Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

DULY NOTED

TOWERS' INFERNO ENGULFS MIRABELLI

Doug Mirabelli has to be the most talked about .192 hitter in baseball.

The Boston Red Sox backup catcher and former Valley High star somehow found himself in the middle of a coast-to-coast controversy this week that had nothing to do with his ability to catch Tim Wakefield's knuckleball. Mirabelli was traded from the San Diego Padres back to Beantown on May 1, a transaction the baseball writers in Shamu-land credit for the Padres' lofty position in the standings.

In exchange for Mirabelli and his butterfly net of a catcher's glove, the Padres received catcher Josh Bard, who is hitting .319, and pitcher Cla Meredith, 5-1 with an 0.82 earned-run average.

When asked about the significance of the deal, Padres general manager Kevin Towers was critical of Mirabelli, portraying him as a malcontent who was miffed that San Diego acquired Mike Piazza to beef up its catching.

Towers said Mirabelli demanded a trade to the Red Sox and went so far as to say he didn't want to start that night's game because he wasn't focused on it.

There wasn't a single guy in the Padres clubhouse, Towers told the San Diego-Union Tribune, who missed Mirabelli.

Then again, it's hard to miss a guy with whom you played only 13 games.

Mirabelli, who also has feuded with former Red Sox star Nomar Garciaparra, referring to him as "Mr. Hamm," fired right back. (Dodgers first baseman Garciaparra, who's married to former soccer star Mia Hamm, will have the last laugh if L.A. makes the playoffs.)

He charged Towers with "character assassination" and proceeded to do some assassinating of his own, basically saying that Towers was a very bad man whose mother wears army boots.

I guess this is what happens when you are 11 games out of first place and backup catchers hitting .192 become front-page news.

OKLAHOMA IS OK

Rodgers and Hammerstein said Oklahoma is the place where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain.

It's also the place where minor league baseball fans come sweepin' through the turnstiles.

On Tuesday a crowd of 12,572 turned out at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City to watch a team based in Arizona (the Tucson Sidewinders) beat a team based in Ohio (the Toledo Mud Hens) in a one-game playoff to decide the championship of Triple-A baseball.

The one-game, winner-take-all playoff is a remnant of the Triple-A World Series that was held in Las Vegas from 1998 to 2000. The reason it is no longer held in Las Vegas is that there weren't many fans whistling down Las Vegas Boulevard to see it.

The last Triple-A World Series at Cashman Field averaged a meager 2,311 paying customers for the four games.

2.13

Goals-against average of the Las Vegas Wranglers' Mike McKenna, who re-signed with the club this week

$2,000,000

The first-place prize at Steve Wynn's Ultimate Golf Game to be played here next spring and televised by FOX Sports

$1,008,000

The first-place prize at the Masters

THE READERS SOMETIMES E-MAIL

Hi Ron:

I vowed to bite the bullet and take a peek at UNLV on TV against Hawaii last week. Maybe the best thing that can happen for this program is to assure that it never receives TV coverage. And to think that I'm off to Hawaii on Saturday. I think I'll just tell everyone I'm from Peoria.

Ed Vovsi, Las Vegas

Dear Ed: Next time you are in Peoria, find out if Bradley is going to put together a football team. The Rebels are still seeing double after getting hit upside the head with those ukuleles.

Steve Wynn, chairman and CEO of Wynn Las Vegas:

"Right event. Right host venue. Right town. Right network partner."

on bringing the Ultimate Game, the world's highest-paying golf tournament, to Las Vegas

AROUND THE HORN

There's an ad on the Gladiators' Web site offering fans who reach $5,000 in ticket referrals the opportunity to fly to a 2007 away game of their choice and "dine with the Gladiators' front office and general manager Dan Dolby the night before the big game." The main problem I see with that is I doubt the Gladiators are going to take their fired GM along on the trip. Besides, it's arena football. There are no big games Danton Barto, the Gladiators' new coach, was inducted into the Memphis Hall of Fame earlier this month. Barto, who played football for Memphis U. from 1990 to 1993, still holds the school record for career solo tackles This week's Big Man on Campus is a woman. Green Valley's Kelsi Peterson was named to the all-tournament team at the Oral Roberts Classic volleyball tournament, helping Utah State defeat Arkansas-Little Rock and St. Francis of New York.

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