FRANCHISE NOTES

          With five remaining regular-season home games, the MLB
     Rangers will not reach the three million home attendance
     mark this season, and "might even fall short of last year's
     record attendance of 2.94 million" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM,
     9/16)....A's President Sandy Alderson, responding to a $130M
     bid from a San Bernardino group to purchase and relocate the
     team: "My initial introduction to this was through the
     media, and as a result, I didn't give it much weight. ... I
     think this has more to do with publicity for San Bernardino
     than it does with the A's" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 9/15).