Ten days ago there she was, 14-year-old Hunter Pate, a female, a Cinderella story from out of nowhere — an eighth-grader at Grant Sawyer Middle School in Las Vegas. And she was about to become champion at Augusta National.
Ron Kantowski
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
When he was a younger man, Bill Lusk flew Nikita Khrushchev’s bags around the U.S. during one of the former communist leader’s visits. Now that he’s 80, Bill Lusk drives a one-of-a-kind Porsche 911 around Auto Club Speedway in California at high rates of speed.
When I bumped into Tim Chambers Saturday morning on the UNLV campus, the wind had not yet started to blow. The Rebels baseball coach was driving a golf cart, showing supporters around. He appeared happy, happy and hairy.
It looks like a monolith carved from mortar and molded of chrome, a giant spaceship in the middle of the UNLV campus.
A couple of visitors were chatting with Eric Meeks in the pro shop at the TaylorMade Golf Experience out on Las Vegas Boulevard recently, where he operates the Eric Meeks School of Golf. It was coming up on the 25-year anniversary of Meeks having qualified to play in the Masters.
My pal Steve and I were talking about old baseball cards the other day, and that segued into a discussion about how sometimes they airbrushed the logos off the caps of guys who had been recently traded — and then that segued into another discussion, about “Who’s Who in Baseball.”
According to ESPN the Magazine’s poll of 143 major league ballplayers, Las Vegas’ Bryce Harper is the most overrated player in the game. But at least one American League All-Star thinks he is going to be pretty good.
Former pro athletes and celebrities brought plenty of lighter moments to the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational at Shadow Creek, and the image of Jordan golfing with a lit stogie kind of sticks with you.
On opening night of the 51s’ season, I saw a guy wearing a Bad News Bears jersey at Cashman Field. On the back, where the name of the sponsor usually goes, it said “Chico’s Bail Bonds.”
Top prospect throws high hard ones in Cashman Field debut, but he still has much to learn as a volunteer first-base coach.
What would a baseball lineup of Batman characters look like? Who would play first base? Or steal it?
Paulina Gretzky appears on the cover of the latest Golf Digest magazine in stretchy clothing, and a lot of the LPGA players are none too pleased.
Former Bishop Gorman and College of Southern Nevada standout Donn Roach made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres Wednesday, facing seven batters against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In advance of the 51s opening their 32nd Pacific Coast League season here tonight, the team held its annual media day on Tuesday. Of the six or so media who showed up, four or so asked manager Wally Backman if the 51s would be good enough to return to the Pacific Coast League playoffs.
The El Paso Chihuahuas will be marking their territory as the new triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and they’ve got a pretty cool logo.
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