Facility Notes

Four Yankees Expected To Move Home Plate To New Stadium

In New Jersey, Pete Caldera cites a source as saying that "plans are in the works to have" Yankees SS Derek Jeter, P Mariano Rivera, C Jorge Posada and free agent P Andy Pettitte "transfer home plate from the current ballpark into the new Yankee Stadium -- perhaps on" November 8. The four players are "scheduled to be in" N.Y. on November 7 for the sixth annual dinner to benefit Dodgers manager Joe Torre's "Safe at Home Foundation." The '98 Yankees World Series championship team "will be honored" at the dinner (Bergen RECORD, 10/31).

POLITICS-FREE ZONE: In Charlotte, David Poole wrote of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Dickies 500, "If I ran Texas Motor Speedway I would have been running ads all week telling fans that my track would be an 'Election Free Zone' this weekend. I wouldn't let anybody come hand out buttons or bumper stickers or pamphlets or anything. With all the political ads and talk that's going to go on this weekend, I would try to convince fans my track would be the one place you know you could come to get away from all of that for at least a little while" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/30).

NOTES: In Minneapolis, Sid Hartman reports the Univ. of Minnesota (UM) "has spent $400,000 for 43 billboards and signs advertising" the school's new TCF Bank Stadium, which is scheduled to open next year, as well as the football program. However, attendance at Saturday's game against Northwestern Univ. "could be fewer than 50,000." And even though UM is 7-1, student attendance is "down 25[%]" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 10/31)....In St. Paul, Charley Walters reports Target paid $8M for naming rights to Target Plaza, adjacent to the Twins' new Target Field (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 10/31).