Palmeiro power!

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Feb. 12, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

Nobody had a better seat for Sunday afternoon's Big League Challenge finale between Jose Canseco and Rafael Palmeiro than Las Vegas' own Mike Martin.

That's because Martin, a former major league catcher who played for the Las Vegas Stars back in the mid-'80s, got to catch the championship matchup won by Palmeiro, 11-10, at chilly Cashman Field.

Martin was even closer to the action than three small cameras ESPN had set up on the ground about 10 feet in front of home plate to film those wide-eyed swings by Canseco, Palmeiro and the other 10 participants in the home run hitting contest that will be televised by ESPN2 in March.

In fact, you might say that Martin was a little too close to action.

While catching batting practice on Friday afternoon, Martin got hit in the mask by Canseco's bat.

Considering Canseco was strong enough to routinely hit home runs about 500 feet over the berm in left field during the competition, that had to sting a little.

"Nah, it was just on the backswing," Martin said. "He's got a real long backswing. You have to be able to learn their swings and be able to adjust or you're going to get hurt. ... With the new catching masks that you have now, the hockey-style masks, you have good protection."

Martin also took turns catching games in Saturday's preliminary and quarterfinal rounds. It was the second straight year he has caught in Big League Challenge.

"It was great," Martin said. "I still wish I was able to play. They're great guys, a good bunch of guys to be around. It's an honor just to be out there with them."

Martin has managed to keep baseball in his life as owner and operator the last 18 years of the respected Las Vegas Baseball Academy. Besides coaching, he also is trying to fund-raise nore than $100,000 needed for the non-profit organization to send six different youth traveling teams ranging in age from 10 to 13 to summer national tournaments in St. Louis, Cooperstown, N.Y., and Flower Mound, Texas.

The popular Royster was the pitcher for Colorado's Todd Helton, who lost to Canseco, 14-8, in the semifinals, as well as Jim Edmonds and Troy Glaus.

"It brought back a lot of memories," Royster, who managed the Stars from 1996-98, said. "It's good to be back here. I saw a lot of people that I had met during my three years here."

Grooving home run pitches to the likes of Helton is not as easy as it looks, according to Royster.

"It is hard," he said. "I'm sure it's easy (pitching to) Jose Canseco because he can hit anything. The same with Rafael. But it was harder for Todd because he was such a line-drive hitter. When you're a line-drive hitter, you're going to give up some outs in this competition."

Indeed, Helton was the only semifinalist to hit several home runs to the opposite field.

The show was organized by the Major League Baseball Players Association along with Krause Publications, which publishes the bible of sports collecting, Sports Collectors Digest, as well as several other baseball card magazines.

"For a first-time event, we're really happy," Kevin Isaacson, publisher of sports for Krause Publications, said. "The idea here is to work with the players' association and show the fun of the collectibles business that we're all involved with. For an inaugural event, we're really pleased."

Forty-five distributors from around the nation participated as well as four major card publishing companies. There were also several interactive booths, including a batting cage which simulated hitting against several major league pitchers, including Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.

Those fortunate enough to be in the building on Saturday afternoon also had an opportunity to receive a free autograph from Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers, who was helping promote a new company named Authenticom Inc. out of Bellevue, Wash. The announcement of that free autograph sent many collectors scurrying to booths to buy Fingers' cards as well as baseballs for him to sign.

Upper Deck also had an interesting souvenir available at its booth. The company photographed all the Big League Challenge participants in action on Saturday, then put together plaques with a color photo of each player along with a piece of one of the actual contest-used balls he hit during the competition. The price for the item was $35.

Among the other items on display were game jerseys worn by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays, as well as an autographed bat used by Harmon Killebrew to hit his 570th home run.

The Frisbee throwing proved to be a rousing success, espcially for the many youngsters in the crowd. However, near the end of the first semifinal between Canseco and Helton, one older fan decided to shun the baseball bat target and instead aimed for the ESPN crew broadcasting the event on a platform just in front of the third base dugout.

The Frisbee smacked into the head of announcer Gary Thorne, who gave an angry glare to the crowd.

That was the end of the day's Frisbee throwing activities.

You knew ticket sales for the event were slow when near the end of Saturday's quarterfinal action an announcement was made to the crowd of about 3,000 that free reserved or standing room tickets could be had for Sunday's session simply by turning in a Saturday ticket stub.

Standing room?

Remarkably, one fan who lost his ticket stub was refused a free ticket after Saturday's action had concluded.

Judging by the disappointing turnout, you might have thought the prudish Cashman box office lady would have given the person as many tickets as he needed for Sunday's contest.

The blast broke several lights on the scoreboard about 30 feet above the 474-foot sign.