51s fans don’t feel like aliens at Stateside Lounge

There is an old shuffleboard table along one wall and Original Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap and, for some reason, a toaster on a corner shelf at the Stateside Lounge at 931 Las Vegas Blvd. North, near the corner of Washington Avenue. There is nary a potted fern. Potted ferns don't care much for cigar smoke.

When you walk in the door, Ashley the bartender greets you in the way that significant others greet guys whose fishing boats have just come in. "Hi! How ya doin?" she calls out before your eyes adjust for the light, or lack thereof.

If you grew up near a foundry or a refinery or a textile mill, you've seen taverns like the Stateside.

It's also the only bar within walking distance of Cashman Field, home of the 51s. For baseball fans who believe the ballgame experience isn't complete without a pregame or postgame visit to a ballpark watering hole, the Stateside is the only option.

Wrigley Field has the Cubby Bear Lounge and Fenway Park has the Cask 'N Flagon and Busch Stadium has "The Outfield" at Mike Shannon's. Petco Park in San Diego has the Tin Fish, and lots of fans who cheer for the visitors. And Cashman Field has the Stateside Lounge, where on the marquee it says "Just One More" and that your second beer with a 51s ticket stub is free.

(Actually, baseball is spelled "BSEBAll," which recalls the way the names of Polish ballplayers used to appear in box scores, and also recalls marquees on little taverns that run out of capital A's and L's.)

After Thursday's game against Sacramento, there were five baseball fans who took advantage of the free beer offer. But as any Cubs fan will tell you, these things take time. Besides, this was on a Thirsty Thursday when beers inside the ballpark are $1, a good deal even if they aren't Original Pabst Blue Ribbons.

Two guys who came in for a postgame brew were brothers from Baltimore. They said it was the first PBR they had had since high school.

They said the first one was cold, and tasted pretty good.

They said the second one was free, and tasted even better.

THREE UP

■ A lot of people forget that Las Vegas resident Dick Williams, the Hall of Fame baseball manager who died Thursday from a ruptured aortic aneurysm, also hit 70 home runs in 13 big league seasons. But as sportsillustrated.cnn.com's Tom Verducci recalled Friday, there should have been only 69. Williams hit one of the most unexpected home runs in baseball history on May 18, 1957, when, a minute before curfew -- the White Sox literally had a train to catch -- Chicago's Lefty LaPalme grooved a pitch when he should have been tying his shoes. And Williams, then with Baltimore, smacked it over the fence to tie the game. The White Sox caught their train, Lefty LaPalme caught hell from Chicago manager Al Lopez and the game was replayed from the start later that season, with the Orioles winning, 5-2.

■ Panamanian ultramarathon runners Javier Gonzalez and Ramses Cano, who on Thursday attained their goal of running 42 marathons in 42 days, dedicated No. 40 on Tuesday to Kassidy Merritt, the Centennial High School softball player who is undergoing experimental treatment for an inoperable tumor on her brain stem. Kassidy's mom says the treatment in Houston is going well and that Kassidy soon may be allowed to return home.

■ It was three years ago that Chris Luscombe, a former football player at Clark High School and a pleasant young man, was killed during a drive-by shooting by a bullet not intended for him. When I asked his mother, Marie, if there was anything I could do, she said, "Yes, don't let people forget my son."

THREE DOWN

■ Fern "Peachy" Kellmeyer, who fought for women's athletic scholarships while in college and was a trailblazer in women's professional tennis, was the other inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday, joining Andre Agassi. This might not be the quintessential example of having one's thunder stolen, but it's close.

■ Though it was prohibitive insurance costs and not environmental concerns that caused cancellation of August's SCORE Desert Series off-road race in Primm, I am nevertheless reminded of when Roger Mears said he had been racing in the desert around Las Vegas for years and he couldn't recall ever seeing one of those desert tortoises.

■ The baseball game of the week on Fox on Saturday was Dodgers vs. Padres. So on the day Derek Jeter got his 3,000th hit, we got to watch Cameron Maybin chase No. 204. The last-place Dodgers and the next-to-last place Padres combined for three hits through nine innings. Maybin did get career hit No. 204 -- his single to center in the fifth was the Padres' only hit. The Dodgers didn't get their first hit until there were two outs in the ninth. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver did not seem pleased.

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