Maddux would support MLB franchise in Vegas

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 9:30 a.m.

Las Vegas native Greg Maddux hopes Major League Baseball one day puts a team in his hometown.

"I would love to see Vegas get a team," he said. "I think it would be great for all the baseball fans in Vegas, you know? I mean, the city's still growing as fast as it ever has, and I would like to think it could support a major league team.

"I have no idea of knowing the numbers or what it would take, but I would enjoy taking the kids to a game."

The latest effort to bring MLB to Las Vegas involves two groups, Teamscape and the Las Vegas Stadium Co., which are attempting to convince baseball executives to move the beleaguered Expos here from Montreal.

A $400-million retractable-roof stadium has been proposed for a plot of land behind Bally's and Paris properties, owned by Caesars Entertainment Inc.

Norfolk, Va.; Washington, D.C.; northern Virginia; Monterrey, Mexico, and Portland, Ore., are among the areas that MLB is considering, or has considered, to place the Expos. A mid-July deadline has been set for an announcement.

As a junior and senior at Valley High, Maddux attended Las Vegas Stars games at Cashman Field during that minor-league team's first two years of existence.

"I always enjoyed that," he said. "But, you know, I'd rather go to a big league game than a Triple-A game."

Maddux, 37, said it is too early to gauge his interest in becoming an investor, a front-office type, or even a manager or pitching coach of an MLB team in Las Vegas.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm sure it would be attractive to me, once I'm out of the game. What better place to work than in your own hometown? I've never had a chance to do that ... but I'm still playing.

"Then again, you never rule anything out. You kidding me? Why would you do that?"