Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 11:55 a.m.
FAST EDI
Local American Legion baseball leader Edi Gomez shows no signs of slowing down. Here are some highlights from his colorful life:
Studied medicine at Southwestern Louisiana Institute
Played poker with Ronald Reagan in after-hours California nightclubs
Formed Edi Gomez and his Orchestra," a Latin band which became a headline act at top Hollywood clubs
Became friends with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the rest of the Rat Pack during his days at the El Rancho hotel-casino
Played a singer in the movie "Oceans 11"
Chairman of the Las Vegas American Legion baseball program, 1980-89
As fans enter UNLV's Wilson Stadium for this weekend's 1999 American Legion Western Regional Baseball Tournament, they'll likely notice a grandfatherly figure with a silver ponytail taking tickets at the gate.
Some may recognize him as the field coordinator for the local American Legion post and for Southern Nevada's Men's Adult Baseball League, a job that keeps him busier than many people half his age.
Others may remember him from his years as Nevada's American Legion chairman, when he resurrected a league on the verge of certain collapse and turned it into one of the nation's top programs.
And still others may know him from his days as a Latin club singer, when he toured the world over, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and writing songs for which he still receives royalties today.
But it's safe to say that few, if any, of this week's American Legion fans, coaches or players could possibly know the full extent to which 77-year-old Edi Gomez has made the most of his wildly interesting life.
Born Edgardo Gomez in Puerto Rico on April 11, 1922, Gomez showed an early interest in two disciplines that would became major forces throughout his life: music and baseball.
A naturally talented singer, the young Gomez was introduced to several local bands, including the renowned Figueroa Brothers, and received permission from his father, Paco, to travel across the island with them on occasion.
"I've always loved singing since I was a kid," Gomez said. "My father knew all the bands there, so I used to go with them and sing a couple of songs."
Likewise, baseball captured Gomez' attention at an early age, when he saw Negro League greats Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson play during Puerto Rico's winter ball season.
A self-described "spray hitter," (the 5-8, 150-pound Gomez admits with a smile that he never had home run power) he grew up playing on the island's many sandlots.
"When I was in Puerto Rico, baseball was my life," Gomez recalled. "We played in fields with no fences, but we played all the time."
By his senior year at Bayamon High, Gomez was a solid second baseman with dreams of a career on or around the diamond.
But those dreams would have to wait as young Edgardo Gomez was headed to the United States to study medicine.
Gomez's first trip to the U.S. took him to Lafayette, La., where he enrolled in the premed program at Southwestern Louisiana Institute.
"I always wanted to be a doctor," Gomez said. "I used to go to the emergency room as a kid and watch the doctors work."
But two years into his studies, while on a vacation in New York City, Gomez saw Noro Morales and his orchestra perform -- and the experience changed his life forever.
Morales offered Gomez a chance to make $45 a week playing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the summer. The young singer jumped at the chance and never looked back, spending the next 30 years entertaining crowds from the stage.
"That was my first big-time job in show business, and I forgot all about medicine," Gomez said. "My father said when I left Puerto Rico that I'd end up singing, and he was right."
When his stint with Morales ended, Gomez got another big break when he was offered a spot in Enric Madriguera's orchestra -- one of the country's top Latin American bands.
During the early 1940s, Gomez solidified his reputation as one of the hot up-and-coming Latin singers, touring New York state with the Madriguera group and with Carlos Molina, another respected band leader.
But in 1942, Gomez put his career on hold to join the Marines.
Stationed in Hawaii just months after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, he spent the next year singing to hospitalized children there, before returning to the Madriguera group.
Hollywood nights
By the mid-1940s, Hollywood was the place to be for young singers, and Gomez yearned to experience it for himself.
The Madriguera orchestra signed on at Ciro's -- a top Hollywood nightclub -- and it wasn't long before Gomez experienced his first brush with real stardom.
"At that time the clubs closed down at 2 a.m., so we used to stay around and play poker," Gomez remembered. "And one of our poker players was Ronald Reagan -- his wife at that time was Jane Wyman and she spoke Spanish fluently and used to come and talk to us."
After several years in Hollywood, the Madriguera group disbanded, and Gomez headed to Havana, Cuba, to host a radio show. Even before he returned to the U.S., he knew what he wanted to do next: form his own group.
"I love show business, and I love people," Gomez said. "I'm a worrier, but when I have a microphone in my hand, I'm on an island all my own. It's what I love to do."
Shortening his first name from Eddie to Edi, he recruited musicians and began performing as "Edi Gomez & his Orchestra," throughout Hollywood, working hot spots such as the Roosevelt Hotel's Cine Grill.
