Columnist Ron Kantowski: ESPN Classic to air Las Vegas ‘mini-marathon’

Tuesday, July 27, 1999 | 10:31 a.m.

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

Depending on the media outlet, Las Vegas as a sports city either A) can't hold a candle to Corvallis, Ore., or Moscow, Idaho, or B) is so captivating that it warrants seven consecutive hours of television programming on a major cable network.

The Sporting News, using criteria that must be about as relevant as Pam Anderson's IQ, last weekend announced that Las Vegas ranked a paltry No. 108 -- behind such athletic meccas as Corvallis (No. 95) and Moscow (No. 106) -- on its list of 351 Best Sports Cities.

That's about where I put TSN on my list of Best Sports Magazines -- No. 351. Just behind Popular (Indy Racing League) Mechanics but ahead of Dan Dierdorf's Athlete's Foot Illustrated.

On the same day The Sporting News slotted us lower than the limbo bar with Gary Coleman on deck, ESPN Classic announced a Las Vegas mini-marathon scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 8.

The lineup includes the 1991 UNLV-Duke NCAA Final Four showdown; an interview with Las Vegas fight promoter Bob Arum; the 1961 middleweight title bout between Gene Fullmer and Sugar Ray Robinson at the old Las Vegas Convention Center; The Fights and Times of Muhammad Ali; the 1987 world middleweight title bout between Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard at Caesars Palace; and the 1998 World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe.

OK, so the Las Vegas film library down at ESPN Classic isn't as extensive as some of us might prefer. But given the choice between the World Series of Poker and a Big Sky showdown between Idaho and Northern Arizona ... well, I'd still rather watch the Vandals and NAU.

But Texas hold 'em has got to be better than Oregon State fold 'em, or whatever passes as sports entertainment in Corvallis these days.

* THE NEW SHOES: It was former UNLV men's basketball assistant Greg Vetrone who was known as "Shoes." But perhaps coaching icon Jerry Tarkanian is the heir apparent to the nickname.

Tark stays in touch with many of his former players, especially the ones in trouble with the law. In recent news reports, he said Richie Adams, who is doing time at Rikers Island for murdering a teen-age girl; and Moses Scurry, who did a couple of years in the Big House (not Michigan Stadium) for his part in a 1994 Las Vegas car-jacking; asked him for the same thing -- and it wasn't Oscar Goodman's telephone number or a carton of Camels. Both men simply asked Tark for basketball shoes.

Jumping out of the gym is one thing. Jumping out of the prison yard is another. Even with Air Jordans.

* UMP ROAST: If you wonder why the public has turned against the umpires in their most recent contract dispute with Major League Baseball, look no further than their leader of their union, the bulbous Richie Phillips.

Phillips, who showed the baseball world via an Associated Press photograph (on the day the umps announced they would be resigning in September) that he knows what to do when somebody puts a donut in his face, doesn't react as well when somebody sticks a microphone there.

On Saturday, he cut short a somewhat terse phone interview with ESPN Radio by abruptly hanging up. He did say thank-you first, but he sounded about as sincere as the "That's the Ticket" guy on those Saturday Night Live reruns.

* RACIN' ROBIN: The reason Robin Yount asked to go first at Sunday's baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony wasn't so he could watch the U.S. 500 on television -- although the Milwaukee Brewers legend is a passionate race fan, particularly of the CART open-wheel series.

Yount, who is on the panel that selects CART's annual all-star team, once bolted from a Brewers game at County Stadium so he could catch the last few laps of a race at The Milwaukee Mile by looking in over the backstretch fence.

The Miller-sponsored car driven by Max Papis, which ran out of fuel on the last lap Sunday as Papis was speeding toward an apparent victory, sported a decal congratulating Yount on his Hall of Fame selection.