Andy Roddick finally hits Las Vegas — but not for Tennis Channel Open

Blame it on naivete. When the Darling Center opened in 2005, I was expecting Andy Roddick and the Williams sisters and the other tennis icons of the time. I was expecting something along the lines of the Alan King Classic, played at Caesars Palace from 1972 through 1985, won four times by Jimmy Connors, and twice by Bjorn Borg, and once by Ivan Lendl, Rod Laver and John Newcombe.

At least we almost got Andy Roddick.

He had committed to play in the short-lived Tennis Channel Open, but if memory serves, he pulled out at the last minute, claiming an injury. People who bought tickets ahead of time and Mayor Oscar Goodman were not pleased.

I seem to recall the mayor disparaging Roddick for not showing up when he presented the trophy to James Blake or Lleyton Hewitt or somebody like that.

Andy Roddick is now retired; he was one of the tennis icons who helped raise more than $600,000 for Elton John’s AIDS Foundation during Monday’s WTT Smash Hits exhibition at Caesars. Good on him and Martina and the rest.

During a brief chit-chat with reporters beforehand, Sir Elton made Roddick the foil of a tawdry joke — we’ll just call it locker room talk and leave it at that — but there wasn’t much time for questions. Nobody asked Roddick or Martina Navratilova or even Mardy Fish about the hasty demise of the Tennis Channel Open here.

Nobody asked Mardy Fish anything, in fact.

But because Robin Leach was allowed only one question this year, somebody did ask John McEnroe about having played in the Alan King.

“He probably won everything,” Smash Hits co-host and honorary captain Billie Jean King interjected.

“No, I didn’t do that well,” said McEnroe, who never won in singles here but teamed with Peter Fleming to win the doubles in 1981. “I was too busy losing money at the tables.

“There were some bad characters in the ’70s that played, who were influencing me in a subpar way. And they recommended, oddly, that I hit the casinos — in those days, the prize money wasn’t that great.

“So it was actually not the worst thing for me that the Alan King Classic at Caesars Palace, one of the great events of the ’70s, moved on.”

ELTON’S A GOOD SPORT

Elton John began his remarks at the chit-chat by saying he is a huge sports fan, which wasn’t just rhetoric.

He has been friends with Billie Jean King forever — his smash hit “Philadelphia Freedom” was inspired by her; last year he did the podium interviews at the Formula One race in Austin, Texas; he’s a longtime supporter of Watford Football Club in his native England and has owned the club twice. In 1994, when the Sir Elton John Stand at Watford’s Vicarage Road was dedicated, he called it one of the great days of his life.

He also made it clear he’s a big fan of Las Vegas, where he plays his Million Dollar Piano in residency at Caesars Palace.

“Everyone says when you’re dead you go to play Vegas. But that’s nonsense, because all the greatest stars have always come here to perform in their prime,” said Sir Elton, who was wearing a black jogging suit and an Ace bandage around his knee and said he was still in his prime.

“There are so many great venues in this city. Night after night after night. Wonderful shows to see. I love it. And this Colosseum here, and working with Caesars … I don’t do this show anywhere else in the world. I just do it in Vegas. Because when you come to Vegas, you have to step up to the plate.”

Although he used a baseball analogy, there was no mention of the sequined Dodgers uniform he wore for sold-out shows at Dodger Stadium during the Steve Garvey-Don Sutton days. But a lot of baseball people might not be aware that when Chipper Jones retired, Sir Elton John sent him a poignant note of congratulations.

“The Braves without Chipper is like Lennon minus McCartney, Rogers without Hammerstein,” it began.

BULL DURHAM REDUX

You’ve heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which posits that just about everybody in Hollywood can be linked to the actor within six degrees of separation?

Maybe there’s a baseball version of that having to do with Brian Snitker, who on Tuesday was named full-time manager of the Atlanta Braves.

I once had interviewed Snitker when he was manager of the Durham Bulls, and Duane Ward, the former Blue Jays relief ace, was one of his starting pitchers — I had covered Ward when he threw high school heat in the New Mexico quadrant of the Four Corners.

Chris Powell, president and general manager of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, covered the Durham team when he was a young sports writer and Snitker was manager and Ward was the Opening Night starter, 1983. Powell remembers Ward getting lit up for a grand slam, and then hitting two Peninsula Pilots with pitches, and other Pilots clearing the bench posthaste and making a beeline for Ward.

“The Peninsula Pilots took off running for him … and he took off running in the other direction,” Powell said.

Ward, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the American League Division Series, wound up making his offseason home in Las Vegas, which probably had nothing to do with Snitker. Although one never knows.

LOW VOTER TURNOUT

Two traditions of the baseball postseason is to guess the color of Pete Rose’s hair and what minor league teams will be changing their name to generate souvenir sales.

A baseball pal forwarded an email about recent rebrandings that didn’t stick for whatever reason — Omaha Golden Spikes, Queens Kings, Casper Ghosts, Connecticut Defenders, Swing of the Quad Cities, Battle Creek Golden Kazoos, Shreveport Swamp Dragons.

Many of these teams folded, relocated or adopted a nickname with “River” as a prefix.

The story said the New Haven Ravens of the Eastern League changed their name to the New Hampshire Primaries when they moved to Manchester.

The logo featured both sides of the aisle: A Democratic donkey and a Republican elephant.

Fans hated the name. Even registered independents.

There was a filibuster, and nary a chad was left hanging when the New Hampshire Primaries became the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

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The polls are open! Vote in the #FirstInTheNation NH Primary now. #WeTheFans2016 #FisherCats https://t.co/93L3KkcCNn pic.twitter.com/vrbFwyuubx

— NH Fisher Cats (@FisherCats) November 10, 2015

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