South Florida

It's probably appropriate that my last weekend in South Florida will coincide with Miami Beach Fashion Week, since everyone always asks me where I get my tent-sized Hawaiian shirts. (The answer: Probably the same place Fred Manfra gets his.) The four-day fashion event is open to the public, and 150 free tickets are distributed before each fashion show on a first-come, first-served basis. The talk of the weekend is the new fashion line that will be introduced by Nicky Hilton tomorrow night in Miami's Design District.

It doesn't matter that Mike Flanagan asked out of the Orioles' organizational meetings last week in Florida. For them to be held without him just doesn't sound right, or promising for his future in his current position. As we vilify Travis Johnson for taunting Trent Green while he lay unconscious with a concussion, we confirm again that the health and well-being of the quarterback is way more important than that of some lineman. So by all means, let's heap sympathy on a player who chopped at a colleague's knees and risked both their careers in the process.

HAVANA -- Up close, the face of Cuba looks a lot more like Baltimore than south Florida.From the narrow streets of Old Havana to the fashionable Miramar district of the Cuban capital and the distant city of Santiago de Cuba, this island's residents bear a striking resemblance to the citizens of Baltimore.The people of African descent here range in color from ebony to cafe au lait -- a far different racial makeup than the Cuban expatriates massed in south Florida.In Cuba, whites are clearly a minority.

MIAMI -- When Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and the New York Yankees did their things this past season, they gave back to the game of baseball a soul that has been lacking for some years. Several weeks later, baseball showed that soul was only temporary.It may seem only minor that baseball took away the 2000 All-Star game from South Florida and awarded it to Atlanta. But beneath it lies something that should concern any city with a major-league team, or one hoping to get one.It's about a new stadium.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is putting the finishing touches on the most expensive environmental restoration ever undertaken: a $7.5 billion effort to undo the damage the corps did decades ago when it drained Florida's Everglades.The wilderness that once was the liquid heart of Florida has been dying of thirst since the late 1960s, when the corps completed a 1,600-mile long network of canals that created cities and farms out of saw-grass marshes, but deprived the Everglades of its life-giving water.

Tired of winter and trash sports (i.e., anything but baseball)?Spring training is just around the corner -- on the calendar, at least. Beginning Feb. 28, you can have a sneak preview of the slightly revised, not-quite-American-League-champion Baltimore Orioles as they gear up for the 1998 campaign.Trouble is, you'll have to do it in Florida.But that's not so bad. Figure on temperatures edging upward from the 70s, perhaps closing in on the 90s, as the Orioles swing through nearly the entire month of March in the Sunshine State.

South Florida, Miami and environs in particular, is an otherworldly place. The closest my mind has ever come to grasping it is that being there is to walk, without map or compass, through an endless three-dimensional, megabass-wired Hieronymus Bosch painting populated, inter alia, by designer-drug-crazed pink flamingos bearing Uzis. One of its most exquisite excesses is Coconut Grove on Saturday night. Dave Barry gets that perfectly, grabs and holds it by the ears and throat and less mentionable anatomy and runs like hell.

"Detective," by Arthur Hailey. Crown Publishers. 400 pages. $24.In South Florida, anything is possible.It's a place where police officers murder drug dealers for their cash and cocaine. Where Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comaneci turned up after defecting from Romania. Where a church elder and anti-smut civic leader is caught on videotape with a nymphomanic housewife, her police officer husband filming the steamy action from a bedroom closet.It's a place with enough fodder to support dozens of authors, from Elmore Leonard and Edna Buchanan to Carl Hiaasen -- and now, Arthur Hailey.

BaseballAstros: Named Vern Ruhle coordinator of minor-league pitching instruction.Marlins: Signed Cuban P Livan Hernandez.=1 Rockies: Signed former Orioles P John Habyan.BasketballMA Jazz: Extended contract of eight-time All-Star F Karl Malone.CollegeAuburn: Basketball G Moochie Norris transferred to West Florida. Basketball G Angie Farah transferred to South Florida.UC-Irvine: Senior G Tamera Thomas (10.8 ppg) quit women's basketball team for personal reasons.Duke: Named Joe DeLamielleure offensive line coach and George Edwards linebacker coach.

As the new Republican majority in Congress begins its effort to slash Social Security's troubled $65 billion disability plan, there already are signs that political pressure is being felt that could jeopardize serious reform.Two decades of rule changes ordered by Congress have turned a pair of modest programs for disabled workers and poor people into America's most generous welfare plan -- a cash handout that is expected to cost $96 billion by the year 2000. The most alarming growth has been among children, immigrants and drug addicts.

