Columnist Ron Kantowski: Another 'Made for LV' event

CONTRARY TO a news release distributed among local media, tickets for the inaugural Triple-A World Series at Cashman Field aren't on sale yet (although orders supposedly are being accepted). That came as bad news to at least one local man, who called the Cashman box office and then the Sun, looking for tickets.

Provided there are say, 9,999 just like him (bringing Cashman up to its 10,000-seat capacity), the first triple-A series could turn out to be a smashing -- and surprising -- success.

That caller's enthusiasm aside, the Triple-A World Series is destined to rank somewhere between a free pull on a slot machine and a trip to the Liberace Museum on the list of Las Vegas attractions. And it won't stand a chance against the 99-cent shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate.

Organizers are hoping for midweek crowds of 7,500. Forget it.

I'll wager two shrimp cocktails and the crackers that the American Legion World Series that invades Cashman Field in August will outdraw the Triple-A World Series. And that the biggest World Series in Las Vegas will remain the poker one, down at Binion's Horseshoe.

Minor league events -- especially the literal ones -- have no shot of succeeding in a major league town for entertainment. If that has been proven once, it has been proven a thousand times here (or once for every bogus sport and franchise that has come and gone).

Put it this way: Anil Gupta and his wife had a better chance of buying the Minnesota Vikings with their Monopoly money than the the Indianapolis Indians or Norfolk Tides do of putting some butts in the Cashman Field seats.

But in another twist unique to Las Vegas, the Triple-A World Series is one of those events that doesn't need a crowd to be considered a success by at least one important segment of the organizing team.

That would be the one with the money, not the concept.

Pacific Coast League president Branch Rickey, one of the idea men, has proclaimed the Triple-A World Series a showcase for minor league baseball talent.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the money men, also consider it a showcase for minor league baseball talent. At least that's what the press release says.

But if they're honest, the LVCVA chiefs will allow the baseball is immaterial to a best-of-5 series of infomercials, reaffirming Las Vegas as "America's Place to Play."

In the manner of the Las Vegas Bowl (football) and Las Vegas Cup (boat races), the Triple-A World Series is the latest in a line of "Made for LV" sports events. If it were presented in commercial-free form, like the World Cup soccer tournament, they'd be playing it in Scranton or Pawtucket instead.

But rest assured the Triple-A World Series will have more built-in breaks than a Quinn Martin Production.

The series, at minimum, will have an Act I, II and III, as the LVCVA has it locked up for three years. So here's the Epilogue: Get used to it.

As Las Vegans, we have learned to coexist with 200,000 intruders -- er, tourists -- on any given weekend. So what harm can a few Rochester Red Wings fans do?

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