Monday, April 19, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
If local sports were like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Marlon and Jim would probably shoot most of them with a tranquilizer gun (at minimum), tag them, and put them on the endangered species list, right alongside the giant panda and the Brazilian three-toed sloth.
Like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or that wacky Jack Hanna from the Columbus Zoo, the mission here is to identify local franchises, teams and events that may become extinct -- not so much by destruction of their habitats (although Cashman Field has seen better days), but by our reluctance to protect and nurture them through the purchase of season tickets and overpriced hot dogs.
With so much competition for the local fan's entertainment dollar, it really is a zoo out there. So here's a look at some of the three-toed sloths of the local sports scene that may not be fit to survive over the long haul:
1. Las Vegas Rattlers: The last time anybody heard from the Rattlers and the latest reincarnation of the ABA, Dennis Rodman had called a news conference at the defunct Las Vegas All-American SportPark to announce he wouldn't be playing for the Long Beach Jam in its regularly scheduled game (or as close as this league could get to one) against Las Vegas. That was back in January. According to the league Web site, the Rattlers did make it to the end of the season, although they played just 28 games (and none at home since Jan. 27) while others in the loosely organized league for has-beens and never-weres played as many as 32 and as few as 26. The Rattlers' last game (ever?) was a 138-96 defeat to New Jersey in the one-game ABA quarterfinal playoffs at Juarez, Mexico. Maybe they were detained at the border, and that's why we haven't heard anything more from them.
2. Pro bowling: A decade ago, Las Vegas might have been the pro bowling capital of the world, what with the Pro Bowlers Association as well as the seniors and women's tours holding annual events here. Most were at the old Showboat, which became the Castaways, a hotel-casino that is gone, or at least closed indefinitely. Were it not for the American Bowling Congress-sponsored Senior Masters recently at the Suncoast Bowling Center, so, too, is pro bowling gone from Las Vegas. The sport seems to be on life support, as the women's tour capitulated last year and the senior tour has been reduced to just seven tournaments. Somewhere in Indiana, Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr., are wallowing in the gutter.
3. Las Vegas Marathon: The annual 26.2-mile jaunt from Jean to Sunset Park could be so much bigger and better, were a sponsor to jump on board. One of these days, the indefatigable Al Boka is going to grow weary of running the marathon all by himself. And then, like Frank Shorter, it'll just fade into the distance.
4. Las Vegas Gladiators: Nearing the end of their second season at the Thomas & Mack Center, the team's honeymoon with Las Vegas is just about over. Attendance isn't making headlines and neither are the Gladiators in the Arena Football League standings. I saw where Clint Dolezel, the Las Vegas quarterback, went on NBC Sunday to discuss the AFL playoffs. Maybe the Gladiators' future would be a little brighter if he were playing in them instead.
5. USA Wrestling Championships: This would be a great event -- provided it were in Des Moines, or somewhere else where real wrestling is appreciated. It came and went last week with little more than a passing notice from most in the local media, who must have been home watching The Rock's rerun on the Biography channel.
6. LPGA Takefuji Classic: It has been just two years since the LPGA returned to town, but if the size of the galleries at this past weekend's event is any indication, you wonder why it even bothered coming back. Had the tournament committee been able to convince teen sensation Michelle Wie to play against the girls instead of the boys, perhaps the wind wouldn't have been such a deterrent to walking 18 at the Country Club. And if you can have only one Sorenstam playing in your event, you'd rather it be Annika instead of Charlotta.
7. CCSN baseball: The Coyotes probably bought themselves a little time by winning the junior college national championship last year, a fantastic achievement for a team that is the school's only athletic entity. That's the problem. CCSN has dropped men's and women's basketball and women's soccer amid budget cuts and other shortcomings, and you wonder how much longer the baseball program can survive, especially with the administration's reluctance to spend money on sports.
8. Las Vegas Bowl: Getting off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and onto Dec. 23 may not be the cure for what ails our postseason college football "classic," but at least it should be a shot in the arm for the participating teams and their quest to get home in time to sip a little egg nog with their families. But the biggest big obstacle in the way of longevity is Las Vegas' Grinch-like attitude toward the game, at least when it comes to buying tickets.
9. Las Vegas Invitational: Our longtime PGA tournament will survive for at least three more years, as irony would have it, because somebody else didn't. With time runnning out to secure a sponsor, Helen Morton, a widow from the Bay Area, bailed out the LVI with a three-year, $5 million sponsorship made in the name of her late husband Thomas, who apparently was very fond of playing in the pro-am. To me, one of life's greatest mysteries, outside of hitting a 2-iron, is how the LVI couldn't find a sponsor in its golf-mad hometown.
10: Las Vegas 51s (*): We'll give our Triple-A franchise the Roger Maris asterisk treatment until Major League Baseball decides whether the Strip would make an ideal final resting place for the Montreal Expos. Until then, the 51s are fine. But in the long shot Termell Sledge, et al, relocate to Southern Nevada, the 51s will be more long gone than Tracy Stallard's fastball. And if you can have only one Sorenstam playing in your event, you'd rather it be Annika instead of Charlotta.
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