Columnist Ron Kantowksi: 51s catcher quiets hecklers

Ron Kantowksi

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 9:26 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.

According to the official Pacific Coast League statistics, Las Vegas 51s catcher Dave Ross is hitting .299. But according to Vicki Ballou, a baseball fan from Portland, Ore., Ross is batting 1.000 for the way he handled a potentially ugly situation at PGE Park in Portland Friday night.

Ballou, her husband and their son were sitting in the vicinity of the 51s' on-deck circle and were becoming increasingly annoyed by two boys' -- she described them as "punks" -- incessant heckling of the Las Vegas batters. She said most of the 51s ignored them but when they were especially unmerciful to Ross, he reacted.

According to Ballou, the 51s' catcher left the on-deck circle and ducked into the dugout. When he re-emerged and headed toward the youths, Ballou said she feared another unsavory fan-player incident was about to unfold.

"Instead, I witnessed something completely unexpected," Ballou wrote in an e-mail to the Sun. "Ross stood there until he caught the boys' attention. He then tossed a ball to them, smiled, nodded and returned to his warm-up routine.

"After a moment of stunned silence, the boys began yelling, this time even louder. But this time, the chants were 'Ross, you're the man!' And 'Ross, we love you.' "

Ballou said the teens continued to cheer Ross throughout the game, and stopped taunting the other 51s. And in the ninth, when he layed down a perfect suicide bunt for what proved to be the winning run, they went wild.

As Ballou noted in closing, "At a time when people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with professional athletes, a 25-year-old catcher named Dave Ross demonstrated what true character and sportsmanship really mean."

Although they'll deny partisanship figured in the decision, without conclusive evidence that Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy completed his pass of race leader Helio Castroneves on Lap 199 before the caution light came on for a crash, there was little chance IRL officials (who sanction the 500) were going to reverse their original ruling and award the win to Tracy, who competes full-time in the CART series.

For what it's worth (nothing), roughly 59 percent of more than 8,000 respondents to an ESPN poll thought Tracy won the race. Thirty-four percent sided with Castroneves while the rest were undecided.

Had Tracy been declared the winner, it would have marked the third straight year that a CART driver had cherry-picked the IRL's marquee event.

But it would appear that IRL founder and Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief Tony George has found a strategy to prevent CART teams from dominating future 500s: "If you can't beat 'em, put 'em out of business."

If George succeeds in luring a couple more of CART's high-profile teams to the other side of the fence -- ironically, Team Green, for which Tracy drives, is rumored to be one of them -- the competition between the rival open-wheel series soon may be over.

And then Indy-car racing will be right back where it was in 1970s -- one hallmark event every year, with about a dozen or so more that nobody cares about.

That's progress? Might as well bring back the Offenhauser engine and be done with it.