Oscar Goodman plays it fast in NCAA Tournament betting

The KATS! Bureau, at this writing, is at the Roasted Bean at The Mirage, outside Terry Fator Theater, where later there will be a party at the Matt Goss performance at 1 Oak. I wear a fedora, not just to match the vibe but because of my fresh St. Baldrick’s cut.

The nightclub itself has celebrated its sixth birthday this weekend (and has been marking the event since its industry party on Wednesday night). The grand opening was actually January 2012, a party highlighted by Fergie with a surprise appearance by Kanye West. The club continues to serve as Mirage’s lead nightspot, playing off the days when Adam Levine, Bruno Mars and Pitbull reigned.

But for me tonight, it’s a swing with Goss, his blazing backing band and the Dirty Virgins, always a great Vegas hang.

More from the scene:

Goodman’s bet

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has said he’ll bet on anything — including a pair of cockroaches scrambling across a tile floor (let’s set up a tournament for that, eh?). He’ll even wager on a Retriever, specifically No. 16-seeded University of Maryland Baltimore County, the 21-point underdog that beat Virginia 74-54 Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament South Region.

Goodman says he handicaps rebounding, team speed and a team’s free-throw percentage “and that’s it” when making his selection. “Virginia lost its best defender (Isaiah Wilkins, the ACC defensive player of the year who fouled out), and always plays a real slow-down game,” Goodman said Saturday morning. “UMBC ran ‘em out of the building in the second half.”

Goodman also liked No. 5 Ohio State as a 5-point underdog this afternoon over fourth-seeded Gonzaga in the West Regionals in Boise, Idaho. The Zags won, 90-84.

No sale for Stirling Club

The attempt to sell the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place through an online auction in November has fallen short. CNR Retail Advisors of Colliers International put the property up for big on Nov. 28, on the Ten-X online commercial real-estate site. The sale ran from Nov. 28-Nov. 30.

A source familiar with the bidding says the top offer for the entertainment fortress was 11,990,000, though officials are not confirming that figure as the top bid.

What is certain is the Stirling Club is now up for lease, preferably a long-term lease, from the group of Silicon Valley investors that purchased the club for $10.9 million in October 2013. It was closed by then-owner Turnberry Associates the previous May.

We’ve dived back into Stirling Club a couple of times in since the space went dark, revisiting the latent restaurant space (once operated by Charlie Palmer), the spa, wine lounge, cigar bar and clay tennis courts. At its peak, the fortress served more than 700 Turnberry residents and was the property’s central party and recreation. The late-night lounge hangs hosted by Kelly Clinton-Holmes with such guests as Jack Jones, Frankie Scinta, Ronnie Rose, Bob Anderson, Elisa Fiorillo and Michelle Johnson are are now part of Las Vegas lore.

U-Sinise-O

Actor Gary Sinise is been widely known and respected for his advocacy for members of the armed forces and their families. In a story published Friday by the military website Task & Purpose, he related a story from a 2003 a USO tour of Iraq organized by Wayne Newton. Chris Isaak, Neal McCoy, and Oliver North and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

“We were going around to different places, and we were in Balad, at Camp Anaconda, and were doing a little hospital visit,” said Sinise, who played Lt. Dan in “Forrest Gump.” “It was one of those tent hospitals; there’s operating rooms, and patient recovery rooms, and doctors and nurses walking around, and people going through recovery there.”

Senise and Newton were allowed to observe the treatment in that tented complex.

“There was a room that had a little window in the door, and we looked in the window, and there was an operation going on,” he said. “Turns out a doctor was operating on an Iraqi soldier. And Wayne Newton and I, we stuck our faces in this window of the door and we were looking in. The doctor had his back to us, and the nurse looked up and saw Wayne Newton and my face in the window. And she said “Doc, look!” and he turned around with his scalpel, and bloody gloves on, and just starts waving at us to come in.”

This operation was halted, temporarily.

“He just completely stopped the operation — turns out it wasn’t a very serious injury, it wasn’t life or death — but he stopped the operation, brought us in there, and wanted to take pictures with his scalpel, his mask on, and everything,” Sinise said. “So, here’s Wayne and I in the operating room, and the guy’s laying on the table, I think they were working on his arm or something, and it was straight out of M*A*S*H. It was hilarious. I said, ‘Don’t you need to get back to work here on this guy?’ and he said, ‘Oh, he’s fine, he’s fine, let’s take a picture.’ So we did.”

On Saturday, Newton verified the story is authentic. On that trip, the group entered the city of Balad and visited an elementary school. Newton, Sinise, McCoy and Isaak all sang “You Are My Sunshine” to the kids. Photos of that visit are displayed at Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.