1 Slow climb: UMBC can move up one spot in the America East standings, into sixth, with a victory over New Hampshire (7 p.m., MASN). 2 'Cats up: Coming off its first Big East loss, at South Florida - where tens of fans rushed the court - Marquette heads to Villanova (7:30 p.m., ESPN2). 3 ACC double dip: Comcast SportsNet-Plus has an Atlantic Coast Conference doubleheader, with Virginia-Florida State at 7 and Clemson-Boston College at 9. 4 Dagger!: Maybe Caron Butler can repeat his end-of-game heroics when the Wizards face the Hawks (7 p.m., Comcast SportsNet)

Top spring break destinations 1 Orlando, Fla. 2 South Florida (West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami) 3 Las Vegas 4 Fort Myers, Fla. 5 Denver 6 Phoenix 7 Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. 8 Cancun, Mexico 9 Los Angeles 10 San Juan, Puerto Rico Based on advance Travelocity.com bookings for Feb. 9- April 20, 2009.

For Ravens fans looking to migrate south for the playoffs, getting tickets to the game wasn't a problem yesterday. But getting to Miami - that's another matter. Thanks to lukewarm Miami fans who don't always fill Dolphin Stadium, some of the Ravens faithful were able to buy tickets at face value on the Ticketmaster Web site yesterday morning. But with the Orange Bowl game in Miami this week, the college football championship game next week and seasonal travelers heading to Florida to thaw out, decent airfare is hard to come by. Many flights out of South Florida on Sunday and Monday, when Ravens fans would be returning home, are full.

ALVAH H. CHAPMAN JR., 87 Miami newspaperman, civic leader Former Miami Herald president/CEO Alvah H. Chapman Jr., one of South Florida's most influential corporate and civic leaders, whose business acumen and quiet passion helped mold not just the Herald, but modern Miami, died Thursday of pneumonia. Mr. Chapman, a third-generation newspaperman, spent a traditional family Christmas Eve at his Coconut Grove home, reading the Bible with his wife, Betty, their two daughters and several grandchildren, and then died Christmas Day. He was afflicted with Parkinson's disease, suffered strokes in recent years and broke a hip in March.

Mark Sanchez passed for 269 yards and two touchdowns, Southern California's hard-hitting defense stuffed host UCLA at every turn, and the No. 5 Trojans won, 28-7, yesterday to give them nine victories in the past 10 games between the crosstown rivals. The win ensured USC (11-1, 8-1 Pacific-10) of an unprecedented seventh consecutive Bowl Championship Series bid, seven straight 11-win seasons and seven straight conference titles. The Trojans also will make a fourth straight appearance in the Rose Bowl, where they will meet No. 6 Penn State on New Year's Day. The 33-point underdog Bruins (4-8, 3-6)

Even with a 27-point win, Maryland women's coach Brenda Frese was upset with her team's lack of consistency. Marah Strickland scored 14 points and No. 3 Maryland rebounded from a stunning opening-game loss to beat Delaware State, 73-46, yesterday. "We played well in spurts. The disappointing thing is that we lost a lot of effort and intensity in the second half," Frese said. "There are areas where we need to improve and we don't have a lot of time to fix and correct." Marissa Coleman and freshman Lynetta Kizer added 13 points each as the Terps (1-1)

McCoy, Pitt upset No. 10 South Florida COL. FOOTBALL LeSean McCoy ran for two touchdowns and Bill Stull threw for one as visiting Pittsburgh upset No. 10 South Florida, 26-21, last night. The Panthers (4-1, 2-0 Big East) have won two of the past three games against South Florida (5-1, 0-1) in Tampa. Stull finished 16-for-27 for 228 yards. Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe was 11-for-20 for 129 yards and rushed for a touchdown. Bills' Evans gets 4-year extension NFL Wide receiver Lee Evans signed a four-year contract extension worth $37.25 million in a deal that prevents the Buffalo Bills star from becoming a free agent after this season.

1 Scoreboard watch: A division race comes to town tonight with the arrival of the Twins (left) at Camden Yards (7:05, MASN2). Those folks who talk like Chief Gunderson in Fargo will be hanging on every pitch. 2 Bright lights, big city: The Rays move on to a series at Yankee Stadium (7:05 p.m.). But if they're feeling the heat, the presence of New York fans is sure to comfort them. 3 Conference call: The No. 9 Maryland men's soccer team opens its Atlantic Coast Conference schedule against Boston College tonight at 8 in College Park.

While former Maryland recruit Gus Gilchrist awaits an NCAA ruling on his eligibility for the coming season at South Florida, his longtime trainer-adviser, Terrelle Woody, is getting started on a new job at the Tampa, Fla., university. According to the Tampa Tribune, Woody, who doesn't have a college degree, was hired as the men's basketball team's video and conditioning assistant. He won't get benefits from the school, coach Stan Heath said. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/recruiting)

Basketball update * The stock of Torrington, Conn., power forward Jordan Williams continues to rise. The Maryland target made his first appearance on the Rivals 150 this week (No. 102). * Dix Hills, N.Y., forward Tobias Harris has plans to visit College Park soon, according to the New York Daily News. * TampaBay.com reports that ex-Terp Gus Gilchrist is waiting for a ruling on his immediate future at South Florida. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/recruiting.)