America Online Steps Up To The Plate With Debut of Extreme Fans Baseball
Daily

VIENNA, VA, April 8, 1996 -- Today, America Online announced that it will
offer all the fun and excitement of professional baseball through Extreme
Fans Baseball Daily, a new interactive sports forum that provides a
humorous, entertaining and comprehensive look at all aspects of the
national pastime -- from the locker room to the stadium to the fans'
living room. Developed for and by serious baseball fans, Baseball Daily is
the only online sports area offering a forum for baseball fans to engage
in unabashedly biased sports reporting and commentary. In fact, they've
already started with their "Top Ten Things Pat Buchanan would change about
Baseball if he were Commissioner"

Extreme Fans Baseball Daily is a service of The AOL Greenhouse(tm), a
business unit of America Online, designed to support "infopreneurs" in the
creation of groundbreaking interactive content developed exclusively for
the online medium. Baseball Daily is available on America Online in the
Sports Channel and at Keyword: Hardball.

By visiting Baseball Daily, AOL members can not only track the latest
baseball scores, stats and gossip for all levels of the game, they can
also participate in the coverage. According to Hank Adams, co-founder of
Extreme Fans, "There are lots of services that give you news and scores;
Baseball Daily also gives you the spirit and enthusiasm of the game. The
participative nature of our service makes the fans an important part of
our forum."

Baseball Daily is the second in a series of online sports communities being
brought to AOL members by Extreme Fans, the guys who brought members great
NCAA basketball tournament coverage via College Hoops. Since launching in
January of 1996, Extreme Fans College Hoops recorded 750,000 actual visits
(not hits) to the site and expects to break 1 million visits this month.

"Building on the success of College Hoops, America Online is pleased to
provide its members an interactive way to share in America's resurgent
passion for baseball," said Ted Leonsis, President of America Online
Services Company.

With the first full baseball season in several years coinciding with an
election year, Baseball Daily mused on the possibility of connecting the
two. How would baseball be changed if there was a general election for the
Commissioners office? What would happen if populist Pat Buchanan won the
office? Baseball Daily offers some insights in its "Top Ten Things that
Pat Buchanan would change about baseball if he were elected
Commissioner."

 10. All outfield walls raised to 20 feet and guarded by border patrol
  9. Special "foreign labor" tax levied on Montreal and Toronto games
  8. Al Campanis named director of media relations
  7. Right to Life Night at all ball parks.
     Carry the child to term? 1/2 price
  6. White Sox renamed America's Team
  5. Installs Crossfire gang in the TV booth with Harry Carey to add
     extra excitement to baseball fans watching at home!
  4. Whitey Ford appreciation day changed to Whitey appreciation day
  3. Catchers issued semi-automatic weapons.....for home-plate
     protection only, of course
  2. No more Nomo!

And the top thing that Pat would change about America's pastime:

  1. New Hampshire gets the next expansion franchise

ONLINE DEPARTMENTS

In addition to the humor, Baseball Daily gives fans the hard data they
want. This comprehensive baseball information is now at the fingertips of
every fan through the 7 interactive departments. Departments include:
Feature Articles, where fans can read funny, insightful and up-to-the
minute baseball articles; News Articles provides all the newsworthy
stories at the click of a mouse; Team Information for recaps and complete
boxscores for every game, injury reports, team rosters, player stats,
schedules, streaks and more; The Stats Center offers all the inside stuff
you need to follow your team and get rotisserie picks right, while the
Live Scoreboard will provide all the scores as they happen. AOL members
can also test their baseball knowledge every day and win big prizes at the
same time in the Contests area. And finally, Interactivities offers Top
10, Quotables, Chat Rooms and Message Boards to remind us that the game
is, after all, supposed to be fun.

The AOL Greenhouse provides Extreme Fans Baseball Daily with online
production support including full utilization of AOL's publishing tools,
Internet publishing support, seed equity funding, marketing resources,
online promotion, and an audience of more than 5 million America Online
subscribers. Partners in The AOL Greenhouse are given the opportunity to
team with interactive marketing partners to assist in the development of
new revenue streams.

America Online, Inc., (NASDAQ symbol: AMER), based in Vienna, VA is the
largest and fastest growing provider of online services in the world with
the most active subscriber base. AOL offers its subscribers a wide variety
of services, including electronic mail, conferencing, software, computing
support, interactive magazines and newspapers and online classes, as well
as easy and affordable access to services of the Internet. AOL has a
global workforce consisting of more than 3,000 people. Founded in 1985,
AOL has established strategic alliances with dozens of companies,
including Capital Cities/ABC, Viacom, Bertelsmann, Hachette, IBM, Compaq
and American Express. Personal computer owners can obtain America Online
software at major retailers and bookstores, or by calling 800-827-6364.
 
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