Whether it's Kobe Bryant scoring 50 for the Lakers, that unbelievable game-winning drive on "Monday Night Football" or if Barry Bonds is going to surpass Hank Aaron's home run record, sports always seem to be a hot topic in the office.

In Las Vegas, the buzz has crested, then crashed over whether the city ever is going to get a major league franchise in basketball, hockey or baseball. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has made the quest of attracting the big leagues to Southern Nevada one of his rallying cries during his first two terms.

The city is on the verge of getting more news this week about its efforts to attract the National Basketball Association to town. Most are acknowledging that the news isn't expected to be good if you're one of those longing to see the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns making regular trips to Las Vegas.

The NBA Board of Governors was scheduled to meet and one of the topics on the agenda is the city's proposal to house a franchise. Even the ever-exuberant Goodman is pessimistic about the prospects of getting a team this go-around, based on what he's hearing from the office of Commissioner David Stern.

But a few blocks from City Hall, there's lots of cheering and even a few fireworks.

The tradition of baseball is back and Don Logan is returning to his schedule of 15-hour workdays and managing the business of providing the national pastime in a city overflowing with entertainment options.

Logan, president and general manager of the Las Vegas 51s, helped open the team's silver anniversary season in Las Vegas with a home stand against Pacific Coast League rivals Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs last week.

Having been with the team for 23 of its 24 previous years in Las Vegas gives Logan more tenure than all but one of his PCL counterparts, Iowa's Sam Bernabe, who started with the Des Moines-based team the same year as Logan.

Las Vegas 51s third baseman Andy LaRoche tags out Kendry Morales of the Salt Lake Bees after catching him between bases during a game at Cashman Field on Monday. Photo by Steve Marcus

"No other professional franchise has survived here, much less for 25 years," Logan said. "It's something to be proud of in the entertainment-rich environment Las Vegas is."

Logan has frequently said the 51s don't compete with the big-name entertainment Las Vegas has to offer. He considers his biggest rivals to be neighborhood casinos, which not only offer gaming 24/7, but also inexpensive food, bowling alleys and movie theaters.

Ironically, the 51s parent company, the Mandalay Entertainment Group, has a television and film distribution subsidiary. The sports side of Mandalay owns four teams in addition to the 51s - the Dayton Dragons, the Frisco Roughriders, the Erie SeaWolves and the Hagerstown Suns in addition to managing New York Yankee team affiliates in Staten Island, N.Y., and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The company also ran the Las Vegas Thunder hockey team for seven years.

This season, baseball tradition will mesh with constant reminders of the 51s' 25th anniversary.

The team, named for mysterious Area 51, the secret military base on the Nevada Test Site and the supposed location of captured interplanetary space ships, is the AAA farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers and normally wears the Dodger blue colors.

The 51s' alien character on hats and uniforms is one of the most popular minor-league marks and the team takes advantage of that in souvenir sales.

Concession sales - refreshments at games and parking - carry much of the payroll for 22 full-time employees on the team's staff. On game nights, the team will hire an additional 30-35 workers for slow nights and an additional 55-60 for big promotions.

The team doesn't pay its players. That's one of the responsibilities of the Dodgers in its player-development deal with the 51s. In turn, the 51s offer a place to play every day for developing players and the means for a player to make a quick trip to join the big club on short notice. That often means buying the highest priced plane tickets to make sure a player reaches wherever the team is before game time.

While the team enjoys the affiliation with the Dodgers and wears Dodger blue most of the time, this year the 51s will observe the 25th anniversary by breaking out some of the retro uniforms of the past when the team was called the Las Vegas Stars.

"We have some replicas of some of the old orange-colored jerseys that the Stars wore in the past (when the team was affiliated with the San Diego Padres) and we'll wear those on a few occasions," Logan said. "We also have some of the red, white and blue Stars jerseys that were very popular and have those some days as a constant reminder about the 25th anniversary."

Tyler Thalman, 7, and his father, Tony, enjoy hot dogs before a game between Las Vegas 51s and the Salt Lake Bees at Cashman Field. Photo by Steve Marcus

Logan said fans also will be asked to vote for a 25th anniversary all-star team of players who once wore Las Vegas uniforms.

One of Las Vegas' fan favorites, outfielder and first baseman John Kruk, will be honored this season with a bobblehead night as will one of the most formidable pitchers in the game, Nolan Ryan, who serves as a special assistant to the general manager of the Round Rock Express. Round Rock is Houston's AAA affiliate in the PCL.

Logan has made many contacts in the community that lead to the team's high-energy but low-profile philanthropic efforts.

"Something I've always believed as a native Nevadan is the importance of giving back to the community," Logan said. "It's one of the best ways to demonstrate to your community partners that you're in for the long haul. Maybe it hurts us that we don't send out a press release or have a photographer come out every time we do something like that. We don't go out pounding our chests and take pictures of us doing it, we just do it."

The management and players of the 51s participate in more than 100 appearances at schools and at hospitals every season.

Logan's historic connection with the community makes for some difficult conversations when it comes to talk about the prospects for Major League Baseball in Las Vegas.

While Logan knows the desire is strong to bring the big leagues to town, he remains convinced that Las Vegas isn't ready.

"At the end of the day, the desire for major league sports started with (Mayor) Oscar (Goodman)," Logan said. "He started trumpeting the fact that we are a major-league city before he understood what it takes to be a major-league city."

Logan said Las Vegas is still a relatively small television market, currently 48th in the nation. That's still higher than Jacksonville, Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y., cities that have National Football League franchises.

But Logan is leery of the stated population of Southern Nevada, estimated at more than 1.7 million.

"The stated population is larger because a lot of people have summer homes here," he said.

He also said that because Las Vegas is unusual in that it is a "three-shift town" with a potential sports fan base that is either working or sleeping when games are played. Las Vegas also doesn't have a lot of what Buffalo and Jacksonville have - nearby suburban communities.

"Jacksonville can actually draw from Orlando and along the east coast of Florida and that helps them," Logan said.

That lack of fan base and television market hurts Las Vegas in the eyes of professional sports business people more than most people realize, Logan said.

"The one sport that I think could work here is NFL football," Logan said. "It's only an eight-game home schedule. But do you think we're going to get an NFL team before Los Angeles? Besides, the NFL has articulated its stance on gambling very clearly."

The NBA also has stated an aversion to being associated with the gaming industry, which is why few were optimistic about any kind of a breakthrough in this month's NBA meetings.

"Hockey is great in person, but it doesn't translate to television very well," Logan said. "Frankly, I don't think we need a major-league franchise to validate us. We're still a great event town. We're great for fights. NASCAR is a phenomenon. Our Big League Weekend exhibitions do well every year. But could we sustain that for 41 NBA home dates, or 41 home hockey dates or 81 baseball games? I'm not sure we could. The worst thing that could happen is to bring a team in here and for it to fail."

But Goodman says Logan is wrong.

"Las Vegas is unique in that in addition to the 1.7 million or 1.8 million people who live here, we also have more than 38 million people a year who visit," Goodman said.

"When I've been in Baltimore when the Yankees are in town, I've gone down to hotel restaurants and seen places filled with people wearing Yankee hats," Goodman said. "I think the same thing would happen here. People from Philadelphia will come to Las Vegas to see the Sixers play the Las Vegas Oscars."