or "tin cans," eventually broke up. Two backed off and limped away. Twenty-three sailors were killed. Almost 800 officers and crew members survived. Some officers were penalized and many men commended for their rescue efforts in treacherous seas.Largely forgotten, the accident Sept. 8, 1923, remains one of the darkest -- and most heroic -- in peacetime Navy history.