Mother Nature getting in way of PCL season

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

On an afternoon when Las Vegas Stars president Don Logan was soaking up the gorgeous, sunny 80-degree weather playing a round of golf, the triple-A baseball team he runs found itself scrambling to catch early flights home from chilly Canada.

The Stars had their entire three-game series at Edmonton cancelled early Monday morning. The reason? About a foot of snow covered Telus Field with more forecast for today. And even had the field been dry, temperatures were expected to be in the teens at night this week.

Great conditions for ice fishing, but not baseball.

What was the Pacific Coast League thinking when it decided to send a warm-weather team such as Las Vegas on the road to icy spots like Calgary and Edmonton to open the season in early April?

"I've been taking a lot of shots from people about that today," Logan admitted.

Logan and PCL Director of Operations David Sheriff both said Monday that the unusual move was made in the interest of fair play.

"It was done so it wouldn't be such a hardship for the teams up north," Sheriff said. "It was thought that it wasn't fair to have the northern teams open on the road each season. So the league decided that once every three years the northern teams would open their seasons at home."

"That's part of being in the league," Logan said. "It's not fair to those teams to always open on the road."

Logan pointed out that the Stars got their first four games of their seven-game Siberian -- er, Canadian -- swing in without any major weather problems other than playing in temperatures in the mid-30s.

"Then a freak snowstorm hit (Sunday)," he said.

Even if the snowstorm hadn't hit, the Stars still would have had to play three games in sub-freezing temperatures.

This was only the second time since the Stars moved to Las Vegas in 1983 that the club opened away from home. The other time was in Phoenix.

"It's unfortunate," Logan admitted. "Luckily we still have three more series with (Edmonton), so we can make the games up."

And look at the bright side. The Stars should be very well rested for Friday night's home opener against New Orleans.