Columnist Ron Kantowski: UNLV’s Ludwick makes powerful pro debut

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 10:29 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

You've heard the rhetoric about a guy changing the complexion of the game with one swing of the bat. Well, imagine what a guy could do with two swings of the bat.

Ryan Ludwick's imagination must have been running wild during his July 20 professional baseball debut for the Modesto A's of the California League.

In his very first at-bat as a pro against the Bakersfield Blaze, the former UNLV and Durango High stalwart looked at ball one and then lifted a fly ball that barely cleared the fence topping the 312-foot left-field porch at Modesto's John Thurman Stadium.

Home run.

In his second at-bat as a pro, Ludwick took a ball and a strike and then swung the bat a second time. There was nothing cheap about this one, as the ball rocketed halfway up the scoreboard beyond the 393-foot sign in left-center field.

Home run No. 2.

Two swings as a professional, two home runs. So much for the alleged difficult transition from aluminum to wooden bats.

Adam Fox, the Modesto play-by-play man, said he made a few phone calls and nobody could recall a player hitting home runs with his first two swings as a pro. It's one of those weird stats that not even Bill James keeps track of.

It also marked the last time Ludwick saw a belt-high fastball.

After those two homers he had just one hit in his next 12 at-bats. But he still is hitting .295 as a pro with 15 RBIs in just 12 games.

The last guy to start that fast in Modesto might have been stock car racer Ernie Irvan, who grew up there.

Ludwick was selected in the second round of June's major league draft by the parent Oakland A's. He's playing center field for Modesto, the same spot he occupied in UNLV's outfield this past season.

* SONIC UTE: Utah coach Rick Majerus likes to sing the blues about bringing his scholar-athletes (yes, he recruits a lot of those) to Las Vegas for a postseason basketball tournament in our little den of iniquity. But next week, he will perform a more upbeat number in Chicago.

Majerus, who has both the waistline and appetite to qualify as the "Fourth Tenor," will do the "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" honors during the seventh inning of next Tuesday's Cubs-Diamondbacks game at Wrigley Field. He even has invited a bunch of his friends, including some in the media, to join him in Chicago on his nickel.

The HBO original comedy series "Arliss" also is scheduled to film Majerus during his Wrigley visit. Majerus' cameo will be added to the opening montage that features famous sports personalities and fictional sports agent Arliss Michaels, portrayed by actor Robert Wuhl.

* MAGIC, MIKE AND OSCAR: Las Vegas' Biggest O -- mayor Oscar Goodman -- says he's interested in having African-American ownership of our proposed NBA franchise when it comes to town (as long as Steve Wynn remains involved, you can remove "if" from the equation), and has identified Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as his dream owners.

Johnson already has a business investment in Las Vegas, Magic's Westland Plaza, and he's planning movie theaters near the new Vons supermarket on Owens Avenue between H and J streets, similar to the cineplex he has erected in the Crenshaw section of South Central Los Angeles.

While every local basketball fan can identify with Magic or Mike, they'd probably award the franchise to Nipsey Russell if it meant expediting the construction of a proposed downtown arena that could host an NBA team.

* SPAWNING THE GLOBE: Todd McFarlane, creator of the comic book "Spawn" who purchased several of Mark McGwire's record home run balls (including No. 70) last year, is taking an exhibit based on the epic Sammy Sosa-McGwire chase of Roger Maris' record to every city that has a major league franchise and one that doesn't -- Las Vegas.

The exhibit will be featured Sept. 23-25 at the Fremont Street Experience.

* AROUND THE HORN: Andre Agassi was quoted over the weekend that a made-for-TV tennis match between himself and nemesis Pete Sampras, patterned after Monday night's Tiger Woods-David Duval golf showdown, would go over like a Mets-Cubs game at Wrigley. But why (other than another big paycheck) should they play a pre-fabricated match when they're already doing it for real? ... Former Las Vegas Stars voice Paul Olden, who has had several big sports gigs since he left town (including public address announcer at the Super Bowl), is now the play-by-play man for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. ... Lost baseball art: Choking up and making contact. I think the last major leaguer to slide up on the bat handle in an effort to put the ball in play was Felix Millan for the '73 Mets. Of course, if the guys reading the baseball scores mentioned the guy who hit a two-run single in the same breath as the guy who belted a solo home run (and they were paid similarly), you might see more Bud Harrelsons and fewer Melvin Nieves. ... If Cashman Field is such a lousy place to watch a baseball game, then why does this week's Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal use a color photo of the Las Vegas Stars' digs to illustrate a special report on minor league ball park amenities? ... True story: ARCA stock car driver Dill Whittymore's new sponsor is the Mt. Olive Pickle Co.