Sluggers like Sosa, Griffey, Thomas pack ‘em in at Cashman

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, April 1, 1999 | 10:25 a.m.

How do you get people fired up for minor league baseball when they're still battling the hangover of March Madness?

That's the problem Las Vegas Stars general manager Don Logan faces each year at this time. And what better way to get local baseball fans excited about going to professional baseball games again than by bringing in the likes of superstars like Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas to Cashman Field?

Welcome to Big League Weekend, which begins Friday at noon with National League MVP Sosa's Cubs making a rare Las Vegas appearance against Seattle and perhaps the two brightest young stars the American League has to offer in Griffey and Rodriguez.

"The whole mindset (of Big League Weekend) started back in the late '80s," Logan said. "That was when UNLV basketball was capturing the attention of the whole community and rightfully so. They'd be playing in the Final Four and everything. But we'd be sitting here with baseball ready to go and everybody would still be talking about UNLV basketball."

So Logan, who had been bringing in major league teams for exhibition games throughout the years, decided to begin a baseball version of March Madness for baseball fans.

Beginning in 1993, Logan began inviting multiple major league teams to town for multiple games. One of the games that year was between the Cubs and White Sox and drew a standing-room crowd of more than 15,000 fans to Cashman Field.

That year Big League Weekend was more like Big League Week with games on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Logan also has experimented with multiple Big League Weekends in the past. But this year, in part because of Easter on Sunday, he'll put on four games in two days.

"I think the best time is to have it on the last weekend before the season starts," Logan said. "If you do it before then, you're battling things like the NCAA Tournament. And teams sometimes will send split-squads here then. I mean, do you want to pay to see the Cubs if there's a chance that Sosa and Mark Grace aren't going to be here?"

By having it the weekend before the season starts, most teams are just about down to their 25-man rosters and most of the key players will play at least a few innings to stay sharp for the regular season.

In fact, the Stars' parent team, the San Diego Padres, who play the Brewers on Friday night and the White Sox on Saturday at noon, will jump on a charter right after their game and fly to Monterrey, Mexico, for their season-opener against the Colorado Rockies the following night on ESPN.

"I think the last weekend, period, is best," Logan said. "Ideally, I'd like to have one game on Friday night, two games on Saturday --- one in the day and one in the night --- and then another on Sunday afternoon. I think four games is reasonable. It doesn't wear you out or the staff out.

"People love to come here and watch the games. That's why I thought this city would be ideal to host spring training for some teams. And the players love coming here because spring training gets kind of monotonous at the end. This gives them kind of a break before the start of the season."

Logan believes Big League Weekend is a win-win situation for the city of Las Vegas as well as the Stars.

"What this does is really wake up the community for the start of baseball," he said. "We'll be distributing Stars schedules at the games. It really is a great marketing tool. You get people to come out to the park and see how nice it is and give them a pocket schedule. Hopefully, it'll make them want to come back to watch the Stars play later in the season.

"It also is a positive for Las Vegas. Part of the thing we do with the teams who come here is send out fliers to their season-ticket holders promoting the games and different tours here. Seattle is probably bringing over 1,000 people here. There are a ton of Chicago people coming. This will bring probably an extra 3,000 people to town this weekend."

Another plus --- San Diego, Seattle and the White Sox will all be televising games from Cashman this weekend.

"You get a ton of free publicity out of that," Logan said.

You also get a lot of rich, young ballplayers in town who may want to spend some free time in the casinos.

Logan relayed a story about one well-known left-handed pitching star who reportedly dropped $39,000 in 15 minutes playing blackjack while waiting for the team bus.

That pitcher shall remain nameless. But it's fair to say he dropped quite a few big units that day.