Baseball, softball stars highlight class

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.

Somewhere out in the desert on I-15, Lori Harrigan motored from Los Angeles back to Las Vegas on Thursday and sounded as if she could not wait to return to the town she has adopted as her hometown.

An Anaheim native who came to Nevada in 1988 to attend UNLV and play softball for the Rebels, Harrigan was even more eager than usual to get back to her training regimen and her security gig at the Bellagio.

Tonight, before a crowd of more than 600 at Cox Pavilion, Harrigan will be part of the seventh class to be inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.

"Oh my gosh, it's amazing," Harrigan said. "It's one of the most prestigious honors I've been given. It's pretty much up there with my gold medals. It's amazing, especially with the other athletes I'm getting inducted with. I couldn't ask for more.

"Everyone is so supportive of me. I definitely don't have any plans on moving back to California. Las Vegas is my home, and I'm always so proud to say I'm from Las Vegas. Even when I was in Australia."

Harrigan will be feted along with three other athletes, a legendary prep baseball coach and an office, to be precise.

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority has been so influential in the Las Vegas sporting world since about 1980, Hall chairman Steve Stallworth, executive director Bill Purcell, its board of trustees and advisory board gave it an induction nod.

The hurling Maddux brothers, Mike and Greg, will be admitted side by side, and the durable and elusive Mike Morgan rounds out the trio of baseball players who will be placed into the Hall.

The class also includes Rodger Fairless, who coached Greg Maddux at Valley High and won 12 state championships in his storied career.

"It's quite an honor," said Mike Maddux. "It's very nice that your hometown recognizes you as a model citizen. It's very flattering, too, that it's recognized that you give back to the community. My brother and I do a lot of things on the 'Q.T.' to help the underprivileged in town.

"We go about it quietly, but, oddly enough, a lot of people have caught wind of that stuff. I didn't know it was that well-known."

The Class of 2003

After Fairless left Green Valley in 1999, his mother's ill health and his own back problems aborted a stint at the Community College of Southern Nevada, and a desire to become the UNLV coach went unheeded.

Harrigan, 32, has a new training team in Reggie Hobson, a former UNLV football player, and Dr. Robert Braden, and the crafty lefty hopes to play in her third consecutive Olympics in 2004, in Greece.

"I have so much support from Las Vegas, and it means a lot to me," Harrigan said. "My arm is holding up very well, and my new trainers have been a complete blessing for me. The '04 Olympics are kind of my first priority right now."

In the Sydney Games in 2000, she became the first softballer to toss a complete-game no-hitter in the Olympics. When not training, her security duties at the Bellagio include overseeing the hotel's lost and found department, and filling in on the floor.

In 1971, it built the Silver Bowl with revenue from room-tax dollars. It turned over ownership and management of the football stadium to UNLV, which renamed it Sam Boyd Stadium, in 1983.

The rotunda of the Las Vegas Convention Center served as a civic auditorium, where the Rebels played and special events, such as the Harlem Globetrotters and boxing matches, were hosted for years. Moreover, Cashman Field has been a minor-league baseball jewel.

Assorted golf tournaments have received LVCVA sponsorship, as well as the Las Vegas Bowl (now run by ESPN), conference basketball tournaments, the NFR and the professional bull riders' circuit stop, and various motor sports.

"The board of directors and staff are very honored to be selected for induction into the Hall," said Rossi Ralenkotter, executive vice president of the LVCVA. "We are very proud of our contributions in Las Vegas, which has benefited residents and visitors."

"But I throw a lot harder," he said, "than I could ever think about jumping."

He has been shooting in the mid-70s and high 80s at Spanish Trail Country Club, where he lives, and onlookers had better beware.

"I don't know where it's going," said Maddux, 36, a four-time Cy Young Award winner. "I really don't. I try to keep it between the houses, and I'm OK. Forget the fairways. I just try to keep it in bounds."

He has personally delivered tooth brushes and toothpaste to area schools with the highest concentration of need in his "See Me Smile" program. Most of his, and his brother's, charitable actions are done on the sly.

Maddux leaves Saturday to assume his duties as the new pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers.

"It's a challenge, and one I look very forward to," he said. "Every time I took the mound as a player, it was a challenge. Now, it's a different challenge, trying to give guys a shortcut to success, help them understand themselves.

"The sooner a pitcher or player can understand himself, the more success they will have. That's what I mean by shortcut -- helping people maximize the abilities they do have. This will be a kick in the pants, and I'm gnawing at the bit."

Morgan did not attend a publicity function for the SN Hall of Fame last fall, and he will not take part in tonight's ceremony. A relative said Morgan only concerns himself with his family, work at children's hospitals and baseball.

The November 2000 death of Morgan's father, Henry, contributed to Morgan's distaste for Las Vegas, according to the relative. Morgan lives in Park City, Utah, with wife Kassie and their two daughters, and has been prepping himself for a 25th season, in Arizona.