Murray's absence from yesterday's schedule of play did little to dissuade his loyal countrywomen from turning out in force.
Entering yesterday's schedule, 11 players, 6 in the National League, 5 in the American, were hitting.350 or higher.
Flights on Qantas Airways were delayed as a 24-hour strike by as many as 6,000 workers forced the airline to change yesterday's schedule.
Luella Bartley, whose Luella show was another highlight of yesterday's schedule, produced a winning collection inspired by "Blue Peter and Joy Division".
Commissioner Bud Selig announced in the morning that he was postponing yesterday's schedule of 15 games; then in the afternoon he added today's 15 games to the list.
Entering yesterday's schedule, he led the American League in home runs (12), doubles (13), slugging percentage (.784), total bases (91) and extra-base hits (25).
Entering yesterday's schedule, at least one player had clouted two in a game every day since opening day except for last Monday.
The Mariners, who began yesterday's schedule with a season-best five-game lead, and the Giants have no guarantee that they will maintain their division leads.
Each day since the season really began (that is, excluding the two games in Japan), at least one player entering yesterday's schedule had hit two home runs in a game.
Possibly headed for the best season of his 12-year career, Sheffield went into yesterday's schedule leading the major leagues with 34 home runs and had driven in 87 runs with a.340 batting average.
Head Count Major League Baseball began yesterday's schedule needing an average attendance of 28,424 in the last 31 games to break its single-season record of 72,748,965.
