Columnist Dean Juipe: Mills knows the challenge he inherited

Dean Juipe

Monday, April 8, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

What once was a vast expanse is now the Incredible Shrinking Field.

Grandstands jut out from behind the plate and angle into an area that formerly was fair ground for catchers roaming under pop flies. An abbreviated three rows of seating were gained.

Down the left-field line, where the home team's bullpen used to be situated, sit an assortment of tables and chairs for a few privileged spectators that further contribute to the alien landscape. A year ago in the same area a swimming pool was center stage, although there's no sign of it today.

Yes, it's still Cashman Field but it has been squeezed from its original form. It's now dimensionally challenged, an accordion of a park that looks to have had some of the wind compressed out of it.

The public's intrusion on to what once was the field of play is a marketing ploy, of course, designed by the business reps of the Las Vegas 51s. The idea is to bring spectators up close and personal with the guys in the Martian motif.

But the modifications, as such, are a poor substitute for what the fans really want to see, which is something they've been deprived of for a long, long time.

And that's the excitement of a championship-caliber team.

"I don't take any offense to that," 51s manager Brad Mills said Sunday, when asked if he was sensitive to an inquiry about the club's front office (and fans) being desperate for a winner. "Don (Logan) is diplomatic about it but he's let me know he wants to win and I believe in those type of things being expressed.

"Winning is imperative for this franchise and it's extremely important to me."

Mills, the team's 15th manager in its 20th season, is a pleasant fellow who has walked into a situation where there's considerable baggage. The 51s, nee the Stars, are some 14 years removed from their last Pacific Coast League title and even those fans who are unaffected by memory loss or a fleeting "senior moment" are hard pressed to vividly recall a summer at Cashman that was anything but disappointing in the long run.

"I'm aware of that," Mills said, sounding as genuinely concerned as a man who inherited a 68-76 team could be.

The question then is: Will this year be any different? It's a little too soon to tell but after a nice 9-6 come-from-behind win over the Calgary Cannons in the conclusion of the season's first series, the 51s are an encouraging 3-1.

"You might think this is a broken record, but I don't want to help develop losing players or players who are comfortable with losing," Mills said. "It's important for our players to realize we need to win and to show the fans some enthusiasm."

There was a time, which, not coincidentally, corresponded to Las Vegas being a force in the PCL, when both spectators and reporters trooped to the park en masse. But the years of losing have cost the club money in terms of the live gate and dwindled the community's interest in the team.

Innovations such as a bizarre nickname and adding field seating at the expense of a symmetrical playing surface have a halt-the-bleeding feel to them, as if they're stop-gap and mistakenly cosmetic.

The only real solution to what ails this franchise is tied to the standings. It needs victories.