Tony Taylor

Michael Vick stands alone. His last two co-defendants pleaded guilty to dogfighting charges Friday, pointing the finger at the Atlanta Falcons quarterback and saying he not only bankrolled the venture but helped execute dogs that didn't perform well. In separate hearings Friday morning in Richmond, Va., Quanis Phillips of Atlanta and Purnell Peace of Virginia Beach, Va.

Kregg Lumpkin stood along the sideline, head down. The freshman running back was disconsolate about the fumble that cost Georgia a chance to clinch a victory in the Capital One Bowl on Thursday at Orlando, Fla. He wanted another chance. And he got it in overtime. Lumpkin redeemed himself by scoring on a one-yard, fourth-down run in the first overtime, giving No. 11 Georgia a 34-27 victory over No. 12 Purdue. "I was just happy they were going to give me another chance," Lumpkin said.

Atlanta third baseman Bob Horner, trying to come back from surgery on his right wrist, is less than four weeks away from opening day and still hasn't faced a big-league pitcher this spring. He is hopeful, however, of being ready for the start of the season. Horner, who broke his right wrist in 1983 while breaking up a double play, broke it again last May 30 when he fell on it while chasing a pop fly. He missed the rest of the season.

For years after San Francisco's deadly 1906 earthquake, the clock high above the city's harbor remained frozen at 5:13, a silent reminder of the moment life changed forever. In Cuba, time seems to have stopped in 1959. Corpulent Buicks, stylish Plymouth Furies and chrome-laden DeSotos still make their way up avenues squeezed by ornate buildings adorned with colonial cornices and Art Deco detailing.

Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes, leading the New England Patriots to a 24-12 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles Friday night in the first football game at the new $520 million Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The game was costly for Philadelphia (2-1), which lost starting wide receiver James Thrash to head and neck injuries, rookie defensive end Jamaal Green to a broken right fibula and backup defensive tackle Paul Grasmanis to a concussion.

Every year a group of people gathers in the winter snow of New Zealand's Southern Alps where, like a species of migrating birds, they get ready to fly south for the Antarctic summer. The men and women, some fit, some fat, range from post office clerks to mountaineers, academics to drill riggers. They all want to live and work in the Antarctic--the most isolated, coldest, windiest, driest continent on earth. Some are novices. Others have had years of experience in "going down to the ice."

Tom Spencer, one of five black managers in all of professional baseball, gets upset when he thinks about last year and what could have been. "Let's face it, I was the highest ranking black manager in baseball. I was there, and now I'm here," Spencer said. Last year, the 36-year-old Spencer managed the Pittsfield, Mass., Cubs of the Class AA Eastern League. He took them into the playoffs. This year, he's the new manager of the Geneva Cubs in the New York-Penn League, a summer league for rookies.

* William Mitchell has been named senior vice president of corporate marketing for the Irvine Co.'s Investment Property Group. He had been a full-time marketing consultant for the company since April. Mitchell directed the Irvine Co.'s residential marketing programs in the early 1990s. In addition, Ken Coulter was appointed senior vice president of land development for the residential development division. He has been with the company more than 14 years.

Around the same time Thursday that quarterback Michael Vick was in Virginia pleading not guilty to federal charges related to illegal dogfighting, a plane circled low and slow over Atlanta Falcons training camp. Flapping behind it was a banner that read, "New team name? Dog-killers?" "I was wondering when it was going to run out of gas," Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler said later. The controversy surrounding Vick seems to be running on a full tank, however.

Robin "Country" Boatner lounges in an outdoor chair, his back to a large tree that blunts the sunlight with the help of a white tarp stretched overhead. On a hook hangs a BB gun -- used to shoot rats. "It's primitive living," says Country, as his friends on the Los Angeles River call him. On this day, his neighbors include Dwayne Dickinson and Melissa Millner, a couple who share a tepee-like tent, and "River Ron" Schneider, who says he has made his home here since 1995.