In the 6:30pm EDT edition of "SportsCenter," ESPN's Charley
Steiner said the All-Star Game "is almost like opening night for
a new Broadway show. Baseball's salvation show opens its tent
for all of its repentant sinners and those curious to see if the
magic potions of Hideo Nomo and Randy Johnson can be the elixer
to get the national pasttime back on track" ("SportsCenter,"
7/11).
LOCAL IMPACT: In Dallas-Ft. Worth, John Moritz writes that
the Game "represents a triumph in Arlington's 23-year struggle to
attain the status of a major-league city" (FT. WORTH STAR-
TELEGRAM, 7/12). MLB officials predicted that the Game would
pump $30M into Arlington's economy, with local officials hoping
for an overall regional impact of $50M (AP/Minneapolis STAR
TRIBUNE, 7/12). The All-Star FanFest drew only 90,000, the first
time attendance had declined from the previous year in its five-
year history. The '94 FanFest in Pittsburgh drew 150,000; the
'93 event in Baltimore drew 115,000 (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 7/12).
FAN POLL: The CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll surveyed 801 U.S.
adults from July 7-9 (margin of error +/- 3%). Asked if they
were fans of professional baseball, 35% said yes, 52% said no.
In May, 32% said yes, and 59% said no. Of those who identified
themselves as fans, 31% said they are as interested in following
baseball as in past years, while 68% said they are less
interested (CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup).
HONORARY CAPTAINS? MLBPA Exec Dir Don Fehr and acting MLB
Commissioner Bud Selig met in Arlington, TX, for about an hour
yesterday. Fehr: "It was a frank expression of views. It was
preliminary. Nothing is scheduled at this point" (Mark Maske,
WASHINGTON POST, 7/12). Selig, on ABC: "We are going to be back
at the table very shortly, and very shortly means within the next
week or ten days." Fehr said he was not aware of that timetable:
"I have not been so advised. If he wants me to get my message,
if my message is through you, that's OK" ("World News Tonight,"
7/11).
MORE STATE OF THE GAME TALK: Then state of baseball was the
subject of a report on ABC's "World News Tonight," and later on
"Nightline." "Nightline" hosted Bob Costas, Giants Owner Peter
Magowan, and Fehr. Magowan: "Everything else is going to be
dependent on our ability to get a labor agreement that is fair to
both sides. ... I do think that there is a willingness, if an
agreement can be forged, for a partnership to then be formed
between the players and ownership to grow and promote the game."
Fehr: "We all have go into it with a different attitude, by
which I mean, no thin skins anymore, and if you don't get it done
on Day One, you go at it on Day Two, and if you don't get it done
on day whatever, you go at on day whatever plus one." Costas:
"As a general heading, baseball has to modernize and reform
without losing its sense of itself. ... There are too many people
within baseball that either never knew or forgot what made
baseball different than other sports. Baseball will never be an
MTV sport, it will never be like the NBA, and should not aspire
to be" (ABC, 7/11).
