Savannah

News of the dayActing commis- sioner Bud Selig, who on Friday allowed his deadline for canceling the World Series to pass, said he will make an announcement about the future of the season by Wednesday evening, which is the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.B6 Several internal meetings are scheduled for today.Games lostFourteen games were canceled yesterday. The total number missed is 399. Only 270 remain.Quote"We'll continue to try if there is any vestige of hope left." -- Acting commissioner Bud SeligMinor-league playoffs3' * Savannah at Hagerstown, 7:05 p.m.

Lucille Pillatt of Towson, an Illinois native who became the first woman juror in Georgia, died Friday at Genesis Eldercare Brightwood Center in Lutherville after a long illness. She was 92. A homemaker who followed her husband, a shipyard manager, on assignments to New York, Texas and Georgia, Mrs. Pillatt was living in Savannah, Ga., in the early 1950s when she heard several cases as the state's first woman juror. "That was not something women did, especially in the South," said her daughter, Mary P. Felter of Arnold.

BettyJean Murphy Occupation: Principal, Savannah Development Corp., an 18-year-old Baltimore real estate development firm specializing in converting buildings into affordable housing and senior centers. In the news: Savannah has proposed a building with 74 condominiums on 2.5 acres of the city-owned Canton Waterfront Park. Although Murphy is proposing to build on a portion of the property that is used as a parking lot, city and community leaders are reluctant to see the public waterfront land go to public use, particularly land that is so close to the state's Korean War Memorial.

My wife and I live in Abingdon and visited Savannah, Ga., in June. On our way to the airport to return home, we stopped to visit Bonaventure Cemetery, made famous in John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The cemetery is bordered by the Wilmington River. As we walked away from the river and headed back to the cemetery entrance, I turned to look back. The majestic oak trees covered with hanging Spanish moss and the dappled shadows on the ground made an image that captured our impressions of Savannah and the South.

Columbia's new Southwestern restaurant, Red River Barbecue & Grille (6201 Columbia Crossing Circle, 410-290-0091), sounds like the real thing. Not only can you get chili, pulled pork and baby back ribs, but side dishes include red beans and rice, fried okra and sweet potato sticks. OK, there's also a new-fangled sun-dried cherry slaw, which doesn't sound very down home. But who knows? It might actually taste pretty good. The Pittsburgh-based chain plans to open 10 or 12 more restaurants in the Baltimore-Washington area by next summer.

A Savannah, Ga., federal judge has issued one of the toughest penalties ever in a case involving the increasing tendency of airline passengers to behave disruptively.U.S. District Judge William Moore sentenced Gary Lee Lougee of Pooler, Ga., to 51 months in jail last week for assaulting a USAir flight attendant on a trip from Savannah to Charlotte, N.C, on July 6.Lougee, 40, also will have to repay USAir $611.35 for the expense of turning the airplane around and returning to Savannah."This is a wake-up call," said Dan Drake, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Savannah.

In Baltimore's latest effort to prop up its wilting downtown, city leaders took a major step yesterday toward enticing more people to move into the business district with a $1.1 million loan to help a developer convert an empty office building into apartments.The former YMCA building at 300 N. Charles St. is the first of several buildings that the city leaders say will become apartments catering to young professionals and college students, who want the convenience of downtown living.The Board of Estimates approved the $1.1 million loan to Savannah Development Corp.

Jennifer Kohn had hoped the best-selling "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" would be a treat, a literary lagniappe for her first free evening. So when the Towson woman finally cracked the book's spine, she felt like a million.Make that a millionth.Kohn had found a prize she didn't know existed inked into the flyleaf of the book. As the owner of the 1 millionth copy of "Midnight," she was entitled to a free trip to its setting, Savannah, Ga., and cocktails with its author, John Berendt, who had inscribed the invitation.

The good folk of Savannah, Ga., are generally under awed by the power of the sword. In his famously pyromaniacal march to the sea, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (see opposite page) was bargained into leaving their city entirely unmolested . But the pen! Now, there is righteous might.If you are not aware of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," by John Berendt (Random House. 388 pages. $24), you have been woefully neglecting book chatter for a year or more. First published two years ago next month, it has reportedly sold 715,000 hardcover copies, leading best seller lists for almost 90 weeks.

Summer vacation is just around the corner and for many African-Americans that means going to the beach, golfing or taking in cultural sites and festivals. But this summer, time away from work or home will be limited, experts say. According to the Travel Industry Association of America in Washington, 38 percent of trips taken by African-Americans will be over just one or two nights. Heritage tours: The area offers trolley tours of some of Savannah's many historical places. You can see everything from the First African Baptist Church to the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.