‘Big’ weekend on tap in LV

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 10:09 a.m.

Here are the five exhibition games on tap at Cashman Field:

If Don Logan had his way, Big League Weekend would consist of a whole lot more than just five games.

"About six weeks worth of games," said Logan, one of the key figures involved in trying to lure the Los Angeles Dodgers and five other major league baseball teams to Las Vegas for spring training. "We'd have about a month-long Big League Weekend and we wouldn't need this last weekend. That would be really nice."

But for now, Big League Weekend 2000, which features six teams in five games at Cashman Field beginning Friday with a 12:05 p.m. matchup between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox, will have to do.

Logan is predicting close to 40,000 fans will attend the five games.

"That would be very good, especially considering we had Big League Challenge here last month," Logan said, referring to the made-for-ESPN home run hitting contest filmed at Cashman Field in mid-February. "Normally we have about 12 weeks to promote Big League Weekend. This year we had about half that much time. But business has been just unbelievable this week."

This is the 10th year Logan has brought in major league teams to play in Las Vegas although the Big League Weekend concept didn't officially begin until 1993.

This is the first time that the Phillies and Rockies have taken part in Big League Weekend.

"We did real well in the Oakland, Philadelphia and Colorado markets," Logan said. "We're getting a lot of out-of-town business from those places. So we won't be as dependent on the local fans turning out this year."

Logan said one person who is especially excited about the Phillies coming to Las Vegas is Mayor Oscar Goodman.

"He's from back there," Logan said. "He's coming out to watch the Phillies on Saturday."