FRANCHISE NOTES

          The Yankees passed out a news release at Yankee Stadium
     before Sunday's game that noted through Saturday, the club
     was last in attendance among the eight teams that made the
     '96 playoffs (L.A. TIMES, 4/28)....Sunday night's Hawks-
     Pistons game sold out "about 90 minutes before game time,"
     too late to lift the local blackout (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
     4/28)....In L.A., Larry Stewart writes that Rupert Murdoch
     "has emerged as possibly the top candidate" to buy the
     Dodgers.  Stewart: "If Murdoch ends up the Dodger owner, the
     team would no longer rank last [in] number of local
     telecasts.  Quite the opposite.  If a dozen or so games were
     shown nationally on ESPN, FX and the Fox network, that would
     leave ... as many as 100 for Fox Sports West 2.  That's why
     Murdoch might be willing to pay between $350 million and
     $500 million for the Dodgers" (L.A. TIMES, 4/25).