Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
You just knew that somehow Las Vegas would be blamed, or at least implicated, for what ails baseball, too.
In his new book "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big" steroid-enhanced slugger Jose Canseco suggests the genesis of Barry Bonds' record home run season began right here at Cashman Field.
Canseco says he met Bonds at the Big League Challenge, a home run derby the baseball players association used to hold here. It was February 2000 and Bonds was impressed by Canseco's physique and asked how he did it.
The next year, Canseco writes, Bonds showed up at spring training with 40 pounds of added muscle.
Canseco leaves the reader to do the math.
It just so happens that 2001 was the year Bonds hit 73 home runs.
I guess this was a case of what happens in Las Vegas, leaves the ballpark everywhere else.
All things considered, it had to be among the most memorable 2-1 weeks in UNLV basketball history.
The Rebels had been wandering around aimlessly in search of an NIT bid until coach Lon Kruger decided to let some guys on the bench play against No. 13 Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center last Monday. UNLV still lost, 57-53, but at least the Rebels passed the ball around the perimeter once or twice before launching a 3-pointer.
Then on Wednesday, in a nonconference game that nobody wanted to play, the Rebels rallied to beat Missouri 74-71 on what must have been a bad hair day for Quin Snyder's Tigers, considering they knocked off No. 16 Oklahoma 68-65 on Saturday.
That was the day UNLV made national news by putting on its rally caps at San Diego State, somehow overcoming a 10-point deficit in the final 28.8 seconds en route to a stunning overtime victory.
The Aztecs were like the Riddler or the Joker in the old Batman TV series. They had set an elaborate death trap, but then they made the mistake of leaving the abandoned warehouse before the job was done.
Now, the next time the Rebels are down double-digits and Kruger tells them all is not lost, they may actually reach into their utility belts for a couple of defensive stops.
"The Miracle at Sea World," or whatever you want to call it, had everybody recalling great basketball rallies they had seen or heard about.
One that immediately came to my mind was an NBA game in 1972, when the Knicks trailed the Bucks 86-68 with 5:11 remaining in the fourth quarter before scoring the game's final 19 points for an 87-86 victory at Madison Square Garden. And that was before the advent of the 3-point field goal.
Of course, 3-point shots and putting the other team on the foul line really wasn't necessary when you had a defensive pickpocket like Walt Frazier in the starting five.
I guess you could call Brigham Young's recent overtime victory over the Rebels The Last Waltz, as in the last we'll hear from Rich Waltz, at least around here, for a while.
Waltz, the former play-by-play voice of the Las Vegas Stars, called the BYU-UNLV game along with his Mountain West TV partner Irv Brown, the former NCAA referee and University of Colorado baseball coach. But Waltz is moving on to bigger and better things, as he has been named the new TV voice of the Florida Marlins.
As a colleague noted, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
"It's a great break and he worked his butt off to get the chance," said Ken Korach, the former Stars and UNLV play-by-play man who preceded Waltz to the bigs several years ago with the Oakland A's.
Not only that, but Waltz does a spot-on impression of former World Driving Champion Jackie Stewart which might come in handy, were the Marlins ever to play in Scotland.
I've been around town so long that when I got here, Cal State Fullerton was still a football school, led by stalwarts such as Damon Allen, Marcus' brother, and a 5-foot-8 running back and royal thorn in UNLV's side named Mike Pringle.
Amazingly, Pringle was still playing pro football until last week when at 37, he announced his retirement from the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos.
Pringle was a two-time winner of the CFL's most outstanding player award, a seven-time all-star and the only player in league history to surpass 2,000 rushing yards in a single season (2,065 with Montreal in 1998).
And it wasn't like he was in danger of tripping on his beard. This past season, Pringle finished fourth in the CFL with 1,141 rushing yards.
Bob and Doug MacKenzie are going to miss him.
Forgive NASCAR's Robby Gordon if he doesn't get nervous when Tony Stewart or another of NASCAR's aggressive lead foots pulls up on his rear spoiler for a little bump drafting at Daytona.
That's nothing, Gordon says, compared to what drivers face in the Paris to Dakar Rally.
"The obstacles you race against in Africa are amazing," said Gordon, who last month became the first American to win a stage in the grueling Dakar event. "In Mali, we came around a corner and out of nowhere these baboons ran right onto the road. And these were big baboons, too."
At Daytona, the worst that could happen is you might come around a corner and run into Jimmy Spencer, which is close, but not the same thing.
Gordon called the Dakar rally the hardest racing he has done since his off-road days in Las Vegas.
"We ran into about 100 miles of slate rock and that was very challenging -- something I hadn't seen since the off-road races I used to run in around Las Vegas," he said.
Back then, you didn't have to worry about running over baboons, just desert tortoises on the endangered species list.
There are two ways to look at the UNLV baseball team's performance in a three-game series at No. 1 Texas over the weekend.
With two one-run losses, the Rebels proved they can compete against one of the nation's premier programs, which is the way I'm looking at it.
But given that UNLV blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning of Saturday's game, it might be time for coach Buddy Gouldsmith to teach one of his relief pitchers a split-fingered fastball, what with defending NCAA champion Cal State Fullerton coming to town next weekend.
David Wesley of the New Orleans Hornets lists Las Vegas as his favorite offseason destination in the current edition of Overtime, a slick magazine for professional athletes.
Wesley says the Four Seasons is his hotel of choice and tells readers he has a secret for enjoying his time here.
"Don't lose all your money on the first day," Wesley says, "because that can make things worse for the rest of your trip."
And to think he's been keeping that knowledge to his self until now.
Well, I guess this is what happens when you begin your career in the CBA.
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