LEAGUE NOTES

     The Penguins Mario Lemieux said the NHL needs to make the
game more exciting through rule changes.  He met with NHL
Commissioner Gary Bettman over the summer to discuss the issue,
but Lemieux said, "I thought the game would change for the
better, but it did no good.  I'm not surprised we're seeing a lot
of empty buildings in the cities we're going into.  The way the
game's played now, it's a pretty boring game" (HAMILTON
SPECTATOR, 10/23)....On CNN's "Pro Golf Weekly," SI's Jaime Diaz
said, "The glory days of the [PGA] Senior Tour are over.  As Lee
Trevino and Jack Nicklaus inevitably fade from the scene ... the
tour has become less and less of what it was designed to be -- an
arena made for the game's biggest stars to shine."  Diaz said
today's top senior tour players "are not the magical names that
gave the tour its reason for existence" and the "next infusion of
that kind of marquee" will not come until '99 when Tom Watson,
Tom Kite and Lanny Watkins turn 50 ("Pro Golf Weekly," CNN,
10/20).