SHALLOW ROOTS: One home stand at a time

Ever since his professional baseball career started, Joe Thurston has never settled down. Never could. He admits he's "constantly on the move" as a player, so he's shied away from taking root in any town, and that includes Las Vegas.

Thurston, 23, Las Vegas 51s second baseman, moved into a Summerlin apartment a month ago. During his steady climb through the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system, he's lived in places such as San Bernardino, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla. His off-season home is near Sacramento, Calif.

Life on the road is a constant for ballplayers. One of Thurston's teammates, pitcher Rodney Myers, makes his home in Arizona, but neither he, nor his wife, nor his newborn daughter live in it for five months out of the year. Like many 51s players, he makes his summer home in a Summerlin apartment while he awaits his return to the major leagues.

Both Thurston and Myers are accustomed to their gypsy lifestyles. For minor leaguers, forwarding addresses are the norm as each player settles into town. For awhile.

"It's a very transient business," 51s trainer Jason Mahnke said. "Some players are here for a week, and you never see them again. Others are here for the whole season."

In addition to diagnosing injuries, one of Mahnke's assigned tasks is to scout out apartment complexes within the proper price ranges and areas for new 51s players since almost none of them has lived in Las Vegas before.

The trainer and unofficial player housing consultant usually provides four or five options for the 51s, all of them Summerlin-area apartments. Like the players, Mahnke only lives in Las Vegas during the season and Summerlin is one of the few areas with which he has become familiar.

As far as Mahnke's concerned, he's already found the proper environment for the home-away-from-home for his players.

"If I make a recommendation, I have to be somewhat comfortable with the area," he said. "If I'm making a recommendation to a player, and telling them, `Yeah, go ahead, bring your wife and baby,' I don't want to recommend a complex where I'm not 100 percent sure about the surrounding area."

Myers, 33, became a father for the first time a little over a month ago, and needed a place with sufficient family accommodations. Mahnke provided the brochures and words of advice during spring training, and on April 2, a 900-square-foot, one-bedroom Summerlin apartment became the Myers' home for the season.

Since Myers and his wife, Karey, own a 3,000-square-foot, three-bedroom home in Chandler, Ariz., they consider Las Vegas to be just another temporary stop in his professional pitching career, which began in 1990 with the Kansas City Royals, and has brought him to the major league level in both San Diego and Chicago.

But wherever he's gone, Myers' criteria for his living conditions have been relatively simple.

"In triple-A cities, it's location -- everything is about location," he said. "You want to be close to the field, but far enough away from the bad elements. You want to be close to shopping where you can get to Wal-Mart, Kmart, whatever it may be, where you aren't stranded out in the middle of nowhere because it's tough to get around big cities.

"We don't really need a lot of room, and it's pretty much like living out of a hotel: you've got a place to lay your head, you've got a TV, you've got a stove -- you can cook, eat, sleep and get to the field. During the season, I'm hardly ever there. I'm living out of a suitcase half the time, and then my wife is there, but then, sometimes she's going back home."

Myers described it as a "typical tract apartment, ... nothing special." It serves Myers' undemanding needs.

More of a concern for the Dodgers hopeful is what happens when he leaves. The 51s season ends Sept. 1, so Myers, like his teammates, wants to avoid paying rent for a place he no longer requires.

Mahnke said it's "hard" to find places that will work with players on leases, as complexes are "trying to fill units." Often, this can be a real problem. For instance, a 51s player may start the season with the club, but later be traded or released; he is still bound by his lease.

Sometimes, the solution is simple: the incoming player replaces the departed player on the 40-man roster, and Mahnke can insert the new person into the same apartment.

That may not work, however, if the new player's family situation is different. In some cases, there may be no ready solution.

Denise Korach, a 51s front office executive, said players are "completely on their own" as far as their housing commitments are concerned.

Myers, however, said that players can avoid obligations by choosing week-to-week housing.

"For baseball players, the thing is we need to have an `out' in our apartment. Thirty days notice is what we need because we can't sign a six-month lease," he said. "It's easier to go (week-to-week) because you don't have to deal with setting up everything, like the furniture and the electricity, because if you do get called up, released or traded, you don't have to worry about calling people to remove the furniture."

Myers noted a player's finances are also a consideration.

"In triple-A, you've got some guys with big-league time (who have made) a little bit of money, or guys who have made a lot of money who are trying to resurrect their careers," he said. "Then, you've got guys who are coming up to triple-A for the first time -- they're not making it. They're probably making $12,000 for the five-month season. That's not a lot of money, so you end up getting three guys to an apartment."

Thurston began his first triple-A campaign last year after spending three seasons in lower levels of the Dodgers' minor league system. During the off-season, he works at minor league camps in the Sacramento area to supplement his income. When he's in Las Vegas, however, he's found in his own apartment in a "nice" area near Rainbow Boulevard.

Like Myers, Thurston needs only the basics when he's in town.

"I just have a couch, a love seat, a TV, a bed, a dresser, and all my clothes and shoes. I have no pictures -- just my X-Box. If I didn't have my X-Box, I don't know what I'd be doing," Thurston said. "If I wanted to go out and do whatever, it's close enough to the Strip. But it's also far enough from the Strip to where I don't have to worry about traffic or anything like that."

Everywhere his four-year baseball career has taken him, Thurston said all the apartments he's lived in have been set up by the team, and all have been in "nice" areas.

Thurston may be a potential September call-up. The second baseman teed off with a .336 average and led the Pacific Coast League with 196 hits in 136 games played during the 2002 season. He then played eight games with the parent club, and collected six hits in 13 at-bats.

But even if Thurston ends up staying awhile, his eventual housing goals match his career goals.

"I'm with the Vegas team right now, so I really don't worry about the L.A. team," he said. "But then again, you don't want to be comfortable. I don't want to be comfortable here because I do expect to get called up whether it's tomorrow or whether it's Sept. 1. But I don't want to bring in everything I have and sit down in my apartment and think, `OK, well, let me make plans for October/November,' because I don't want to be comfortable here. I want to be comfortable in L.A."

Myers and Thurston both say that Las Vegas is an "enjoyable" home, albeit a temporary one. Thurston said he may purchase a home here "one day," but for now it is a place to play baseball.

One key to living comfortably as a minor leaguer, according to Thurston, is to be ready for constant change.

"Every year is pretty much the same with all ballplayers: you're constantly trying to get to another level," he said. "So you know if that's your goal, you'll be living in a new area the next year. If you move up to the next level, then you'll be ready for the apartment changes and the different areas, just all kinds of differences that come with moving. It's one of those things where we're used to it."

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