"That's where all the Hollywood starlets and the movie people used to go," Gomez recalled. "That was when mambo was getting so big, and they all used to come to see the Latin groups."
After a seven-year stint at the Cine Grill, Gomez and his group toured the Orient, a tour highlighted by a wild show in front of 22,000 fans in the Philippines.
"I had about six dancers with blonde hair with me, and they go crazy in the Philippines for blondes," Gomez said. "I had to get them out of there with the police, because they were going crazy."
The Strip beckons
Upon returning to the States, Gomez signed his group for its first Las Vegas engagement -- an eight-week stand at the old Golden Nugget Hotel. His traveling days were about to end.
"I fell in love with Las Vegas and I never left," Gomez said.
Gomez spent most of his time at the El Rancho, where he met a cocktail waitress named Raven. Forty-one years later, the two are still married.
While at the El Rancho, Gomez also got to know the infamous "Rat Pack" as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and their crew were regulars at the Strip casino.
"They were beautiful people, but they didn't put on any airs," Gomez said. "It was just fun. I never had so much fun in all my life."
Gomez's connection with Sinatra was made indelible in 1960, when he joined the Chairman of the Board on the silver screen in "Oceans 11." True to form, Gomez played a singer and can be seen counting down the seconds until New Year's Eve.
For the next decade, Gomez was a fixture on the Las Vegas scene, playing lounges up and down the Strip, writing and recording songs and appearing in several movies.
And then in 1972, at the age of 50, he stepped off the stage for good, not knowing his future would take him back to where his life basically began: the baseball diamond.
Head Legionnaire
His career in show business behind him, Gomez first put his charisma to work in real estate, where he became one of the most successful agents in town during the 1970s.
His passion for baseball never waned, however, and when his only son Mike began high school at Western High, Gomez jumped at the chance to get involved again in the game he loved.
He put the money he had earned during his years as a singer and real estate agent to good use, sponsoring Western's summer Legion team. But that was just the beginning of his involvement in local youth baseball.
In 1979, with the local program on the verge of collapse, Gomez was offered the opportunity to revamp the entire organization as the new Nevada chairman. He agreed, on one condition.
"I said I'd do it, but only if I could run it 100 percent."
During his nine-year stint from 1980-89, that's exactly what Gomez did. He helped put Southern Nevada summer baseball on the map by adhering to a strict set of rules and regulations.
His first business was clarifying rules on eligibility. Gone were the days when teams could recruit players from near and far, as Gomez laid down a set of guidelines tying players to specific areas of town.
Gomez also drew up the state's first rulebook -- a handbook that included a previously unheard of clause preventing local coaches from chewing tobacco in or around the field during games.
And, most significantly to Gomez, he created an annual Legion scholarship fund, offering $500 toward college to the league's Most Valuable Player -- an incentive that the Legion post continues to offer.
"It was a 24-7 job for him, and that's why Legion became such a great league," Mike Gomez said. "For the last 20 years, he's been Mr. Baseball in this town for high school kids."
Gomez admits that his insistence on doing things his way rubbed some people the wrong way. For a time, it even threatened his marriage, as Raven threw him out of the house for several months, telling him, "You're married to American Legion baseball."
But looking back, Gomez apologizes for nothing, fully confident that his unwavering commitment to the program helped advance the league to where it is today.
"I don't mind saying I became a tyrant," Gomez said. "But I took a program that was a shame and turned it around. I made it very legitimate."
Changing roles
His tenure as Legion chairman over after the 1989 season, Gomez continued to be a major factor in local baseball throughout the 1990s.
For starters, he created the Nevada Youth Baseball Association (NYBA) -- a group that continues to govern local Legion play.
And since 1991, Gomez has played another key role in helping local Legion baseball succeed: that of field coordinator.
Setting up local fields for the summer season and scrambling to make schedule changes is a thankless job. But Gomez does his duties with a smile and the enthusiasm of a 30-year-old.
"He's available during the entire season, working with coaches and umpires to reschedule games," said Art Besser, president of the NYBA. "He gets an earful from coaches who may complain, but he loves being around the game and around the kids."
Though many of today's Legion enthusiasts may not fully comprehend what Edi Gomez has meant to their league, at least one former player understands completely.
"As I'm getting a little older myself, and I'm starting to feel the hands of time, I see him going 100 miles per hour," Mike Gomez said. "He always said, 'Think young and you'll be young.' I can only hope to model myself after him, to maintain that youthful enthusiasm for my kids."
