Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV loses link to its baseball past

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, July 3, 2002 | 9:17 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.

Notes today, leading off with Lou Pisani.

Despite having recently turned 75, Pisani looks fit and remains active yet he has resigned after 15 seasons as the UNLV baseball program's administrative assistant and dugout coach. Previously he was the head coach at Las Vegas High for 30 years and at Bishop Gorman for five. "I sent the (Kansas City) Royals a letter saying I was available full time now," Pisani said Tuesday, looking to add to his scouting duties with the baseball club. "They could use a full-time person here, with all the high schools and players we have in town." Pisani, who has endeared himself to countless players who share his love of the sport, will be honored Aug. 3 at Cashman Field before a 51s game.

Another local old-timer, Mike Morgan, is pitching in the major leagues for a 24th year and is a situational reliever for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Valley High product, 1-1 with a 5.51 ERA, has the distinction of having made his major league debut (in 1978) before 64 current major league players were born. ... Given that the sons of Cecil Fielder, Ted Williams, Johnny Miller and Mike Dunleavy were each in the news recently for their own acts of athletic prowess, it's easy to believe in inherited ability and the built-in advantages of having a famous father. ... A correction from my Monday column: Phoenix coach Cynthia Cooper used a surrogate mother and did not deliver triplets. Yet my point still stands that starting a family while in the WNBA doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Pro golfer Jim Colbert of Las Vegas has been mentioned as a possibility in the event the Senior PGA Tour elects to have its own commissioner. Other front-runners for the job are said to be businessman Terry Landon and former baseball boss Peter Ueberroth. ... The LPGA Tour is down from 32 events a year ago to a mere 22 this year, resulting in a number of rookies and fringe players being unable to land a spot in a given event's field. ... Football magazines are beginning to hit the newsstands and one, edited by Phil Steele, predicts a fourth-place Mountain West finish and bowl bid for UNLV. ... Notice the lack of interest in Wimbledon now that the men's field is sorrowfully depleted and the superiority of the Williams sisters is beginning to become redundant?

Remember when Las Vegas passed on the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson fight and it was said it would cost the city $100 million? Well, Memphis took the bout and its best guess is that it brought in $30 million to the region. Even allowing for the differences between Las Vegas and Memphis, that $100 million figure was always inflated. ... Why do pro franchises that move to a new city feel the need to keep their old nicknames? For instance, Hornets may have been appropriate in Charlotte but I'm not so sure about it in New Orleans, where the NBA team has recently been relocated. Yet the practice follows a tradition that, at its most ridiculous, saw the New Orleans Jazz become the Utah Jazz. Other teams that carried out-of-date nicknames with them include the Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta Braves; the Brooklyn to Los Angeles Dodgers; the Philadelphia to Kansas Cit y to Oakland Athletics; and the Minneapolis to Los Angeles Lakers.

Relax, no one will take the 51s.