It still must be ‘da shoes’

Last Monday night at Cashman Field, San Diego Padres center fielder Wil Myers, on a rehab gig with the El Paso Chihuahuas, trotted out to first base wearing these outrageous cleats.

The soles appeared to be affixed with diamonds. Paul Simon models, perhaps. Like the girl in that song from “Graceland.” The diamond-like studs reflected the stadium lights and made Myers’ footwear look like Dorothy’s ruby red slippers in “Wizard of Oz.”

A colleague made a wisecrack about Myers being late for the disco. People sitting by the 51s bullpen chuckled. Somebody mentioned the Trammps.

When Myers came up in the fifth inning and hit a long home run, his cleats glittered and sparkled as he circled the bases. Burn, baby, burn.

My colleague said “It’s gotta be da shoes.”

Alas, Internet research disclosed that Myers wears Under Armour baseball cleats, not Nike. So maybe it was just a matter of protecting his (wheel) house.

“It’s gotta be da shoes” was the catchphrase made famous by a fictional character named Mars Blackmon portrayed by Spike Lee. It was about Michael Jordan’s basketball sneakers.

The Air Jordan turned 30 over the weekend. It has outlasted even Robert Parish.

When Air Jordans came out, all the cool kids had to have them. They were hipper than Tone Loc, though if memory serves, the Air Jordan predated the Funky Cold Medina by a couple of years.

Before Air Jordans became global fashion, and everybody was wearing them, nobody except Michael Jordan was wearing them in an NBA game.

They were illegal. They did not conform to the NBA standard.

Still, MJ insisted on wearing the shoes, made especially for him, in his team’s colors — and Nike allegedly paid the $5,000 fine each time he did. The publicity was good for selling sneakers that were expensive even then.

The Air Jordan I retailed for $65. It came in red and black but did not feature any white, not even a swoosh of it, which was the NBA mandate at the time — you might recall David Letterman’s famous joke when he had MJ on as guest.

But additional Internet research suggests an asterisk might be in order when it comes to the original Air Jordans, the ones allegedly banned by David Stern.

The website Sole Collector in 2014 published a story that said the red, black and no-white shoes originally banned by the NBA actually were Nike Air Ships and not Air Jordan Is. Sole Collector presented visual evidence to support its claim.

Anyway, the Jordan shoes survived and have lived a long and prosperous life in multiple iterations and color combinations, some of which include white.

A lot of cool kids had to have the Air Jordans, and sometimes kids in blighted neighborhoods who could not afford them stabbed and shot other kids for them, which is sad.

(Same for those Starter jackets, which you now can buy at Wal-Mart. Back then, you could lose your life for wearing a satin jacket with the Hartford Whalers logo on it, as crazy as it seems.)

Now the shoes and the Air Jordan brand have turned 30. Now a lot of NBA stars have shoe models, and they get paid a lot of money to endorse them.

But MJ was first, if you don’t count tennis players and a former sneaker salesman for Converse named Chuck Taylor.

A lot of cool kids and/or their parents must still buy Air Jordans, because there have been 30 models. My local Footlocker had a huge display of the iconic sneakers, nearly half a wall, when I stopped by Monday.

They even had Hare Jordans in stock, a retro version of a shoe made popular by MJ and Bugs Bunny, because you never know when a Space Jam is going to break out and guys start choosing up sides.

“They still sell well,” said Joseph, the man in zebra stripes who was working the counter, and calling everybody “Boss,” and saying yes, he’d check if they had that in a 10½.

Joseph said Kevin Durant’s shoes also are popular these days. But the local Footlocker had three pairs of basketball shoes in acrylic cases up front, and none were KD7 Frozens. They had some LeBrons and some Kobes and a pair of Jordans called Son of Mars, which came out in 2012 and say “Son Of” and “Mars” on these little plastic tabs that go over the laces.

At $140, which would explain the acrylic cases, the Son of Mars shoes were the least expensive.

I asked Joseph if he had ever owned a pair of Air Jordans; he said he had. But they weren’t AJ Is. Joseph said he was 32, and although they make Air Jordans in infant sizes, he would have been only 2 when the prototypes came out and he wouldn’t have remembered.

I have never owned a pair of Air Jordans, because $140 seems too much to pay for basketball shoes at my age. But I have three pairs of pristine suede Clydes inspired by Walt Frazier — red, green, navy — for which I paid $29 each at one of those Puma outlet stores during their annual after Christmas sale.

I wanted to tell Joseph that, but the other salesman said he was in the back, checking if they had those size 10½s.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.