MLB buzz: Marlins to LV?

y Brian Hilderbrand

Friday, Dec. 9, 2005 | 8:52 a.m.

y Brian Hilderbrand

During the first three days of Major League Baseball's winter meetings in Dallas, the Los Angeles Dodgers -- the parent club of the Las Vegas 51s -- hired a new manager in Grady Little and signed the most coveted free-agent shortstop, Rafael Furcal, on the market.

But anybody who approached 51s president Don Logan at the meetings didn't want to talk about the Dodgers' moves or what kind of team the 51s would field in 2006, with the expected influx of players from talent-rich Double-A Jacksonville.

Virtually the only discussion Logan found himself having concerned the Florida Marlins and their interest in relocating to Las Vegas.

"Even (in Dallas), it's all anybody wants to talk about," Logan said.

Unfortunately for Logan, talk about the Marlins and Las Vegas was not limited to the winter meetings. Even before boarding the plane to chilly Dallas, Logan said he could never get very far from the topic at home.

The situation, Logan said, is similar to what happened last year during Las Vegas' failed bid to land the Montreal Expos.

"It takes the focus away from what we're trying to do -- at all levels," Logan said of talks of another major league team courting Las Vegas. "People want to talk about (the Marlins); for us, from a business perspective, we want to talk about selling tickets and doing sponsor deals, and we want to talk about all the good players from Double-A who are supposed to be here next year.

"All of that takes a back seat to the major league (talk). It makes what's a tough job even tougher because it puts us further out of people's consciousness, I guess."

It also -- once again -- has relegated talks about building a new stadium for the 51s to the back burner.

"We need a new, better facility and, obviously, getting that is even tougher when all the talk is major league," Logan said.

Marlins president David Samson paid a visit to San Antonio on Tuesday as part of a three-to-five-month tour to find a suitable home for the team. Samson told the Associated Press he would also visit Las Vegas and Portland, Ore., in addition to other cities he declined to name.

The Marlins' lease with Dolphins Stadium in Miami expires in 2007, and Major League Baseball has granted the team permission to explore relocation. Las Vegas, which made a favorable impression on MLB when it courted the Expos last year, was among the first cities mentioned as a possible new home for the Marlins.

Logan said the positive side of Las Vegas again being mentioned as a potential major league city is that at least people are talking about baseball in December.

He just wishes they were talking about the 51s.

Brian Hilderbrand can be reached at 259-4089 or at bh@lasvegassun.com.