Las Vegas’ potential as MLB town 25 years in the making

This speculation about the Oakland Athletics potentially moving to Las Vegas supposedly started less than two weeks ago when Major League Baseball suggested they begin looking for a new ballpark elsewhere.

That differs from Don Logan’s view. The Aviators’ president believes the idea of an MLB team one day calling Las Vegas home started 25 years ago when the A’s played six home games at Cashman Field when the Oakland Coliseum was undergoing renovation (or exterminators were trying to eradicate mice from the soda machines).

The games — two against the Toronto Blue Jays, a night out on the town, then four more against the Detroit Tigers — attracted huge crowds and showed there was an appetite in Southern Nevada for major league games that counted in the standings, Logan said.

“Twenty-five years ago, that was really the precursor. It showed (major league) baseball would work here. We had had enough Big League (Weekend) games to know it was popular, but the demand for those tickets … it was great, everything about it was fantastic.”

The first of the six games was played April 1, 1996 — April Fools’ Day. Las Vegas baseball fans still were settling into their seats when the first home run in the city’s brief major league history was struck. After Toronto’s Otis Nixon struck out, second baseman Domingo Cedeno went deep off A’s starter Carlos Reyes.

The Jays won 9-6.

During the seventh inning, the big crowd, which root, root, rooted for both teams, stood as one and sang as if it didn’t care if it ever got back.

Around the horn

■ One of the stars of the 1996 Blue Jays was John Olerud — the first guy I interviewed during batting practice that day. He couldn’t have been more accommodating.

He was sporting his ever-present batting helmet — he had worn protective headgear, even on defense, as a precaution after suffering a brain hemorrhage in college at Washington State.

I recall Olerud noting Cashman Field’s reputation as a hitter’s park. He spoke about adjusting his launch angle for the two games against the A’s.

Only he referred to it as swinging for the fences. This was before analytics pretty much wrecked the game.

Olerud, who would hit .295 over his 17-year career and led the Jays to World Series titles in 1992 and ’93, specialized in line drives. But he said because baseball fans dig the long ball, he was not opposed to trying to lift a couple into the friendly Cashman breezes and watching them fly.

He struck out his first time up. He doubled his second time up. His third time up, he homered with two aboard.

Had there been social media in 1996, I would have tweeted about Olerud having called his shot. There was a story about it in the next day’s newspaper. And how Las Vegas baseball fans seemed to dig it.

■ Don Logan also has a John Olerud story about that day. Olerud had dropped by Logan’s cubbyhole in the bowels of Cashman Field to ask for tickets or whatever. Only the receptionist escorted him to the back office and said to Logan: “Here’s your golfing buddy.”

Former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Jan Stenerud and Logan would play a round whenever the Hall of Famer was in town, and the assistant had gotten their names — Olerud and Stenerud — confused.

■ A couple of guys with Las Vegas ties this week flirted with becoming the 20,000th major league baseball player. Sierra Vista High product Jake Hager was called up by the New York Mets May 15 and became the 19,991st player to appear in a big league box score. Aviators outfielder Luis Barrera got the call from the A’s on Monday and became Mr. 19,997.

Side note: Hager, who collected his first major league hit Friday, was assigned No. 86. He is the first Met to wear that number — probably because all the good low numbers already were taken and because 19,991 wouldn’t fit on back of a jersey.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the high school of baseball player Jake Hager.