Las Vegas favorite spot in league

Rick Lancellotti's professional baseball career spanned three decades and took him to four continents, seven countries and more than 15 leagues and 20 teams, including the Las Vegas Stars.

Looking back on his whirlwind tour of the baseball world -- which included three stints in the big leagues -- Lancellotti, who played for the Stars in 1983 and 1984, ranked his stop in Southern Nevada near the top.

"It's way up there. It's definitely in the top three," said Lancellotti, who until recently was the all-time minor league home run king with 276 -- in essence, the real-life Crash Davis, Kevin Costner's character in the classic baseball movie "Bull Durham."

"Those were the days. I had a ball there. I loved the weather, I loved the desert air, the people were great and I still think about it all the time and talk to the guys often."

Teammates remember Lancellotti as a clutch power hitter who always would seem to get the key hit. And he was known as a clubhouse character always keeping his teammates loose.

''He was a guy everybody leaned on, with his bat. Lancellotti just had a way of getting the big home run when we needed it," said San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who played for the Stars in 1983-84 and 1988. "He had a great sense of humor and he kept us all loose."

In 1984, Lancellotti smacked 29 home runs and led all of professional baseball with 131 RBIs, a Las Vegas franchise record that still stands.

Despite an illustrious minor league career, Lancellotti never made an impact in the majors.

Bochy said it's a shame Lancellotti never had more than the oft-mentioned "cup of coffee" in the majors.

"I don't think Rick got an opportunity to really show what he could do, and it's unfortunate because he was a good player," he said. "I wish he could've gotten 400 or 500 at-bats in the big leagues."

As it turned out, Lancellotti got only 65 at-bats in the bigs, in 36 games over parts of three seasons with the Padres (1982), Giants (1986) and Boston Red Sox (1990). He finished his major league career with a .169 batting average, two homers and 11 RBIs.

"I always look at it as, at least I got there -- three times I got there -- and I'm proud of the fact I did it, but, no, I'm not happy they were three short stints," said Lancellotti, now 50. "I think if somebody had just said, 'Rick, go out, have a full year, don't worry about being benched and do your thing,' I could've lasted a long time.

"I knew I could do it, but somebody's got to give you the chance to do it."

In 1986, Lancellotti led the Pacific Coast League with 31 homers for Phoenix, the Giants' Triple-A team, and he also hit a pair of pinch-hit homers for the Giants.

Lancellotti was faced with a big decision that offseason: to go play in Japan for Hiroshima, which had offered him a lucrative contract, or stay in the United States to follow his big league dreams.

"At that time, I had already played 10 years in the minors and I had three dollars in the bank, but money didn't matter," Lancellotti said. "I never played for money. I never did, I never have and I never will. To me, my whole life was in one direction: I've got to get to the big leagues."

Lancellotti agonized over the decision. He met with Giants manager Roger Craig and general manager Al Rosen, looking for direction.

Lancellotti said Rosen told him he might hit 40 homers if he played a full season, but he couldn't guarantee anything and pretty much told him to take the bigger money in Japan.

"I told him I'd guarantee, in writing, that I'd hit at least 25 home runs or they don't owe me a dime," said Lancellotti, who ultimately went to Japan and hit 58 homers the next two years, leading the league with 39 in 1987. He made about $500,000. "I went to Japan and felt like I had sold out. I had a terrible time and the 'fun meter' never registered much over zero."

Lancellotti returned to the United States in 1989 and kept his hopes alive, lying about his age to play in the now defunct Senior Professional Baseball Association.

"I refused to give up. I kept pushing myself," he said. "I loved the game too much for someone to come along and take it away from me. It was like I was 10 years old every time I went out there. It helped me to keep my sanity."

The persistence paid off for Lancellotti, who was born in Rhode Island and grew up in Concord, N.H., as he earned a spot on the Pawtucket (R.I.) Red Sox, Boston's Triple-A team, in 1990.

He led the International League with 21 homers that season, including 11 in August, and earned one last chance in the majors with the Red Sox.

Lancellotti appeared in four games for Boston, including one at Fenway Park, where he hadn't been since his father had taken him when he was just 8.

"Of all the great things that happened to me in baseball, I'd have to say the biggest thrills of all were getting my first home run in the major leagues and walking up to the plate at Fenway and getting to hit there," Lancellotti said. "When I was standing on deck waiting to hit, I kind of got emotional. I felt like I was in some sort of time warp. It was such a rush. I'll never forget standing there and saying to myself, 'You know what, if I die right now, I'm a happy guy. I've done it all.'"

Lancellotti had an RBI sacrifice fly in his lone Fenway at-bat and was released by the Red Sox after the season, never to play again in the majors.