DULY NOTED

Tuesday, June 20, 2006 | 2:26 a.m.

MANNY CORTEZ, 1939-2006

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Las Vegas 51s President Don Logan reminded his old baseball pal Manny Cortez about a golf date they had been putting off.

"We talked about getting out before it got too awful hot," Logan said.

Sadly, that tee time never got made.

Cortez, a longtime county commissioner who became head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, died unexpectedly in his Las Vegas home Sunday. He was 67.

Logan said Cortez was instrumental in pushing through funding to build Cashman Field in the early 1980s during Cortez's reign as a county commissioner. Later, as LVCVA chief, he was a huge proponent of Big League Weekend, the major league exhibition games that are a highlight of the local sports calendar.

Logan said Cortez also paved the way for the Oakland A's to play six regular-season games at Cashman Field when Oakland Coliseum was being renovated.

But long before Cortez was a baseball advocate, he was a baseball fan. And sometimes even a baseball player. Logan said back in the day, there was a local barnstorming fast-pitch softball league in which he and Cortez both played.

"He was a real good friend and a good sports guy. But baseball was always first," Logan said.

SNUG AROUND THE COLLAR

Scene from the next meeting of golf's Snug Around the Collar Club, aka Chokers Are Us:

"Jean Van de Velde, have you met Phil Mickelson?"

(Sound of gavel pounding followed by a strident voice with a thick Scottish accent.)

"Order! Order! The Snug Around the Collar Club is in session, the honorable (at least through the first three rounds) Greg Norman presiding."

Number of current UNLV basketball players (Joel Anthony, Canada, and Michael Umeh, Nigeria) trying out for their respective national basketball teams this summer.

473

Number of tackles made by new Gladiators coach Danton Barto at Memphis University, still a school record.

Number of Primera Division de Mexico championships won by Club America, which will play at Sam Boyd Stadium July 15.

WHAT'S HIS LINE?

"You're looking live at the betting slip in my wallet."

During the college football season, Brent Musburger began a peculiar habit of referring to the betting line, particularly the over-under, at seemingly every major college football game he called for ABC.

Well, he's apparently betting soccer, too.

After his studio analysts concluded their preview of Sunday's Brazil-Australia World Cup game, host Musburger added his two cents.

"Some are pulling for the under," he said.

MORE KICKS FOR LOCAL FANS

Just six days after the World Cup ends in Germany there will be another international soccer incident right here in Las Vegas. Mexican teams Club America and Pumas will square off in Copa De La Amistad - "the Friendship Cup" - at Sam Boyd Stadium on July 15.

A second game originally set for July 29, featuring Morelia of Mexico and Boca Juniors, one of the top sides in the Argentina pro league, has been canceled.

Tickets for the Club America-Pumas game, which officially hasn't been announced, are expected to go on sale this week, said Daren Libonati, Sam Boyd Stadium director.

Libonati said he is expecting a big crowd for the game on the heels of the World Cup. A recent mid-week friendly featuring Morelia and Mexican rival Monterrey at Sam Boyd outdrew most UNLV football games played on Saturday afternoon, according to sources.

Four America players - defender Duilio Davino, midfielders Pavel Pardo and Oscar Rojas and forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco - were on Mexico's 30-man World Cup roster, as was Pumas midfielder Gerardo Galindo.

Unidentified soccer referee:

"Son, this isn't the World Cup."

after a Denver player loudly complained that his jersey was being held by a Las Vegas Striker in a semipro game at the Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex

BLOODY WELL RIGHT

If I'm working for U.S. Soccer or as Brian McBride's agent, I'm putting that picture of him with blood streaming down his face onto a poster with some clever saying about soccer being for tough guys. Then I'm standing back in the six-yard box so I can watch the money roll in.

Can one picture actually speak a thousand words? Hard to say. But that image of McBride looking like boxer Jerry Quarry certainly characterized the U.S. effort in a 1-1 draw against a powerful Italian side they really had no business tying. At least in an 11-on-11 game, that is. But eight versus nine isn't soccer. That's a first-round NCAA tournament game.

So I also think somebody should put the mug of the Uruguayan referee, who kept sending the American players off the pitch for minor infractions, onto a poster. And then somebody should tack it up in the nearest post office.