Columnist Ron Kantowski: Columnist makes pitch for wildlife organization

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 10:34 a.m.

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

She had been practicing her fastballs for a couple of weeks. So when Sun outdoors columnist Paula Del Giudice threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Sunday's Rangers-Orioles game at Camden Yards a little wide of the strike zone in her new role as chairman of the National Wildlife Federation, she was a little disappointed.

Hey, at least she didn't hit anybody -- which is more than what fellow Las Vegan Mike Morgan could say.

Moments after Del Giudice tossed out the first pitch to commemorate International Migratory Bird Day, Morgan, the Rangers' starting pitcher, plunked Orioles leadoff man Brady Anderson with a pitch. Before the first inning was over, Morgan did it again.

Morgan was charged with eight runs in two-thirds of an inning. The only outs he recorded were sacrifice flies.

Del Giudice said her evening was a little more enjoyable than Morgan's -- even if the public address announcer mispronounced her name in front of 40,516 baseball fans.

"It wasn't too bad," she said about her nerves. "I didn't get nervous until the players came out and I saw Cal Ripken Jr. That's when it really set in."

Instead of an early shower, which is all Morgan got, Del Giudice and her son Kevin, who happens to be a Rangers fan (even after Sunday's 15-6 loss), watched the game from Orioles owner Peter Angelos' box.

"It was a wonderful experience," said Del Giudice, a lifelong baseball fan.

* SPRAIN IN FORECAST: To the surprise of exactly no one who saw him wing left hook after left hook against Oba Carr at Mandalay Bay Saturday night, the injury to Oscar De La Hoya's left hand could have been treated by George Clooney, who isn't a doctor but plays one on TV. It turned out to be a minor sprain of his left wrist, which probably did not require a trip to the emergency room.

You don't think the injury provided De La Hoya's people with a convenient excuse to whisk him away before the post-fight news conference, where a critical media was poised to ask him about yet another marginal performance, do you?

* SAM AND DAVEY: Local Indy 500 drivers Sam Schmidt and Davey Hamilton are featured in one of the new and cute Indy Racing League TV spots that went into circulation last weekend. Hamilton is shown chasing down Schmidt in the paddock, where he enthusiastically asks him what he thinks about his (Hamilton's) new helmet.

Schmidt then reaches into the cockpit of his car for his helmet -- which is painted identically to Hamilton's.

Hamilton mumbles something about Schmidt not being interested and dejectedly walks away.

But the best of the new IRL spots features 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier, who is shown eating lunch with his crew. Somebody thrusts a drink bottle on the end of a pole toward Lazier, who takes a sip, and then hurls the bottle over his shoulder as he would during a pit stop.

Not a word is spoken during the entire spot.

* REAL BASEBALL: If I have a choice of watching the Stars vs. somebody, UNLV vs. somebody or two of the top local high school teams vs. each other, I'll take the prep game every time.

Chances are the final score is going to be 4-3, 3-2 or -- in the case of Durango's victory over Reno in Saturday's state title game -- 2-0. Those are real baseball scores.

With the Rebels (aluminum bats) and the Stars (tin pitching arms), you're more likely to see a final score that resembles an exacta payoff at Del Mar.

* MAC THE STRIFE: During a men's seniors tournament in Washington, D.C., last week, 40-year-old John McEnroe said a tennis commissioner could solve many of the problems plaguing the men's tour today. He said he would be the right man for the job.

Then, following his match with Mats Wilander, McEnroe referred to the umpire as the "clown in the chair."

* PARTING SHOT: Shaquille O'Neal, on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece: "I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to."