(from press release)

The Bowie Baysox will honor members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with AAGPBL Tribute Night on Saturday, May 30, 2009, as the Baysox host the Harrisburg Senators at 7:05 PM at Prince George’s Stadium.

The following former AAGPBL players are scheduled to appear:

• Sarah Jane “Salty” (Sands) Ferguson
• Ruth “Rocky” (Kramer) Hartman
• Gloria (Cordes) Elliott
• Joanne McComb
• Gertrude (Alderfer) Benner
• Joyce Steele
• Ruth “Richy” Richard

The players will be honored during on-field ceremonies prior to the game. The ladies will toss out ceremonial first pitches and will meet and greet fans after the national anthem. They will also be available for autographs and photos with fans throughout the game.

The AAGPBL — the world’s first recorded professional women’s baseball league — was founded in 1943 by Philip K. Wrigley and consisted of up to 10 teams from the Midwest. The league lasted until 1954 and was immortalized in the hit 1992 movie “A League of Their Own” starring Tom Hanks, Rosie O’Donnell, Geena Davis and Madonna, and directed by Penny Marshall.

The Baysox are in the midst of their 17th season as the Double-A Eastern League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Individual game tickets and ticket packages are available now at www.baysox.com or by calling the box office at (301) 464-4865.

The Baseball Card Movie is a YouTube video “about busting packs, baseball cards, being a collector and how value changes over time.”  You definitely do not want to put these in your bicycle spokes!

Directed by Casimir Nozkowski and featuring Joe Rock and his store, Baseball Card Dugout, in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

(from press release)

Minor League Baseball attracted more than five million fans to its April games for the ninth straight year. The 11 full-season leagues and 136 clubs, despite starting a week later than last year, drew 5,259,405 fans.

The average April crowd for the 1,414 openings was 3,720. The last time the domestic Minor League Baseball regular season began on April 8, as it did this year, was 2004. That year an average of 3,480 fans attended April games, 240 a game fewer than this year’s crowds.

Given the state of the economy, the fact that this year’s average through April is only 0.7 percent, or 25 fans, below last year’s number of 3,745 patrons a game is promising. Last year, more than 6.6 million fans attended games in April, thanks to 366 more openings, as MiLB was on its way to a fifth consecutive all-time record-breaking annual attendance total.

“While our overall attendance is below a year ago, we are encouraged that the opening-for-opening average attendance is off only a fraction of one percentage point,” said Minor League Baseball president, Pat O’Conner. “We are committed to working with our communities, and legions of fans, to make sure that Minor League Baseball is available and affordable in each of our cities. We are proud to provide recreational options for the country in these difficult economic times.”

Six leagues averaged more per opening than they did in 2008, including three circuits that posted double-digit improvements in their average April crowds over last year. The Florida State League led the way with a 23.1 percent spike in its average crowd, followed by the Midwest (11.2) and Eastern (10.1) leagues. The other leagues showing improvement were the South Atlantic (8.8), International (7.4) and Southern (4.6).