Columnist Ron Kantowski: Regular fans counted out of De La Hoya fight

Thursday, June 17, 1999 | 10:02 a.m.

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

It has been said that everybody has his price, and that holds for the Las Vegas hotel-casinos that are hoarding tickets for the much-awaited Oscar De La Hoya-vs.-Felix Trinidad fight at Mandalay Bay.

In the case of the host property, the price is $3,202.83.

When one of the guys from the Sun's online department read that the public was going to be totally shut out from purchasing tickets for the big Sept. 18 bout, he, too, figured there had to be a way to get in. So he called Mandalay Bay, which has room for about 12,000 well-heeled fight fans -- er, high rollers -- in its recently christened Events Center.

The "cheapest" option to watch the fight live, according to a clerk at the reservation desk who fielded the online guy's query, is the aforementioned $3,202.83. That includes three nights' stay (required) at Mandalay Bay and two fight tickets. She didn't say if the mints on the pillow are extra.

The markup on the room and the tickets -- they were priced at $300, $600, $800, $1,200 and $1,500 for the four seconds or so during which they were available -- are enough to make Mr. Haney from Green Acres blush.

To put it in perspective, the price of the room and the tickets is more than what Online Guy pays for a sixth-month lease on his Decatur Boulevard apartment.

But let's be real: The money of the hotel-casinos that scarfed up the tickets posthaste spends the same as Average Joe's. And Average Joe isn't as likely to risk what's in his safety deposit box on baccarat.

And let's not forget that overpriced tickets isn't a boxing-only phenomenon. Guys who drive Cavaliers don't sit courtside at The Forum anymore.

That said, if come checkout time some ticked-off fan leaves his room at Mandalay Bay looking like Pete Townshend's during the Who's glory days, you could almost understand it.

* FAST FISTS: The roly-poly guy with the bald pate making the rounds at last Friday's Butterbean Esch-vs.-Tomato Can fight at Texas Motor Speedway was none other than the track owner himself, Bruton Smith.

It looked like a weird venue for boxing. Somebody said it appeared they set up the ring in Bruton's office, but that couldn't have been true. The room was set up for about 500 fans. Smith's office probably holds 800.

It would have to be that big, just to hold all the irons in Smith's many fires. A source said the speedway magnate might have been stoking another one here this week after dropping in on the staff at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which he purchased/rescued last December.

Smith is said to be considering adding a local car dealership (Friendly Ford?) to a business portfolio that is teeming with them.

* WE GET THE IDEA ALREADY: The doctor who performed brain surgery on Astros manager Larry Dierker said Tuesday that Dierker's seizure in the dugout Sunday afternoon was caused by a mass "bigger than a walnut, smaller than a melon -- maybe a lime, or a really big jalapeno."

I don't think the doctor was trying to be humorous, given the delicate nature of the procedure he had just performed. But the press assigned to the story must have thought they had wandered into a Gallagher press conference instead of a medical debriefing, given the less-than-scientific description of Dierker's malformed blood vessels.

* LIKE PULLING A TOOTH: According to a story in this week's Sun, UNLV president Dr. Carol Harter is considering using $280,000 in revenue left over from former Rebel basketball coach Rollie Massimino's contract buyout to help fund a new dental school at the university.

As a colleague put it, that's only fitting, given Massimino's tenure here was more painful than an impacted wisdom tooth.

* LIKE GETTING HIT IN THE HEAD: Most American boys remember their first trip to a major league ballpark with crystal clarity. But the details of Phillip Johnson's initial visit to Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix probably will be a little fuzzy. Hopefully, not permanently fuzzy.

The 6-year-old was struck right between the eyes by a foul line drive off the bat of the Marlins' Kevin Orie Monday. He was taken to the hospital with a fractured skull and may have to have a protective metal plate installed in his head.

The boy's spirits were boosted Tuesday when Buck Showalter and Randy Johnson, the Diamondbacks' manager and biggest star, respectively, paid him an unannounced visit.

Showalter asked Johnson, who was pitching when the boy was felled, if he wanted to go to the hospital to see how the tyke was doing.

"He said 'Let's go. Where's the car?' " Showalter told the Associated Press.

It's good to know that for every Albert Belle, there's at least one Randy Johnson.

* AROUND THE HORN: Chris McSorley, coach of the roller hockey Las Vegas Coyotes, who open their home schedule at the Santa Fe tonight, told the Sun's Steve Carp the Coyotes might be "the greatest roller hockey team ever assembled." To me, that's sort of like saying you grew the world's biggest ear of corn. ... That said, I didn't have a problem with roller hockey ... until I read that former Thunder hatchet man Rhett Trombley might wind up playing for the Coyotes. But according to McSorley, Trombley is greatly reformed after spending a stint under the watchful eye of classy Butch Goring, his parole officer/head coach at Utah of the IHL this past season. Besides, there's no fighting in roller hockey. ... While watching the 1965 World Series on ESPN Classic the other night, I noticed Twins pitcher Al Worthington had the peculiar habit of slipping his hand ou t of his glove between every pitch, letting the glove dangle from his wrist by the strap. Like a complete game, that's something you don't see anymore.

* PARTING SHOT: The late Alan Kulwicki, on racing Winston Cup stock cars on Saturday night as opposed to Sunday afternoon: "It's basically the same, just darker."