Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 | 10 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
Goodbye, Michael Phelps. Hello, Michael Vick.
With the Olympics now a wonderful memory, thanks in no small part to the resolve and hospitality of the Greek people, America now can turn its attention to the sports it truly cares about -- football, baseball, basketball, hockey (if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line) and NASCAR (if you don't).
For most of us, Olympic-type sports are best enjoyed only twice every four years or on a DVD produced by Bud Greenspan. That's probably not the way it should be but, much to the chagrin of guys such as Mike Hamrick who run athletic programs rife with Olympic sports, that's the way it is.
As I said to the UNLV athletic director, there should be a way for college programs to cherry-pick the momentum generated by the Olympics and use it to boost ticket sales for sports such as track and field, swimming, women's basketball, softball, volleyball and if you've got one, even the rowing team.
But, as Hamrick said, there really isn't.
"All the Olympics does is every four years it brings more attention to sports that usually don't get attention," he said, "i.e., swimming. That's a sport that usually doesn't get attention ... but I watched the swimming and Michael Phelps was phenomenal.
"But I don't know if there if there's a lot you can do to capitalize on that, other than to remind people that we do have a team."
And the funny thing is that longtime UNLV swimming coach Jim Reitz basically agrees with his boss.
"We don't worry about that too much," Reitz said of swimming being underexposed at the NCAA level, "because that's just the nature of our sport. But our kids get out in the community and do well (after their careers are over) and two of my bosses are former swimmers so obviously, there are a lot more benefits to our sport."
Race the truck, Ryan
UNLV linebacker Ryan Claridge, one of the football-playing guests at Monday's UNLV Quarterback Club luncheon, plans to put his UNLV degree to work for him after his college playing days.
"I'm either going to play in the pros ... or drive a UPS truck," Claridge joked -- at least I think it was a joke -- when asked what his future holds.
But leave it to Rebels coach John Robinson to put the kibosh on that modest aspiration.
"I've got news for Ryan," Robinson said upon taking the microphone from one of his standout inside linebackers, a former tennis player in high school. "You've got to get a driver's license if you're going to drive a UPS truck."
The Johnny Miller collection
UNLV this year will hold its weekly football luncheons at Bahama Breeze, a tropical-themed eatery on "Restaurant Row" not far from campus, which might explain why coach John Robinson wore bright yellow slacks to the function.
Then again, it might not.
I think the last time I saw pants that hue was 1978, on the 17th fairway at Augusta.
Show me the money
Let's hope the Mountain West presidents who signed the bottom line of a Lacrosse Network -- er, College Sports Television -- contract that claims $82 million over seven years will be due their schools when their current deal with ESPN expires in 2006 retained Jerry McGuire and sidekick Rod Tidwell as consultants.
Somebody would have to show me the money -- you know, just to prove it's there -- before I told ESPN to take a hike.
A source familiar with the MWC's new TV pact said the conference's eternal optimists have been assured the cash is hermetically sealed in an escrow account on Funk and Wagnall's porch.
Let's hope so, because the broadcast rights for a Johns Hopkins-vs.-Maryland lacrosse match probably won't cover the $82 million nut.
Not so decent exposure
Let's see, other than Rick Majerus' nonstop bellyaching, the Mountain West has complained for years that its biggest problem is lack of exposure. So then it goes out and signs a TV deal with an obscure network that isn't even available in its three major markets. Makes perfect sense to me.
Sure, Cox Cable in Las Vegas has two years to juggle its lineup to accommodate the College Sports network so local fans can watch the Rebels. But I'd love to be a fly on the wall for those negotiations, given the way Cox played hardball with ESPN when that contract recently came up for renewal.
And ESPN is the one network the average cable TV subscriber can't live without. Conversely, when was the last time you heard a sports fan demand "I want my CSTV."
It could be dire straits for the MWC if its limited fan base doesn't want to pay extra for the new channel, which is what it might come to.
That is, provided its new broadcast partner doesn't go belly-up by then. If that happens, those 10 p.m. tipoffs on Big Monday are going to look like a pretty good deal.
Nice fake
While you can count me among those who would like to see the 51s build a new ballpark behind the Galleria mall in Henderson, the Dodgers apparently weren't all that serious about skipping town and taking their Triple-A working agreement with them without a guarantee that ground will be broken on a mini-Camden Yards.
To virtually nobody's surprise, the 51s and Dodgers have announced a two-year extension on their player development contract, which will give 51s president Don Logan and company 24 more months (or whenever the Expos confirm they won't be moving to Las Vegas, whichever comes first) to come up with a blueprint for an underground batting cage and a bullpen humidor, or whatever other amenities the parent club says it can't do without.
No question, 51s fans deserve a new ballpark. Whether the Dodgers do is a matter of opinion.
Around the horn
Popular sports talk show host Papa Joe Chevalier is returning to Las Vegas, where he will host a show in the same time slot he occupied on Sporting News Radio, weekdays from 4-7 p.m. beginning Sept. 7 on SportsRadio 1460 KENO-AM. Chevalier, a Pittsburgh native who spent 17 years in Las Vegas before moving to Chicago with the One-on-One radio network in 1992, will be shopping his Las Vegas show to the highest syndicated bidder. ... How about a triple toe loop with a right hook? UNLV honors graduate Christina Kwan, a cousin of figure skating sensation Michelle Kwan, won the 95-pound division at the Ringside World Championships for amateur boxers recently in Kansas City. ... Lauren Ervin, once one of the nation's top female high school recruits who transferred to UNLV after spending a year at Kansas, has enrolled at Dixie JC in an effort to boost her grades. That means she'll have only two years of eligibility remaining provided she gets her transcript in order before next season. ... In that I've always believed sports writers should be read and not seen, I got a kick out of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol's response to the "The Sports Reporters" criticism of the network's gymnastics and swimming saturated Olympic coverage. "Our audience is the American family, not some bitter old sports writers," Ebersol told USA Today. "I've always looked at that show as a ... show for guys interested in sound bites (so they can) get hired by ESPN." Touche.
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