Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels don’t need Mr. Nice Guy in middle

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 10:28 a.m.

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

According to a story that moved on the ESPN website over the weekend, UNLV's Kaspars Kambala "might be the meanest, dirtiest player in the college game."

Rebels coach Bill Bayno only wishes that were true.

Perhaps there was a phrase omitted from the column, written by Tim Keown of ESPN The Magazine. Insert the words "appear to" between "might" and "be" and you'd be pretty accurate -- especially when Kambala shaves his head, giving him the appearance of a sinister comic book super villain, and flexes those biceps that look more like gun turrets on a battleship.

Not that Kambala is a panty- waist. In fact, he can be pretty physical, especially against smaller opponents. In his case, that's virtually every time he laces up his sneakers.

It's when he tries to pick on somebody his own size that Kambala runs into difficulty.

When the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Kambala went against 6-foot-11, 250-pound Nate Althoff of Utah and Althoff pushed back last Monday night, Kambala hardly looked like the schoolyard bully -- despite being three times the offensive threat Althoff is.

This is not to be a mean-spirited appraisal of one of the Rebels' top players. But with the Rebels needing to win out to keep their flickering NCAA Tournament hopes alive, it's time for Kambala to play as mean as the spirit that is tattooed on his right biceps.

If not, the Rebels' tourney hopes won't stand a ghost of a chance.

* CLASSIC CAMEO: "Ocean's 11" was one of my late father's favorite movies, so when I started channel surfing over the weekend and the Rat Pack popped up on the screen with a plan to simultaneously rip off every major property on the Strip, it caught my attention.

But the real highlight of the movie for me came during the scene where midnight was being counted down in the casinos that were victimized. One of those counting backwards was a suave young man with a familiar Caribbean accent.

It was none other than Edi Gomez, "Mr. American Legion Baseball" in Las Vegas.

Back in those days, Gomez was a nightclub entertainer of some repute and used to do some running around with Frank, Dino, Sammy and Peter Lawford, et al.

These days, Edi with an 'I' is still going strong -- which is more than can be said for the Rat Pack.

No word on whether Gomez will be asked to reprise his role in the remake of the cult classic which will star George Clooney. But at least he's eligible.

* SPRING FLING: The fact that a new round of rumors that would have the Los Angeles Dodgers and other major league baseball teams moving their spring training camps from Florida to Las Vegas have resurfaced can mean only one of two things:

One is that the Dodgers want the Vero Beach parks and rec department to build them another batting cage. Two is that some baseball executives must be hunkering for another "fact-finding" mission to Las Vegas.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that representatives from the Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and Houston Astros will meet with Las Vegas tourism officials next Monday. Hopefully, it'll be a nice day for a round of golf.

"This was brought to a number of clubs (the suggestion of a move to Las Vegas)," Orioles executive vice president John Angelos told the Baltimore Sun. "It would present an option, but we are still committed to the South Florida region."

The Orioles train in Fort Lauderdale and unless they have a better option than Las Vegas, they most likely will be staying in Florida.

You saw what happened when Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander tried to get mayor Oscar Goodman to talk specifics about moving his NBA team to our (mostly) fair city last week. Goodman balked, saying we weren't ready.

Now there's a revelation.

Are we any more ready for spring training? I'll let you be the judge, but the last time I checked, our number of spring training facilities equaled our number of NBA/NHL arenas.

Bottom line: If we build it, they might come. At some point. But if we don't build it, don't expect them to come. At any point.

* HITTING THE SKIDS: Winston Cup driver John Andretti, speaking of his racing luck heading into Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400:

"I guess I've seen more ups and downs in Las Vegas than any skid row gambler downtown."

I don't think those are the kind of sound bites the City Centre Development Core had in mind when they decided to build a canopy over Fremont Street and spruce the place up.

* TIME TO PRIORITIZE: Bumper sticker spotted at the recent Daytona 500:

"WANTED: Good woman who can clean and cook fish, dig worms and owns boat and motor. Send photo of boat and motor."

* AROUND THE HORN: What's more annoying, Dennis Rodman or that "All That Jazz" jingle for the Chicago musical at Mandalay Bay? The Chicago jingle is now No. 1 at the radio station that plays in my head, thanks to the 1.6 million times it aired before the production mercifully closed its doors (preserving my sanity) over the weekend. Last week's ejection and subsequent jersey toss that incited a rumble in the crowd moved Rodman past another local jingle, the one for the Auto Nation car lot, on the list of things that bother me more than they should. ... Kids today are a lot more confident and/or creative in describing themselves than they were when I was in high school. I speak of Durango High's Martrel Johnson, who referred to himself as a "man-child" during last week's state basketball tournament in Reno. ... Arturo Gatti's devastating second-round knocko ut of Joey Gameche on the undercard of Saturday's Oscar De La Hoya-Derrell Coley fight was as brutal as they come. This may or may not have had anything to do with the outcome, but Gatti gained a whopping 19 pounds in the 23 hours since he weighed in for the bout.

At some point -- like soon, for instance -- that's a situation that should be addressed.