Columnist Dean Juipe: 51s exec deserves a rebuttal

Dean Juipe

Monday, June 11, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

And we thought it was simply a crummy team that was poorly marketed by an organization that was oblivious to what baseball fans really want.

But now comes new information, albeit highly biased, that puts the blame for the lack of success of the Las Vegas 51s on a ballpark that isn't brand new and on the proliferation of video poker in the valley.

Geez, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry while reading through Friday's Sun and reporter Steve Guiremand's interview with 51s exec Donnie Logan. While subjects such as the triple-A team's declining attendance, bizarre advertising practices and disconcerting between-innings assault on the senses were presented for critique, Logan's responses tread a thin line between corporate schmaltz and misguided paternalism.

No one person was responsible for the organization's many off-the-field shortcomings and a larger-than-ever staff was doing all it could to attract customers to the team's games, Logan repetitively said.

When prodded for elaboration, Logan flipped over his cue card and resorted to the "old stadium" theme that has and will continue to fall on deaf ears, and then went a step further and pinpointed slots and video poker as a companion culprit for the lagging interest in the 51s.

Given the tone he took in the article, Logan may have been setting up a scenario in which the team eventually abandons Las Vegas if its citizens don't quit gambling and come to the aid of the club's already wealthy owners. He did everything but tell us to shape up or they'll ship out.

Cashman Field isn't good enough for the 51s anymore, although it's a wonderful park with no major weaknesses that would seem to be lacking a decent team more than anything. Logan said his rich employers, Mandalay Sports, would not build a new stadium and that it was up to the city to do it to protect this "community treasure."

Maybe he's still doing a slow burn for his failed notion of turning Las Vegas into a spring training mecca for major league teams, but Logan needs to come to his senses. Mandalay Sports wants a new stadium so that it can sell luxury suites to the casino industry, but the latter has no interest in participating in that shell game and the populace is not going to approve funding for a new park while Cashman is still sitting pretty.

And we already know people aren't going to quit gambling, so Logan can give up on that one, too.

If these are actually hard times for the 51s, maybe Logan could trim that bulging front office staff of his, given its shoddy performance to date. While it has produced a record number of absurd print ads, it has yet to come out with a 2001 media guide and a local radio executive e-mailed the paper to say his inquiries to the team's p.r. staff about lining up interviews with players have failed to generate a response.

Logan's staff predicted 30 sellouts this season and there have been none. An emphasis on pool parties and outrageousness fueled by an on-the-field emcee have backfired.

Meanwhile, legitimate fans are incensed and yearn for the days when it was the baseball -- and not the theatrics -- that mattered.