Mike Basso named 51s new skipper — and his Web page is cheap!

By Ron Kantowski

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 | 3:27 p.m.

NOW:

All I remember about Mike Basso, the new Las Vegas 51s manager, is that he used to catch for the Las Vegas Stars, which is what the 51s probably will be called next year at this time.

Here's what the press release says:

Basso played in parts of four seasons for the Las Vegas Stars (1988, 1990, ’92-93), then the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. He joined the Toronto organization in 2003 as manager in Single-A Dunedin. In 2006, he was the Triple-A manager at Syracuse of the International League. He served the last two seasons (2007-08) as coordinator of instruction for the club's minor league system.

Then there was a quote from Basso saying he was looking forward to the opportunity, or something to that effect.

But way more interesting than any of that is you can sponsor his Web page at thebaseballcube.com for the low, low price of $15 per year.

I'm thinking about doing it.

Here's what I'd get for my $15:

-- A sponsorship name. (I'm leaning toward "Bassomatic," "Snakeyes" or "Mrs. Ripken.")

-- A message of 150 characters maximum. (Maybe a quote from Mike or, better yet, words of wisdom from Bill "Spaceman" Lee.)

-- A link/url. (I gotta go with "Lightfoot! The Gordon Lightfoot Internet Companion" at www.lightfoot.ca.)

-- An optional graphical banner. (I'm open to suggestions -- the best I can come with is a skull and crossbones, with Tommy Lasorda's head in place of the skull.)

-- A year's subscription to the page sponsorship of all selected pages. (Though I'm not sure what this means, I think it's sort of like getting an extra tube of Mighty Putty, as seen on TV.)

-- Priority on renewal for the next year. (This could be an investment, say, should Basso direct the 51s to the PCL title -- or provide information that would led to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.)

In other news, the 51s announced Ken Joyce will serve as hitting instructor and Dave LaRoche will serve as pitching coach.

I also checked out LaRoche's Baseball Cube page on the Internet. It costs $35 for a one-year sponsorship.

Considering the state of the economy, I'm sticking with Basso.

THEN:

“He threw his fastball for strikes, and when he got behind, he threw his slider for strikes against an aggressive-hitting team.”

That is the top entry on the list of Mike Basso quotes at thinkexist.com.

It isn't exactly "Hit 'em, where they ain't" but I guess you had to be there.