Southern Nevada’s longest-running pro sports franchise celebrates silver anniversary this season

When Bruce Bochy joined the San Diego Padres organization in 1983, he saved all of his meal money in spring training to make a deposit on an apartment in Las Vegas, where he would start the season in Triple-A.

He encountered just one small problem.

"Before my luggage even arrived from the airport, I lost it all at the blackjack table," said Bochy, now the manager of the San Francisco Giants. "I had to call home and get more money so I would have a place to live. All the guys still laugh about that. They remember that story."

The Las Vegas Stars had arrived.

"I remember how alive the city was, and to go to Cashman Field, it was a brand-new ballpark. I felt like I was in the major leagues, that's how nice everything was," said Bochy, who hit the first home run in franchise history in the Stars' 11-8 season-opening home victory over Salt Lake City on April 10, 1983, before a sellout crowd of 10,622.

Las Vegas immediately embraced its first professional baseball team in 25 years -- the Las Vegas Pirates of the California League had folded after the 1958 season -- and the city still has its arms wrapped around its Triple-A squad 24 years later.

The franchise, which was renamed the Las Vegas 51s in 2001, when it signed a new player development contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, will celebrate its silver anniversary in the Silver State this season.

Las Vegas has won a pair of Pacific Coast League titles and

produced several PCL Most Valuable Players over the past 24 years, along with numerous future major league stars and coaches, and a cast of colorful characters.

Under the guidance of team president and longtime general manager Don Logan, the franchise also has hosted Big League Weekend, the Big League Home Run Challenge, the Triple-A All-Star Game and the Triple-A World Series.

The Oakland A's also chose to play their first six games of the 1996 season at Cashman Field while Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was being renovated.

The 51s have averaged about 5,000 fans per game and have surpassed 300,000 in yearly attendance in each of the past 24 years as they continue to carry the banner as the longest-running professional sports franchise in Southern Nevada.

The UNLV Rebels were the only team in town when the Stars arrived in Las Vegas, and baseball fans were famished for something more.

"We had tremendous support there from the get-go," Bochy said. "For it being the city's first (Triple-A) baseball team, it was impressive. We had a very loyal fan base."

It was a glorious time to be a baseball fan in Southern Nevada.

Cashman Field was the pride of the PCL in 1983, when it was the league's newest ballpark and a state-of-the-art stadium.

"It was the Taj Mahal of minor league baseball," Logan said.

The franchise -- which initiated a new players development contract with the San Diego Padres, who moved their Triple-A squad from Hawaii -- was loaded, and the fans were pumped.

"You've got to give (then-San Diego GM) Jack McKeon a lot of credit. He really did a hell of a job with the Padres," Logan said. "We had a number of great players rolling through the system who had solid major league careers.

"Jack was smart. He didn't get caught up in getting a guy here too quickly. Hence, when they did get here, they were a lot more successful."

Kevin McReynolds helped carry the inaugural Stars squad to an 83-60 record, a franchise mark that stood for 19 years, until the 2002 Las Vegas 51s went 85-59.

McReynolds hit .377 with 32 homers and 116 RBIs in 113 games en route to PCL MVP honors.

"It would've been interesting to see what it would have been like if I had stayed there the whole year. I kind of bounced up and down to San Diego," said McReynolds, who now spends most of his time hunting and fishing in his native Little Rock, Ark. "I enjoyed my time there a whole lot. It was an invaluable experience and a steppingstone to get up to the big leagues."

Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn played for Las Vegas on a rehabilitation assignment in 1983, and the early Stars also were led by John Kruk, a three-time National League All-Star who led the PCL in batting (.351), and most likely in eating and drinking as well, in 1985.

"My minor league days were the most fun years I ever had," said Kruk, now an analyst for ESPN's "Baseball Tonight." "For anybody playing minor league baseball, Vegas was the place to be. It was a great place to play."

The Stars captured PCL crowns in 1986 and 1988, when they were led by longtime big-leaguer Sandy Alomar Jr. Alomar earned back-to-back PCL MVP awards in 1988 and 1989, when he also was named Minor League Player of the Year.

"That's where my career really picked up. When I went to Las Vegas, it's where I really excelled and became a major league baseball player," said Alomar, who signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets in February. "If you're going to be sent to the minor leagues, (Las Vegas is) a great town to be sent down to. It was a stop to remember, and I enjoyed it."

Sandy's brother, Roberto, also played for the Stars for a couple of weeks in 1988. Logan said he was arguably the best player in franchise history.

