Columnist Dean Juipe: Lousy month for Las Vegas’ troubled trio

Dean Juipe

Monday, June 29, 1998 | 9:53 a.m.

IF EACH of them was a Taurus their recent plights could be blamed on some astrological nuance, some misalignment of the stars.

But Robert Gamez (born July 21, 1968), unlike fellow Las Vegans Andre Agassi (April 29, 1970) and Jon Denton (April 24, 1977), is not a Taurus. He's a Cancer.

So much for the zodiac link between these struggling if not fallen idols. There's no easy explanation for their June 1998 troubles.

Gamez (golf), Agassi (tennis), Denton (football) and Greg Maddux (baseball) are the valley's best-known and, arguably, most cherished home-grown athletes. The latter, as a member of the Atlanta Braves, is more or less out of the state from February through October. The other three are here on a regular basis.

While Maddux -- an Aries! -- is having his typically prosperous season (11-2, 1.64), the others are in the midst of tumultuous summers.

Gamez's livelihood depends on retaining his PGA Tour card and if the season were to end today, he'd lose it. He hasn't been playing well, and, perhaps indicative of how things have been going, earlier this month he was involved in a single-car accident in which he was knocked out and suffered a bruised spleen.

Forget the fact he hasn't won a tournament since 1990, Gamez needs to rally his way up the money list if he's going to finish in the top 130 and remain exempt for 1999.

Likewise, Agassi has been talking about 1999 of late -- except he's considering retirement by then if his game doesn't come along and match his expectations. After a stunning second-round loss to the unknown Tommy Haas last week at Wimbledon, and after not being a factor at the French Open in May, his short-term goal is to keep plugging in search of the form that made him the No. 1 player in the world earlier in the decade.

The long-term reality is that Agassi will give up the ghost if his game doesn't come around in the next few months.

When that day comes, however, at least he can retire to a life of virtual royalty. He has sufficient money and celebrity.

Denton, right now, is a polar opposite, lacking a professional's cash and saddled with a certain infamy. Twice suspended by the UNLV football team since last September, he pulled a 180 Friday and quit the Rebels just a month after saying he was coming back to show his doubters what he was really made of and just a day after informally working out with the team.

What to make of this?

Two points: Indisputably, it's a huge loss for the program as its marquee player, its fashionable quarterback, suddenly bails with two years of eligibility remaining; and Denton, for all his appeal and ability, must have his moments of consternation.

While he still has plenty of time to develop into the NFL quarterback many pictured he would be, Denton leaves UNLV with a disjointed epitaph. The inscription would read something like this: Spirited leader ... crowd favorite ... dashing, billboard-quality appearance ... never maximized potential.

He's a Taurus with Mercedes tendencies, albeit one that's in the shop under mysterious conditions and in need of repair.