Atlantic City

The Atlantic City Surf closed out the Atlantic League regular season yesterday by edging the Bridgeport Bluefish, 7-6. Jason Law's two-run double highlighted a four-run rally in the eighth for the Surf, who finished 80-60 overall and won the second-half South Division title with a 48-22 record. At 6:35 tomorrow night in Atlantic City, the Surf will begin the best-of-three first-round playoffs against Somerset. Camden 7, Somerset 4 L.J. Biernbaum hit an RBI double for the Riversharks, who ended the Atlantic League season with a win over the Patriots at Campbell's Field.

Atlantic City's 11 casinos reached a milestone in 1985: the $2 billion mark in winnings from gamblers. Preliminary figures indicate the casinos racked up a total of $2.13 billion, an increase of 9.6 percent over 1984. The city's first casino opened in 1978 and the 11th last June. Yet much of Atlantic City has a bombed-out look. Wrecking balls and bulldozers have leveled much of the South Inlet where low-income residents were forced out by land speculators. Surviving residential areas of the Inlet are a mix of vacant buildings and dilapidated housing occupied by forgotten people who are still poor.

"Growing up in Atlantic City was like growing up in Disney World," says one longtime resident. "It was like having a carnival going all year long," says another. In Search of Atlantic City, a half-hour produced by WHYY-TV and airing at 9 tonight on Channel 12, looks lovingly back at the queen of resorts through the eyes of some of its sons and daughters. It's the TV-show equivalent of Burt Lancaster, in that famous line from Atlantic City - the movie - looking out at the waves and saying that it used to be some ocean.

Atlantic City has been called many things by a lot of people, but home hasn't necessarily been one of them. Between 1960 and 1980, Atlantic City lost about one-third of its population. The supposed salvation of the community - casino gambling - only hastened the downward slide, as casino operators bought up huge tracts of land for investment, leveling housing stock as they went along. Since 1984, casinos have been required by state law to reinvest 1.25 percent of their annual gross revenues in redeveloping Atlantic City.

Pleasantville ran its winning streak to 25 games yesterday with a convincing 67-54 victory over host Atlantic City in the Cape-Atlantic League championship boys' basketball game. The Greyhounds, ranked No. 2 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, used a 28-16 burst in the fourth quarter to beat the Vikings, who had won the first three league title games. Pleasantville led the defense-dominated game by 39-38 entering the last quarter but exploded with a 10-0 burst. Pat Davenport started it with a jumper from the lane, and Clifton Jones followed with an open three-pointer from the wing.

ATLANTIC CITY - It seems a monumental task: Shrug off 34 years of marketing this place as Las Vegas with a boardwalk and rebrand it as world-class destination with a sudden emphasis on arts and culture. And do it fast, because the gambling thing - with tens of billions of dollars in casino infrastructure - doesn't cut it anymore. Say hello to John Palmieri and Liza Cartmell. He's the executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), and she's the head of the Atlantic City Alliance.

Toni Lynne Sanferraro says Atlantic City has crapped out. So she has closed her Brigantine beauty salon and is headed west with her husband, Robert, to the nation's other casino city, Las Vegas. "The casino industry here is going downhill," said Sanferraro, a Brigantine resident for 11 years. "My husband feels Atlantic City will become a ghost town. " Sanferraro's reaction may be extreme, but her sentiment is echoed throughout this resort. Jitney drivers, restaurateurs, car dealers, dentists, construction workers and others have lamented the stagnation of an industry that had enjoyed more than a decade of unprecedented growth.

The biggest names in the division remain on the West Coast, where opportunities for filly and mare grass runners are plentiful. But tonight's Matchmaker Stakes at Atlantic City has been attracting quality runners since it was conceived by track chairman Bob Levy in 1967. There is no Flawlessly, the reigning female turf champion, in this field of eight. But there is enough intrigue to make the fight for the winner's share of the $100,000 purse, and the right to select a free breeding season to Ferdinand, Demons Begone or Simply Majestic, a player's challenge.