In DC, Eric Fisher reports that MLB attendance is up
5.8% from the same point last year and it "is closely
approaching pre-strike levels." N.Y.-based DeWitt Media ad
exec Bob Flood: "The attitudes about the strike have really
subsided significantly, and the game's executives have done
a much better job marketing the sport and its stars. ... But
interest takes off only when you succeed in going beyond
your hard-core base of fans. It's still early, but nothing
has really happened yet this year to do that" (WASHINGTON
TIMES, 5/10)....BASEBALL AMERICA's Will Lingo writes that
baseball's Independent Leagues have "earned a much-improved
reputation in the seven years since [they] returned to the
baseball scene." Lingo: "Maybe [MLB] granting some sort of
affiliated membership would be too much to expect -- and
it's questionable whether the indy leagues would even want
it -- but they could certainly learn something and
accomplish more by working together." But Lingo writes
Minor League Baseball and its league and club officials
"continue to go out of their way to make things contentious
with independent leagues." A proposed rule now "would
prohibit people from having an interest in an affiliated
minor league team at the same time they're involved" with a
league that "violates [MLB] territory" (BASEBALL AMERICA,
5/15)....NASCAR Winston Cup driver Kenny Wallace, on the
addition of two races for a 38-race schedule in 2001:
"Breaks from our grueling schedule are important to a
driver's sanity. I have to be on for 34 race weekends and
over 20 sponsor appearances, which doesn't include the media
requests, hospitality visits and everything else that comes
with the deal." Driver Johnny Benson: "I hope we don't lose
more people because of the schedule" (K.C. STAR, 5/10).
