Attendance

The inevitability didn't subtract from its significance. As the Orioles went about winning their sixth consecutive game with a 4-1 decision over the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yards, paid attendance for one of the most disappointing seasons in team history eclipsed 3 million.And for once, the Orioles could brag they tied the Yankees.The defending world champs joined the fourth-place team as the first franchises to pass the milepost this season. An announced Camden Yards crowd of 44,891 pushed the Orioles to 3,032,891 with club officials projecting a season-ending figure of approximately 3.5 million.

Attendance for the weekend was 11,025, the All-Star gala dinner was sold out and the Spirit, for all its efforts, figures to come out financially unscathed."

What 11-year-old Christa Stargill wanted to do most on the last day of the 2011 Maryland State Fair wasn't to ride the giant slide or to eat an ice cream cone or even to attend an informative discussion about bedbugs. No, what the little girl from Washington wanted to do more than anything was to hang around the Swine Barn waiting for a mother sow to give birth to a litter of piglets. "Christa, let's go," said her mother, Lisa Stargill. "It could be another three hours. We can't stay here all day. " Still, Christa lingered, pressing her face against the vertical bars of the cage housing the birthing enclosure.

The Maryland women's basketball program has lived a year of milestones, from last spring's national title to a preseason No. 1 ranking. But tomorrow night will represent a different kind of marker as the women play North Carolina before the first sellout crowd they've ever drawn at Comcast Center. The full house will be replicated three weeks later against Duke. "I think it's extremely special because it shows that the program is what we envisioned when we took over," coach Brenda Frese said.

Officials of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association really want people to come to their meetings.Last month, they tried to mandate attendance, proposing a bylaw amendment that would have required members to come to three meetings out of 12 to be allowed to vote in elections. That measure failed.Some who testified during a hearing on the matter said such a requirement would unfairly penalize older members who can't drive at night and others who have legitimate reasons for not attending.Some of the most active members lamented that so few of the organization's members attend regularly.

Through the 1970s and much of the 1980s, attendance figures for New York Rangers' games at Madison Square Garden were predictable: always around 17,500, a near-capacity crowd.Every seat wasn't always sold and occupied, but most were. And the money was in the bank, often well in advance, earning interest. Then, as now, the National Hockey League was a business based on gate receipts, and business was good.In recent seasons, including this one, attendance figures at the Garden have not always been so healthy.

After speeches that waxed philosophical about the "state of democracy" and "right to vote," members of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association voted down a proposal calling for mandatory meeting attendance to vote in elections."

The last stand at Memorial Stadium opened with two bountiful games at the turnstiles, and the Baltimore Orioles are certain to break their all-time attendance record today.Barring a rain-out, of course.With a crowd of 47,983 for the first game of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers, and a turnout of 49,289 yesterday, the Orioles need only 33,155 today to set the club's all-time record. The existing mark is 2,535,208 in the "Why Not?" season of 1989.The combination of the final year in the stadium, the only major-league game in town and aggressive marketing are responsible for the unprecedented support, general manager Roland Hemond said.

People in the sailing world know a Tartan 4300 is a pretty fancy boat. And at the recent U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, when a salesman sold a pair of the half-million dollar yachts, heads turned. And that sales guy was grinning. The salesman "came over to my booth and said he had sold a Tartan," said Susan Zellers, executive director of the state Marine Traders Association. "I said, 'Congratulations. Those are half-million dollar boats.' He said, 'I know. This is my second one.' " We all know times are tough.

Timonium Race Course closed its annual 10-day meeting yesterday with attendance and overall handle showing increases.Including simulcast betting, the handle was up 11 percent over 1997 totals, although on-track wagering declined by almost 2 percent -- to $2,937,013 for the meeting.Attendance rose 7.2 percent to a total of 46,281."The increase is in simulcasting, but that's the way it is," said general manager Howard "Max" Mosner. "I think we had an outstanding meet with $1.428 million and two $50,000 Maryland-bred stakes.