Las Vegas Weekly

Ask Dead Elvis: What’s the story of Vegas minor league baseball?

I’m just getting into the 51’s. What’s the story with minor-league baseball here?

Minor-league ball has been associated with Las Vegas since the late ’40s, when the team was the Las Vegas Wranglers, a Boston Braves affiliate. According to old news reports, they were quite successful, and in 1949, they won the league pennant. But financial hardships did them in by 1952. There was an attempt to revive the team’s fortunes in the late ’50s, but it didn’t last long.

Things got going again in 1983, when the Las Vegas Stars became part of the Pacific Coast League. In 1986, they won the league crown, then repeated two years later. Long affiliated with the San Diego Padres, after a stint with the LA Dodgers—not to mention a name change, to the 51’s—the team is now part of the Toronto Blue Jays franchise. The team logo is a riot, complete with an alien with gray metallic skin, an egg-shaped head, a mouth-slit and black hollows for eyes. Rumor has it that the name and logo will change next season—let’s hope it’s something just as stylish.

Thank you very much.