BASEBALL DREAM TEAMS WILL KEEP SPORT IN OLYMPICS, BOOST TV

     As International Baseball Association President Aldo Notari
called for pros to be in by 2000 or out of the Olympics by 2004,
the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL's James Christie notes a Dream Team
format would boost the Summer Games, where baseball is currently
"an entertainment dud."  Christie reports that not only would
admitting pros "inject validity" into Olympic Baseball, but also
"boost the bidding war for U.S. rights."  He notes Cuba's team
has lost only once since '82 in World and Olympic competition,
and that a Dream Team competition "would be an attractive peg on
which to hang daily TV coverage."  As for the potential overlap
with MLB's season, Christie notes Sydney's tentative late
September dates could enable MLB to allow teams out of the
pennant race to send players and that future Olympics proposed in
Southern hemisphere cities such as Cape Town and Rio could be
scheduled later (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 11/14).