Former Las Vegas Stars manager Russ Nixon remembered

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Charlie Puleo and manager Russ Nixon, right, argue with an unidentified umpire after Puleo was called for a balk forcing home the games first run during the sixth inning of their game with the Philadelphia Phillies, Saturday, July 9, 1983, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Al Behrman/AP)

Russ Nixon was manager of the Las Vegas Stars during the 1993 and '94 seasons, guiding the team to a 114-172 record. A former manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves, Nixon died in Las Vegas on Nov. 9, 2016 after a lengthy illness. He was 81. (Courtesy: Las Vegas 51s)

Vic Power, center, tired to steal home in the first inning and was struck out by Orioles catcher Joe Ginsberg at a Cleveland vs. Baltimore game, May 6, 1959, Cleveland, Oh. Russ Nixon (15), the batter, jumps to offer a clear path. The potential run loomed big when the league leading Indians were defeated 6-5. (AP Photo)

Jim Piersall, who signed up with the Los Angeles Angels recently, slides safely into home in the 7th inning of their first game with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, July 29, 1963. Catcher Russ Nixon did not get the catch fast enough. Los Angeles won 5-4. (Frank Curtin/AP)

I once spent quality time talkin’ baseball with Russ Nixon, the former Las Vegas Stars’ manager — and former skipper of the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves — who died Nov. 9 in Las Vegas at age 81 after a lengthy illness.

Willie, Mickey and The Duke. It was either at the Tap House, or the ballpark.

It was probably the Tap House, a tavern on West Charleston Boulevard where members of the Stars’ coaching staff and front office occasionally would gather after a tough loss, or even after an easy win. It is a tradition that continued after the team was renamed the 51s.

Kevin Higgins, an assistant baseball coach at UNLV who played seven positions over 71 games for the San Diego Padres in 1993, played multiple seasons and multiple positions for Russ Nixon in Las Vegas. Higgins said on road trips his phone often would ring at 1:30 a.m., or some other rude hour.

Russ Never Sleeps. That was a play on words of the title of an iconic record album by Neil Young. It was how Las Vegas baseball writers referred to Russ Nixon during the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

“It would be Skip, and he’d say get up here, and when you got up to his room, he’d have a glass of whiskey for you and he wanted to talk baseball,” Higgins recalled.

Higgins said Nixon forged bonds with the Stars’ elder statesmen and would discuss baseball matters with them during the quiet hours.

“He’d say, ‘These kids don’t know how to play the game,’ and the next thing you know, it’s 4 a.m., and we’ve got a day game the next day,” Higgins said with fondness.

But the thing about Skip, Higgins said, was that if you weren’t in your room when he wanted to talk baseball in the quiet hours, there wouldn’t be repercussions. Russ Nixon had only two rules, Higgins said. Show up at the ballpark; be ready to play.

“That was him. There was a lot of freedom. He treated you like an adult and expected you to act like one,” Higgins said.

Russ Nixon was a baseball lifer. He spent 55 years in the game as a player, coach and manager. From the lowest rung on the ladder to the highest, from Keokuk, Iowa, in the Three-I League to manager of the Reds and Braves.

He played 906 games without stealing a base, a major league record.

His lifetime batting average and managerial record were roughly the same. Nixon hit .268 over 12 major league seasons, pretty good for a backup catcher during Whitey Ford’s and Denny McLain’s and Sudden Sam McDowell’s day. He managed .400 over five seasons in the bigs.

He skippered the Big Red Machine, or at least what remained of it, during the early 1980s. Higgins said Nixon was always telling stories about the Machine, which Higgins and some of the Stars’ other elder statesmen enjoyed.

I learned from the back of one of his baseball cards that Nixon also trained Arabian horses. Higgins said it was true, though Higgy thought it was Russ’ wife, Glenda — they were married 62 years — who was mostly into the horses.

“But he had the swagger of a cowboy,” Higgins said.

Russ Nixon also had a granddaughter who was a tennis player at Centennial High. Lindsey Nixon and her doubles partner, Tiffany Howell, were killed in an automobile accident on their way to the regional championships in 2007.

His baseball travels took him all over the country, but, like a lot of us, once he set foot in Las Vegas, he basically never left. When I heard Russ Nixon had died, the first thing I thought about was talkin’ baseball with him, either at the Tap House or the ballpark.

It was for a column I would write about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing Roger Maris’ single-season home run record during the steroid-fueled frenzy that was the 1998 baseball season. Because Nixon and Maris had come up through the Indians’ farm system together, I thought he would be a good source.

He was a great source.

Not only did they come up together, but on Oct. 1, 1961, when Maris hit No. 61 off Tracy Stallard, Nixon was the Red Sox catcher. Black-and-white films show Nixon, No. 22, standing hands on hips as Maris crossed home plate.

Russ said he had two hits in that game, including a triple, but nobody ever asked about that.

Neither did I. I mostly wanted to know what pitch he called — what pitch Roger Maris smacked into the Yankee Stadium bleachers to break Babe Ruth’s record.

“It was a fastball, and it didn’t get to me,” Russ Nixon said.