Fleer Corp

Ed McDowell's Santa Cruz 70 Grand Illusion from King Harbor Yacht Club led the start of the ninth biennial race to Manzanillo on Friday, with Taxi Dancer coming on strong after jumping the gun. The race started during a rain squall with a 15-knot head wind blowing from the south. Half of the fleet of 15 headed left, inside the Coronado Islands, with the other half going outside to the right.

The baseball season is in full swing and so is the baseball card business. And these days, it isn't just kids swapping them in sandlots. It has grown into a mini-industry, catering more to grown-ups who, increasingly, are collecting the cards for investment purposes. "It's the kids that make this thing happen," admits Frank Steele, a consultant with the Donruss Co., a major card distributor.

The baseball season is in full swing and so is the baseball card business. And these days, it isn't just kids swapping them in sandlots. It has grown into a mini-industry, catering more to grown-ups who, increasingly, are collecting the cards for investment purposes. "It's the kids that make this thing happen," admits Frank Steele, a consultant with the Donruss Company, a major card distributor.

Gregory Sanchez sometimes apologizes for the inadequacies of a collection that includes 800 football cards, 2,000 basketball cards and about 400,000 trading cards of the baseball variety. "I would have a lot more basketball cards, but they've been hard to find at times," explained Sanchez, a 36-year-old manager of a resort near Frazier Park. "Basketball and football cards haven't been distributed as well as baseball cards."

Highlights of Monday's market activity, compiled from Times staff and wire reports: * Blue chip stocks finished with spotty losses in mixed trading after the market made an early attempt at a rally. The Dow Jones industrial average, up about 10 points in the early going, closed with a 3.51-point loss at 3,282.20. * Long-term Treasury bond prices rose, extending a rally from last week. But shorter-term securities prices fell as traders awaited new supplies.