Canseco's debut in Reno is cut short

RENO - The largest crowd in Peccole Park history - 3,041 - showed up for the first-ever Nevada appearance of Jose Canseco, who joined the Golden Baseball League in early July.

The sellout crowd went home disappointed, and not only because of Canseco's so-so performance. Canseco went 0-for-1 with a walk and he was thrown out at home trying to score in the fourth inning on a ball that rolled to the backstop.

Mother Nature was the real culprit. Twice the lights went out because of heavy lightning strikes, which peppered the Reno-Sparks area. After approximately a 45-minute delay, the game was suspended with one out in the top of the fifth and Reno holding a 3-2 lead over the Long Beach Armada.

The game will continue today at 4:30 p.m. After the teams finish the suspended game, they will take a 20-minute break and then play the regularly scheduled game, which will be a seven-inning affair.

Dwight Dortch, the Silver Sox general manager, said that fans can redeem their Friday tickets for any other home game the rest of the season providing there are tickets available. Gates will open at 3:30 p.m. today.

Sox manager Les Lancaster said Mike McTamney, who was acquired from Fullerton recently, would probably start the suspended contest. Chris Marini will oppose ex-Major Leaguer Bud Smith in the seven-inning game.

It was a tough break for the Sox (1-2, 26-17), who were two outs from getting in a regulation game when the lights went out the first time.

Reno jumped to an early 2-0 lead when lead-off hitter Rich Giannotti walked and stole second. C.J. Lang singled up the middle to score Giannotti. Lang moved to second on an errant throw, to third on a balk and scored on James Shanks' sacrifice fly to right.

The Silver Sox made it 3-0 in the second when Mike Done doubled to right-center field and moved to third on a balk. Phil Grau walked. Grau broke for second, and the throw was cut off by shortstop Jeremy Hernandez, whose throw home to retire Done sailed over the head of catcher Cole Cicatelli.

Long Beach trimmed the lead to 3-2, scoring once in the third on Randall Shelley's run-scoring double and once in the fourth on Ryan Stevenson's two-out run-scoring single.

Two baserunning gaffes, one each by Canseco and Cicatelli helped the Sox get out of the fourth relatively unscathed.

Canseco was thrown out trying to score when ball four to Cicatelli sailed by catcher Marcus Jensen, who tracked the ball down and flipped to pitcher James Johnson covering for the second out of the inning. After Stevenson singled home Hernandez, Ryan Webb followed with an infield single. Cicatelli strayed too far around third and was gunned down by an alert Johnson to end the inning.

Shelley walked with one out in the fifth, and Johnson was ahead 1-2 on Jeff LaRue when the lights went out.

The bulk of the crowd left after the first 10 or 15 minutes of the delay. Some of the batboys went out and started sliding on the field and on the tarp that covered the pitching mound.

That brought back some fun memories for Lancaster, who did the same thing back when he pitched for the Cubs.

It was August 8, 1988, and the first night game in Wrigley Field history. The rain came and Lancaster, Al Knipper, Jody Davis and Greg Maddux decided to test their sliding ability in the inclimate weather, a la Rick Dempsey.

"It (the tarp) was on," Lancaster. "It was Jody Davis' idea. It was pouring. I was worried because (manager Jim) Frey had some fan arrested who came out on the field and slid in the dirt."

Boys will be boys.

Notes: Canseco left via police escort and refused to talk with the media. He was scheduled to meet with the media Friday at 3:40, but his plane arrived late from Southern California ... Lancaster said he has yet to find a third baseman to replace Edgar Varela. He is hopeful he might find a player when the Mexican League ends in a few weeks. Varela went 0-for-3 in his first game with the Jupiter Hammerheads.