
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991                   TAG: 9104070132
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

FANS WELCOME RETURN OF BASEBALL TO D.C.

Baseball's return to the nation's capital was not without its problems. The ticket lines were dreadfully long, causing some fans to miss nearly half the game.

But if attendance at exhibition games means anything, then Washington made a positive statement Saturday in its bid to get a National League expansion team in 1993.

A crowd of 37,458 - about 11,000 short of capacity - paid up to $20.50 per ticket to see the Baltimore Orioles play the Boston Red Sox at RFK Stadium.

"That's a significant statement," said John Akridge, chairman of the group attempting to bring baseball back to Washington.

The Red Sox and Orioles will play again today, also at RFK. Regardless of how many people show up, the two-game series won't draw close to the combined 125,013 that viewed consecutive exhibition games at Miami last weekend.

Nonetheless, the Washington crowd helped the city's chance of emerging as one of the two locales on the short list of expansion hopefuls that also includes Miami, Denver, Buffalo, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Orlando.

The field was in immaculate shape as work crews restored the stadium to look much as it did in September 1971, just before the Washington Senators left for Texas.

In the one glaring snafu of the event, many of the fans didn't get into the ballpark until the game was almost halfway completed. That's because the line at the Will Call windows still was about a quarter-mile long as the fourth inning began.

by CNB