Baseball, Nevada style

By Ron Kantowski

Saturday, June 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.

At the bottom of the rows and rows of little slots where mail is delivered in the Sun newsroom, there are four bigger compartments, each about big enough to hold one of Deacon Jones’ old football helmets. You know, the ones with the big defensive lineman’s cage made of iron.

The compartment suitably labeled “SPORTS” is to me what a box of chocolates was to Forrest Gump. You never know what you’re going to find in there. If Wham-O Inc. was still sending free Frisbees to sports writers who failed to capitalize the proper name for a flying disc, this is where they would wind up, along with the packages that tick.

When I returned from a recent vacation, there were three packages that tick and a smaller parcel that contained an advance copy of “Home Runs and Jackpots: Baseball in Nevada,” a self-published book by Tim Mueller, a baseball enthusiast from Carson City who is so infatuated with the game that he put a baseball in the pocket of his wedding coat for good luck.

Put another way, anybody who begins a sentence “I was lucky enough to get a press credential at Tucson’s Electric Park ...” has got baseball fever really, really bad.

A cover letter from the author said he was going to be at Cashman Field on May 23 — when I was on vacation — to sign copies of the book, and that he would love for me to mention it.

Well, Tim, as we Cubs fans like to say, “better late than never.”

I read “Home Runs and Jackpots” last weekend. (Local fans can pick up a copy at the Las Vegas 51s gift shop or by e-mailing the author at [email protected].) It’s not the second coming of Roger Kahn and doesn’t profess to be. If “Boys of Summer” is a grand slam then “Home Runs and Jackpots” is a Texas Leaguer that keeps an inning alive.

But I found it eminently interesting, as should any baseball fan in possession of a Nevada driver’s license. And by all means, do not skip the forward by Las Vegas 51s President Don Logan, who waxes fairly poetic about his childhood and listening to San Francisco Giants games in the front seat of his old man’s car as it sat parked in the driveway of the family home in Tonopah.

It’s not every day that Don Logan waxes fairly poetic.

I’ve been writing about sports and baseball in Nevada for a long time, yet much of what was revealed about our state’s baseball history in “Home Runs and Jackpots” was news to me.

And in retrospect, I enjoyed Mueller’s writing style. He writes like two guys sitting in a bar talking about baseball, only without the swear words. He writes as a fan would write, not as a guy auditioning for Bob Costas’ job would write.

“In 1975, my family moved to Reno, Nevada, which I thought was like moving to Siberia ...” he says in the introduction.

“As I wandered through this project I sometimes did not have a plan. I would just show up in a certain place to find something unexpected.”

Welcome to the club, Tim. Don’t mind the dues. Whoever is collecting them is just going to spend the money on cigars, anyway.

Talkin’ (Nevada) Baseball with Tim Mueller

On a 1900s-era baseball uniform he discovered in Eureka: “I was amazed by the rush of emotions that I felt. I wanted to put it on ... but I would not be able to do it justice. The man who wore it around 1900 was a blue-collar miner who worked extremely long days in a rural, far-flung central Nevada mining community. He was a man’s man, a real worker. He probably played baseball the same way he lived, sweating out every out as if was his last.”

“Satchel Paige and his House of David team played against the Reno Garage around 1937.”

Former Reno High baseball coach Bud Beasley on Reno’s Threlkel Park: “Although Moana was the first ballpark in Reno, Threlkel’s park was much better. He had a chicken and turkey pen in right field. Every once in a while you could hear some noise come out of the ’pen.”

On his 1996 visit to dilapidated Moana Park: “The only ones making memories here were the occasional seagulls.”

“Keith Roman was one of the surprises of my research. I met him one day unexpectedly at Kinko’s in Carson City.”

“I did not have the opportunity to talk with former major leaguer John Kruk. I had the opportunity to talk with Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt about John Kruk.”

On interviewing former UNR star Lyle Overbay at an Arizona Diamondbacks game: “The Diamondbacks’ media rep told me he would grant me the interview soon. I had to make the transition from fan to journalist, so I took those few minutes to get my thoughts together in my notebook. Soon, I got the signal, a hand-wave gesture from the Diamondbacks staff. I felt as though I had made the club.”

On researching Ty Cobb, who retired to Northern Nevada: “I thought I was a member of the IRS trying to find somebody who owed back taxes.”

“Since Ty Cobb was ... a wealthy man, he didn’t have to worry about his next meal. He did have to wonder about thieves who could break into his hunting lodge when he went on trips.”

“Bobby Dolan played from 1952 to 1960 in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization. Bobby was offered the chance to play at the major league level, but he was not feeling well and Maury Wills was called up instead.”

“It was great to be a member of the media at the 1999 Stanford Regional. I was able to go many places that the fan was not able to go. For instance, I was able to go down onto the field, into the bullpen areas, to the news conference area, and I was able to sit in an assigned seat and eat and drink on Stanford’s dime.”

On seeing Wrigley Field for the first time: “I knew I was in for a great afternoon when my eyes started to tear up when I walked through the turnstiles.”

On seeing Cashman Field for the first time: “I would like to say there is a flurry of activity, but the only activity is me writing. If the music was not playing on the PA system, my pen would be making the most noise at Cashman.”