In addition to winning two PCL titles, the Stars advanced to the PCL semifinals three other times in the first six years of the franchise.

Other early notable position players for Las Vegas included Ozzie Guillen, who managed the White Sox to a World Series title in 2005; Joey Cora, who owns the franchise record with a 37-game hitting streak; Rick Lancellotti, who set a single-season franchise record with 131 RBIs in 1984; Tim Pyznarski, the 1986 PCL MVP; Phil Hiatt, the 2001 PCL MVP; Bip Roberts; Benito Santiago; and Carlos Baerga.

Top pitchers included Andy Hawkins, Andy Benes and Tim Worrell, who fired the first no-hitter by a Las Vegas pitcher at Cashman Field in 1992. Lindsay Gulin hurled the second "no-no" for the 51s in Las Vegas in 2003.

After its early success, the team has struggled for most of the past 18 seasons, advancing to three PCL semifinal playoff series. But the 51s have continued to churn out big leaguers: 52 former Las Vegas players were in the majors last season.

Other premiere players produced by the Stars/51s include former Dodgers closer Eric Gagne, Cubs slugger Derrek Lee and current Dodgers Chad Billingsley and Russell Martin.

In addition to helping develop talent for "The Show," the 51s have been active in the community.

"The most important element of why we've been successful, and we've always been mindful of it, is we're part of the community, first and foremost," said Logan, a native of Tonopah who has worked for the team for the past 23 years. "We're a business, but our best chance of succeeding, from a business standpoint, is to be an asset to the community and participate in it. We try to be involved in everything we can."

Logan said another factor in the team's success is the allure of the game of baseball, a sentiment echoed by former Stars pitcher Larry Brown.

"There's a special feel about baseball that cannot be replicated. It's played at a pace where you can enjoy the game, some company and the scenery," said Brown, now a Las Vegas city councilman. "One of my favorite things, to this day, is going down (to Cashman Field), finding a seat with a couple good friends and sitting down, relaxing and watching the ballgame."

Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which owns Cashman Center, said the city's Triple-A franchise plays a vital role in the community.

"The team has been a very integral part of some family entertainment for Las Vegas," he said. "It gives a lot of boys and girls playing ball the opportunity to see professional baseball and provides many of us an opportunity to see players who later on become stars in the major leagues."

Ralenkotter and former convention authority board member Roy Woofter were instrumental in bringing the team to Las Vegas after Cashman Center was completed in 1983 at a cost of approximately $27 million.

In addition to the baseball stadium, the 534,000-square-foot complex features two exhibit halls, 16 meeting rooms and a 1,940-seat theater.

Ralenkotter said the entire process of securing a team took close to two years to complete.

"Roy and I went throughout the country to cities that had minor league teams, from rookie leagues to Triple-A," he said. "We decided it would be a great goal for Las Vegas to be part of the (PCL) and a Triple-A affiliate. (The PCL) had good tourism cities for Las Vegas. We were also geographically located so we could easily be part of the league.

"We started to see if current PCL teams might want to move, and that eventually led to Larry Koentopp and his ownership group (from Spokane, Wash.). As it turned out, they made the decision to come to Las Vegas."

Koentopp is a former baseball coach and athletic director at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

"We just felt that Las Vegas was going to be a better situation, in the long run, for Triple-A baseball, as a business. Spokane is a smaller town with weather constrictions," said the 70-year-old Koentopp, who still lives in Las Vegas. "My heart was in Spokane. I was born and raised there and went to school there, but it didn't have a lot of potential."

If the team is to continue to thrive in Las Vegas, it's likely Cashman Field, now the 27th-oldest stadium in the 30-team Triple-A, will need a serious upgrade to keep up with new state-of-the-art stadiums, which are replete with luxury boxes and club seats.

"There's a lot of good things about this place; it's just old," Logan said of Cashman Field, a 9,334-permanent-seat stadium. "We've got four more years on the lease here. By the end of that lease, we're absolutely going to have to do something. I think we've earned the chance to participate in the development of a new facility."

Ralenkotter didn't mention a new stadium in the convention authority's future plans for the 51s.

"I believe the facility satisfies the needs for Triple-A baseball, and we'll continue to work closely with the 51s," he said. "We're making a concentrated effort ... to keep (Cashman Field) competitive with other ballparks in the country."

Cashman Field was good enough for players such as McReynolds, Kruk and Bochy -- with Bochy saying his playing days in Las Vegas were some of his best in baseball.

"Players loved playing there," he said. "When players talk with each other, they may talk about their times in Major League Baseball, but we always talk about Las Vegas and the fun times we had."