Columnist Ron Kantowski: Albuquerque team may be chemically induced

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 9:32 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

I/'m not a big fan of The Simpsons, even though I do think Bill Simpson, the auto racing safety pioneer, got a raw deal from NASCAR and racing fans over that Dale Earnhardt seat belt deal.

But those who do follow the animated television series (which, I believe, would be everybody but me) may be amused to learn that the Springfield Isotopes may be moving to Albuquerque after all.

According to an old TV Guide hermetically sealed on Funk and Wagnall's porch, there was a Simpsons episode in which Homer Simpson, the patriarch of the dysfunctional cartoon family, thwarted a planned move by the Springfield Isotopes (Springfield being the hometown of the Simpsons as well as Abe Lincoln) to Albuquerque.

At the same time that episode was airing (March 2001), the Albuquerque Tribune reports that a couple of guys named Martin Koldyke and Ken Young agreed to purchase the PCL's Calgary Cannons for the purpose of relocating them to New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment hasn't had a team of its own since the Dodgers moved their triple-A affiliation to Las Vegas two years ago and launched the 51s.

So now the new Albuquerque owners are seriously thinking about adopting "Isotopes" as the team's nickname when it begins play next season.

Of course, the proposed nickname would be much more appropriate were the team to build its new stadium in downtown Los Alamos.

In that I spent half of my college days playing Foosball in the student union, I have at least a rudimentary knowledge of soccer. But the game might become a little more palatable to neophyte World Cup fans if ABC/ESPN had somebody back in the studio explaining it. ... Writers have taken to calling Team USA's surprising performance in the World Cup "Miracle on Grass," not realizing that expression already had been used to describe the career of ex-Southern Cal QB Todd Marinovich. ... Mike Tyson took his beating at the hands of Lennox Lewis like a man, but War Emblem -- or at least his apologists -- didn't take his in Saturday's Belmont Stakes ... well, like a horse. Sure, he stumbled out of the gate, but War Emblem was running fourth by the first turn and even nosed ahead before the stretch. It appeared to me that his Triple Crown bid, like so many before it, simply ran out of gas over the long Belmont distance. ...

It looks like the segue from college to pro ball is going to be a difficult one for UNLV All-American Linda Frohlich. She has appeared in only three of the New York Liberty's first seven games and has yet to score. ... The new Family Fun Zone at UNLV football and basketball games is a nice start to building home attendance. A better one would be to take home games off free local TV once that goofy contract former athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro agreed to expires. ... By the way, Cavagnaro's free parking at UNLV runs out at the end of the month. He has been working -- er, collecting a paycheck -- as an athletic department consultant since Jan. 1, when John Robinson assumed the dual role of A.D./football coach.