My first rodeo ... literally

OK, so we're taking a break from the football talk because you certainly don't want to read my ramblings on a topic about which I apparently know so little (1-3-1 on the parlay this week).

Last night, I had another one of those "only in Vegas" moments. My beloved wife scored us front-row seats at the National Finals Rodeo, an annual 10-day event that brings in more money to Las Vegas than even the adult video awards -- seriously! I wrote all about it in this month's Las Vegas Life magazine (and yes, check out that belt buckle -- that is my name at the bottom of the oval -- kudos to the LVL art department). And since I've been writing about it, I figured I'd better go see what it's all about.

The front-row seats made the experience even better than I could have imagined. We were close enough to be peppered with clods of dirt as the horses raced past us, if you can imagine that. In fact, the rodeo was televised on ESPN2 last night and I'm guessing we were probably on TV at some point.

But the highlight came 10 minutes after we settled into our seats, when another party of four came down to join us. And for the next three hours, just two seats down from my wife was none other than Mr. Wayne Newton. We're not exactly the star-struck types, but my mother-in-law did get a photo of Mr. Las Vegas. And I thought he might get hounded by autograph seekers but the rodeo crowd played it pretty cool.

That was the highlight. The lowlight? Well, people who know me know I despised the Twins' in-game production crew for foisting Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." on us at the 7th-inning stretch for no apparent reason than to pander to the faux-patriotism crowd in post-9/11 America. And I should have been suspicious last night when representatives from our local Air Force base were handing out little American flags as we entered the building.

Sure enough, we were treated to "God Bless the U.S.A." before the national anthem, live and in person by Lee Greenwood himself. The crowd went nuts. Flags were waving. Whatever. I truly enjoyed the anthem itself, sung by another airman from Nellis AFB, and we had numerous opportunities to applaud for our boys and girls in the military as it seemed they were introduced during every break in the action. That was all very cool. I guess I'm just jaded by Lee Greenwood, because all I could do during that song was shake my head and remember the nights in the Metrodome press box when that song would send me, Brad Zellar and a few other regulars into fits of eye-rolling.

(Seriously, not to digress too much, but would it have been too hard to mix in Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" or even some Mellencamp, something less brazenly right-wing? I don't ask for much ...)

As for the rodeo itself, it was very entertaining. I enjoyed the speed of the barrel racing, the power of the bulls, the agility of the ropers, and the tenacity of the bronco riders who hung onto those bucking steeds for eight seconds like their life depended on it.

So, the rodeo joins a list with Celine Dion and NASCAR as events I never would have seen had I not moved to Vegas, as well as events I probably wouldn't pay to attend again but I enjoyed seeing anyway. Actually, I could see myself paying to go back to the rodeo, except the tickets are sold out a year in advance.