The AP's Jenna Fryer wrote under the header, "NASCAR Needs To Take A Stand On North Carolina's Law." NASCAR "could move" the Sprint All-Star Race scheduled for May 21 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It "would be a dramatic decision, one that would place a significant burden on fans who have already paid for travel arrangements, and a blow to Speedway Motorsports Inc." But it "won't happen and NASCAR is just as unlikely to move the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend." But even "starting that conversation could get" N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory's attention (AP, 5/9).
JOINING FORCES: In Pittsburgh, J. Brady McCollough writes Cuban baseball "isn’t what it once was -- in facilities and talent -- which is one of the reasons" that Cuban Baseball Federation Commissioner Heriberto Suarez Pereda and other Cuban officials "are starting to think about what an arrangement with MLB would look like." Suarez "admitted that the best players on the island are now in the range of this double-A level, and an infusion of American dollars, funneled through player salaries negotiated by the Cuban baseball federation, would help to repair the failing infrastructure of their national game" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 5/10).
TENNIS, ANYONE? In Louisville, Tim Sullivan notes barely three months before the scheduled start of the inaugural WTA Louisville Int'l Open, organizers are "unable to say where the event will be held or why it no longer works at the Louisville Boat Club." Some of the event’s early backers, who signed up for “Founders’ Circle” privileges on the understanding that the tournament would be staged at the Boat Club, "are now looking to back out" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/10).
