Columnist Ron Kantowski: New season, same old ballyard for 51s

Thursday, April 8, 2004 | 11 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

If you get off U.S. 95 South at Russell Road, make a left and then two right turns, the second of which will take you back over the freeway onto Stephanie, you'll immediately come upon a fenced-off parcel of land that is conspicuous -- not for the rocks and boulders and empty Big Gulp cups that litter it, but because it's about the only parcel of land in the area that hasn't been developed.

To paraphrase Frank Sinatra's lament about Ebbets Field, there coulda been a ballpark there.

Maybe there still might. But the 180-acre parcel at Russell and Stephanie on which Don Logan envisioned a new home for the Las Vegas 51s being built most likely will remain barren, at least until Major League Baseball officially removes the Montreal Expos from our back burner.

Logan, the longtime president and general manager of the 51s, said momentum for Henderson Yards (for lack of a better name) was building until MLB began shopping around the Expos to potential investors that would include Caesars Palace, which would provide the land for a new stadium.

Now, talks about a new ballyard for our Triple-A franchise have stalled like an old Buick on a December morning in Duluth.

"Our stadium issue is stymied," Logan said Wednesday, expounding on a report in last week's Sun outlining the Expos' situation.

Still, Logan, who by now has gotten used to encountering roadblocks over a new stadium, seemed upbeat while digging in over a Roberto's Taco Shop burrito at his cubicle -- er, office -- at Cashman Field. Maybe that's because just above him at field level, the 51s were continuing preparations for tonight's Pacific Coast League opener against Portland.

How can a baseball man not be upbeat with opening day so near?

"It's frustrating ... but it's on hold until the (Expos situation) resolves itself," Logan said.

The earliest that is expected to happen is the baseball all-star break, when MLB has said it will announce what it plans to do with its redheaded stepchild north of the border, which ironically, now plays a quarter of its home games south of the border. I say earliest, because MLB also said the same thing last year.

So the City of Henderson, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Aramark (the 51s' concessionaire) and anybody else involved with or interested in the 51s getting a new place to call home are standing by. Only it looks like they won't be boarding the aircraft anytime soon.

"Obviously, we've got to know what baseball's plans are (for the Expos)," Logan said.

Even in the long shot the Expos do move here -- although "are moved here" would be more accurate -- the proposed stadium site at Russell and Stephanie won't be an option, as the Las Vegas investors have hinted about a $400 million stadium project behind Paris and Bally's on the Strip.

In a way, that's too bad, as many of the amenities you'd want for business synergy for a new ballpark -- trendy restaurants and shopping and a neighborhood casino -- already are in place near Henderson Yards.

In fact, when I went out to explore the property after visiting with Logan, about all that seemed to be missing was the crack of the bat.

Not that you could have heard it at Cashman Field Wednesday over the wail of the sirens.

Once the crown jewel of the PCL, Cashman has become tarnished over its 22-year existence, although I must say the old girl looked pretty sharp, what with a fresh coat of paint concealing many of her flaws and Mother Nature having turned the outfield grass and knolls surrounding the ballpark a brilliant emerald green.

But riding up Las Vegas Boulevard before turning into the stadium parking lot, it's apparent the 51s' neighbors haven't changed their appearance.

There's the Laos Market and the Ukelele Lounge, where Wednesday a woman wearing a platinum blonde wig was talking business with a gap-toothed patron. While I'm not sure what she was selling, it didn't seem to be 51s tickets. Then there's the Plasma Center, where you can donate blood after a game. Only if you hang around Cashman to get autographs after a night game, it might not be voluntary.

That's the drum Logan continues to beat, that even if you look beyond the absence of weight rooms and batting cages and other amenities that the parent club insists it can't do without, there's only so much you can do to make Cashman Field attractive and/or viable at its current location.

"This place is just old," he said. "It's not like living in the same house for 20 years, where you can make improvements and make the most of it. It's a business thing with a ballpark. Us, the Convention Authority, Aramark, you can't do the amount of business you need to do (to make a profit)."

So whereas this finally might be the year for the Cubs or Redsox, it appears almost certain it won't be for the 51s, at least where a new ballpark is concerned.

"It's like I told the staff. Just go on with business as you always have," Logan said.

In other words, try not to worry about the sirens.