51.   It had been nearly a year since Kent Mercker last won a major- league game, but to him it was a lifetime ago.

52.   Last season, they only won three league games each.

53.   Living with his mother, he dabbled in numerous sports until breaking an ankle in a pee-wee league football game.

54.   Mike Woitalla, senior editor of Soccer America magazine, visited Germany last year for some games and said getting tickets to league games was rarely a problem.

55.   Michigan State is first and Michigan third in the CCHA, with the Spartans having played two more league games than the Wolverines.

56.   Murphy is a senior and leads in scoring and Owen has not lost in league games.

57.   NHL officials said Brittanie was the first to die from a puck at a league game.

58.   No team had ever struck five extra-base hits in any inning of any league championship series game.

59.   No amount of winter league games in the Caribbean can simulate how a player responds to big-league pressure.

60.   On Monday, after a peculiar road trip, during which several teams played their first league games in Japan, baseball really got under way again.