By Ron Kantowski

Sat, Nov 15, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Who’s headed toward the penthouse on the local sports scene — and who’s getting the shaft.

GOING UP

Homegrown talent

Fifty-three former Las Vegas 51s appeared in the major leagues during the 2008 season, including household names such as Derrek Lee, Eric Gagne, Chad Billingsley and Shane Victorino. On the other hand, I’m going to take folks in the 51s’ public relations department at their word that Yhency Brazoban pitched for the 51s and the Dodgers, because they’ve never lied to me before.

Box-office Bonanza

A year or so ago I made a joke that Bonanza High hasn’t been good in sports since Hoss and Little Joe graduated, and one of the coaches wrote me a nasty letter. Though the Bengals won’t win the state football championship this year, they made the playoffs with a 6-4 record. It’s nice to see one of the Original Ten (high schools that were here when I got to town) doing well again.

Car wars

When they stopped counting, a record field of more than 200 cars was making laps at the 11th annual Duel in the Desert IMCA Modified extravaganza at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which runs through tonight. Though I’m not sure what kind of fuel mileage an IMCA Modified gets, perhaps General Motors should start rolling them off the assembly line.

GOING DOWN

Distant replays

UNLV women’s soccer player Alicia Lugo has been issued a public reprimand for comments critical of game officials following the Rebels’ match against New Mexico. The remarks appeared on The Mtn. as part of an interview that first aired Nov. 6 — which means nobody probably heard her. So the red card from the Mountain West home office in Colorado Springs probably wasn’t necessary.

Wake me up when he retires

Yahoo.com blogger Jay Busbee has added Greg Maddux to his Most Boring Sports Champions Club, saying he has the personality of a Des Moines accounting firm. Wrote Busbee: “Maddux’s nickname is “Mad Dog,” the obvious irony being he’s about as ferocious as a hound dog asleep on a porch. He’ll strike your butt out, but you just might doze through it.” But I’ll still take him over Jose Canseco and a joy buzzer.

Veiled “Seinfeld” references

Longtime Las Vegan Freddie Roach, who used to train Oscar De La Hoya but now trains Manny Pacquiao, the guy in the other corner in the Dec. 6 megafight at the MGM Grand, had a lot of harsh things to say about his former boss, including this: “You show Manny something once he picks it up quickly. Oscar’s not that type of guy. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.” Then he predicted that Pacquiao would hit De La Hoya upside the head with a Festivus pole.