Sled Dog

On The Weekend Watch:WHAT'S YOUR GAME? -- Whew! Sports activities of wide variety are chewing up huge chunks of the viewing schedule this weekend. First up, of course, are the early games of the annual basketball odyssey of the NCAA Tournament, and CBS/Channel is the locale for a numbing total of 15 games through Sunday, with Billy Packer heading the broadcast teams. Doubleheader game times are at noon and 8 p.m. today and Friday; marathon games begin at noon on Saturday (four) and Sunday (three)

Young Jason Marshall looked across the vast, icy skating rink at the Inner Harbor yesterday and lost his nerve for taking a glide across the frozen surface.Even though he and his mother, Lucille, had been waiting for weeks to skate at one of Baltimore's most popular downtown winter attractions, at this point the idea somehow seemed better than the reality."It's too cold," Jason told his mother. "If I fall, I'll bust my head open."But after 10 minutes of haggling, the 9-year-old gave in and took to the rink at Rash Field, which opened for the season yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sixty-five years after he became the first American to drive a dog team in Antarctica, Norman D. Vaughan is poised to become the last person to accomplish the feat.Mr. Vaughan plans to spend Dec. 19 -- his 88th birthday -- atop Mount Norman Vaughan after mushing 500 miles across the Ross Ice Shelf. Admiral Richard E. Byrd named the 10,302-foot peak in his honor."There's nothing we're going to face that I can't do . . . ," Mr. Vaughan said this week. "I can do the normal kinds of things that are expected of me: drive a dog team, ski and mountain climb.

Saul Herbert Barnett, 72, a Baltimore-born entertainment lawyer and film and theater producer, died of cancer Thursday in Aspen, Colo. Mr. Barnett was a 1947 graduate of City College, and earned his undergraduate and law degrees at New York's Columbia University in the 1950s. He practiced entertainment law in New York City and Beverly Hills, Calif., and dabbled in movies and plays, producing Give 'Em Hell Harry, a theater production starring James Whitmore, and the 1979 Richard Pryor in Concert film.

Great gesture by track stars Patti Sue Plumer and Michael Johnson, in the area recently to hype the Mobil 1 Invitational Meet at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., Feb. 3: Both will donate $500 of their appearance money to provide tickets for kids.In addition to Plumer and Johnson, other top names entered in the meet are Said Aouita, world recordholder in everything from 1,500 to 5,000 meters; Doina Melinte, the world's top woman miler; and high jumper Javier Sotomayor. The meet runs from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. For tickets, call 432-0200.

Sabatini, Graf to meet in Slims of Fla. finalGabriela Sabatini rallied from a break down in each set to beat Jennifer Capriati, 7-5, 6-2, yesterday and earn a berth against Steffi Graf in the final of the Virginia Slims of Florida in Boca Raton.Graf beat Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-1, 6-2, in the other semifinal match. Neither the top-seeded Graf nor No. 2 Sabatini has lost a set this week.Sabatini wore down Capriati, 14, by hitting repeated deep ground strokes, first to one corner and then the other.

Sullins, Wiseman 1-2 on today's PBA ladderHarry Sullins won the last qualifying game last night to earn the top seed for the finals of the PBA Paula Carter's Homestead (Fla.) Classic.Sullins defeated Danny Wiseman of Dundalk, 264-233, in the 42nd game of qualifying to earn his third television appearance of the year in today's championship round (3 p.m. on Channel 13). Sullins, who won the Showboat Invitational earlier this year, totaled 9,561 pins.Wiseman, also a four-time champion, grabbed the second seed with 9,546 pins.

Don't be surprised if, after years of outright neglect, the networks jump back into covering boxing with both feet. If and when it happens, they will have cable to thank for first sustaining then moving to return the popularity of the sweet science.For example, USA Network, with its "Tuesday Night Fights" series, which will be on 45 weeks in 1993, has gone head-to-head with NBA basketball on TNT six times lately, and it has been no contest. While the boxers have been averaging a 2.5 rating, the NBA has run up a 1.9, a 32 percent disparity.

As a youngster, Rachael Scdoris turned to her dogs for comfort when cruel classmates taunted her. And it will be her dogs that the 20-year-old musher calls on today as she lines up to compete in her first Iditarod. Each day, before she dips into her snack bag along the 1,150-mile trail, she'll feed her team. Before she massages her own weary feet, she will knead the soreness from 64 paws. When both they and she are digging down for that last bit of energy, the Iditarod rookie will raise her voice in song - gospel and spiritual tunes she has known forever.

Liberty Mountain Resort has $1 million in new snowmaking equipment ready to roar, but the ski area one hour northwest of Baltimore can't buy a flake this season. The lifts are quiet at nearby Whitetail Resort, which has a Santa video on its website pleading for winter weather, and at Roundtop Mountain Resort, where crews are laboring to lay down a thin layer of white on Fanny Hill and Lafayette's Leap. Even Wisp Resort in colder Western Maryland is operating only four of its 32 runs.