Columnist Ron Kantowski: Sports of all sorts are featured here

Monday, Aug. 10, 1998 | 11:10 a.m.

WATCHING THE first weekend of the NCAA men's basketball tournament at the Caesars Palace sports book took its dutiful place among 96 things for a sports fan to do in a recent ESPN, The Magazine feature.

What the story didn't point out is that there are at least 27 sporting ways for The Rick to entertain himself in our fair city (unless you're betting a Chicago team, when the number is never fair) before and after March Madness:

1. Beg, borrow or steal your way into a megafight. Then feel the electricity course through your veins.

2. Sneak into the Thomas & Mack Center for a UNLV basketball practice. Just don't let coach Bill Bayno catch you.

3. Watch the Kentucky Derby at a sports book.

4. Sit in the first turn grandstand at the start of the Las Vegas 400 and feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

5. Take a stroll down Jerry Tarkanian Way (but watch out for the delivery trucks).

6. Buy a pair of Wranglers and a Resistol and check out the National Finals Rodeo (if you can find a ticket).

7. Have a beer and a hot dog at Cashman Field (preferably when the Stars are in town).

8. Sit in the Thunder Zone at an IHL hockey game and call somebody a goon (preferably not a member of your immediate family).

9. Hit a bucket o' balls at the Scandia batting cage. With a wooden bat.

10. Watch a Premier League soccer match and have a pint with the blokes at the Crown & Anchor Pub.

11. Rub elbows with Division I men's basketball coaches at the adidas Big Time boys summer league basketball tournament.

12. Go for a skate at the Santa Fe. Shoot a puck into an empty net.

13. Get an autograph the old fashioned way (during batting practice or by keeping vigil outside the players' entrance). More importantly, do not sell it.

14. Take a lap of Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a Winston Cup stock car at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Then ride along with the instructor, to experience what it's really like.

15. Watch a UNLV baseball game with the 335 Club beyond the left-field fence.

16. Walk 18 holes with Tiger Woods at the Las Vegas Invitational.

17. Even better, walk 18 holes with some obscure professional at the LVI. Then tell him afterward how much you enjoyed it.

18. Go to the UNR-UNLV football game and touch the Fremont Cannon.

19. Even better, go to the Rancho-Las Vegas High football game and have your photo taken with Sir Herkamer's Bone.

20. Check out the pregame introductions and pyrotechnics at a UNLV basketball game.

21. Go to the Stardust and bet a Big Sky game.

22. Take that roll of bills you were saving for a rainy day and play the Desert Inn.

23. Watch the unlimited hydroplane race at Lake Mead -- for free.

24. Catch a UNLV football game against Brigham Young, Air Force or Wisconsin. It's only $5 for an end zone seat.

25. Ask a ring card girl out on a date.

26. Check out the fountains at Caesars Palace and confirm that Evel Knievel is indeed, a certified lunatic.