Ron Kantowski is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
rkantowski@reviewjournal.com … @ronkantowski on Twitter. 702-383-0352
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao is the first megafight for Bob Bennett, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. Among other things, the commission is in charge of the boxing gloves each fighter will use. Don’t expect to find a horseshoe in them.
After watching his first 51s game with the clocks turned on, a columnist reconsiders and decides longer ballgames mean less time worrying about the job, or the kids’ college education, or whatever.
If Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao is indeed the Fight of the Century, it will mean that over the next 85 years, nothing in boxing will approach it in terms of interest, anticipation and how much one is willing pay to split a pay-per-view purchase with one’s chums.
Because it has been 39 years since Rick Monday saved the flag and handed it to a Dodgers relief pitcher named Doug Rau, there wasn’t much hubbub about it on Saturday morning. There was no “ESPN Films: 30 for 30” piece. It’ll probably be another 11 years before that happens.
He still gets up at 5:30 a.m., only now there’s not much to do. It’ll probably take a couple more weeks to remove all the stuff from his office, because one accumulates a lot of office stuff over 35 years as coach.
On Thursday night, Elizabeth “Beezie” Madden, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in equestrian events, and her horse named Simon knocked down the last rail in their FEI World Cup jumping preliminary run at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Dick Beyer, 84, was a longtime pro wrestling star as The Destroyer and Doctor X. He was so big that Blondie once sang with his picture on her T-shirt.
Phil Bickford, the College of Southern Nevada’s pitching prospect from Ventura, Calif. — he’s projected as a high first-round selection in June’s major league draft — has an easygoing style to him. He is 7-1 with a 1.60 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 62 innings this season.
On the eve of the home opener, let’s ponder the fate of the Las Vegas 51s if “Downtown” Tony Hsieh actually had bought the team. No managers?
They say Charlotte Dujardin can make a donkey dance. She certainly will make her horse, Valegro, dance this week at the FEI World Cup Finals at the Thomas & Mack Center. The 29-year-old rider from Great Britain is the first person to hold every dressage title: Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, European freestyle and Grand Prix Special.
Top prospect Phil Bickford, two others, combine on gem but Coyotes lose 1-0, bringing back memories of the late Stu Miller.
ESPN sent news that Las Vegas tied for sixth place with Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Norfolk, Va., for most viewers of the Masters’ first round.
The Major League Soccer season is only five games old. But that the frigid Windy City springtime weather has been the biggest adjustment for Matt Polster, a former Palo Verde High School star, shows just what a fine rookie year he’s having.
New pitch clocks installed in minor league ballparks might — or might not — speed up the game from a snail’s pace to a real fast snail’s pace. It’s being tried experimentally in the bushes, because that’s how baseball does things — it uses its minor leagues as a laboratory whenever it considers changing the game.
He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was a four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection — and he received his law degree at the same time he was quarterback for the Washington Redskins. He graduated sixth in his class from George Washington University. In the Korean War, he was a combat officer. He won two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star.
