Columnist Ron Kantowski: Cubs bring fans out, not baseball

Tuesday, March 8, 2005 | 9:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

As he pulled into the parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Las Vegas 51s publicity chief Jim Gemma said a crowd already had formed at the Cashman Field box office.

Maybe spring training games are meaningless in places that are used to them, such as Peoria and Winter Haven and Bradenton. But when "overflow" tickets for the upcoming Cubs-Mariners games are about to go on sale, it's a happening in Las Vegas.

Actually, those overflow tickets didn't go on sale until noon, when they were scarfed up quicker than Andy Pettitte's pickoff move to first base. It was a repeat of last Tuesday's scene at Cashman, when reserved tickets for the two games went on sale to the general public and every one was purchased, either at the ticket window or online, within 20 minutes.

It was almost like when Springsteen tickets go on sale, except nobody was required to sign for a wristband and nobody was playing "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" on a boom box.

"They (tickets) got gobbled up so fast ... but it's a terrific problem to have," Gemma said about trying to accommodate all the local fans who wanted to see Kerry Wood -- or at least some guy with a jersey number in the 70s -- pitch to Ichiro Suzuki.

That was the reason behind the sitting-room-only tickets that went on sale Monday. Normally, those would have been standing-room tickets, but Gemma said 51s president Don Logan believes anybody who is willing to pay a minimum of $25 to get into an exhibition game should at least have a seat from where to watch fourth and fifth outfielders miss cutoff men.

So team officials are trying to figure out how many portable bleachers they can squeeze onto the second level concourse and the grassy outfield berms adjacent to the foul poles so the seventh-inning stretch will be mandatory, not optional.

Gemma estimates that once the nooks and crannies are filled with fannies, Cashman will welcome roughly 10-11,000 baseball fans for the Friday night and Saturday afternoon big league tune-ups on April 1 and 2. While the 51s and Sacramento River Cats would be envious of a crowd like that, it's nowhere close to the stadium record set by -- you guessed it -- the Cubs, against the White Sox on April 3, 1993.

On that day, 15,025 were in the house, and camped out on Cashman's front and back porches. You should have seen the line for peanuts and crackerjacks. Or more importantly, to use the restroom.

Actually, there is more than one restroom at Cashman, but just barely. When the 51s play on fireworks night, it's usually one, two, three beers and you're out (of luck), unless you have a bladder the size of Barry Bonds' head.

"If we had the seats, we could have sold 20,000 tickets for each game," Gemma said. "But we want people to be comfortable. We want people to come out and have a good time and have a good experience because we want them to come back and see some of our (51s) games."

So the 51s are inquiring about what it would cost to set up auxiliary concession stands and restrooms.

Mayor Goodman doesn't think the 51s have outgrown Cashman Field or need a new ballpark. But then he probably has never had to use a port-a-potty in the top of the eighth inning on an 80-degree day after a few gin-and-tonics.

Speaking of the mayor, he'll probably spin the incredible demand for tickets for the two spring training games as confirmation that Las Vegas is ready for major league baseball, something he has been saying since showing up at the winter meetings in December with a couple of showgirls on his arm and the Baseball Encyclopedia under it.

That would be a bigger reach than Thomas Hearns'.

What it says is that Las Vegas is ready for a Cubs game, or two of them. It doesn't say Las Vegas is ready to support 81 home games featuring somebody other than the Cubs. Like the Rangers or Rockies, for instance.

Those were the teams scheduled to play on Big League Weekend last year. Fewer than 5,000 tickets were sold for those games that, as luck would have it, were rained out. Given the number of unsold tickets, perhaps it was fortuitous that Mother Nature was warming up in the bullpen.

"The greatest percentage of this (demand for tickets) is the Cubs," Gemma said. "They have nationwide appeal. Thanks to WGN and cable TV, they've been adopted as America's Team, like the Cowboys."

On April 1 and 2, the Cubs will be Las Vegas' team. But if you don't have your tickets by now, your only option may be eBay, where ticket bids began at $125 on Monday. Or convincing Greg Maddux you are a long lost relative.

The Cubs' pitcher and native Las Vegan, perhaps fearing that he also might get shut out at the ticket window, decided to purchase the entire Party Zone picnic area down the left-field line for one of the games, so all his "peeps" could see him pitch in Las Vegas for the first time as a major leaguer.

As a longtime Cubs fan, I just hope Maddux will tell his in-laws and cousins to lay off any foul balls that might be hit in that area. I know it's only spring training and all, but you never know how a foul out to left field might figure in the big picture.