LAS VEGAS, NV—Forgive me, my hulking legion of Sportstrottermaniacs (all three of you), for today’s in-and-out column. Two reasons: yesterday was my last day at the job I’ve held for the past year and a half, as an editor at an architecture and design magazine in Toronto — and it turns out leaving a job is a lot of work. Um, hello, boss, the whole reason I’m having a last day is that I don’t want to work anymore!

The other reason: last night I hopped a plane to Las Vegas for my college buddies’ annual reunion. Several of my close friends were varsity wrestlers when we attended college together, and every year the team’s alumni travel to cheer on current students competing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational. Those of us who love fun — but whose idea of fun rarely involves scrambling around on a mat in a singlet, grabbing at another man’s thighs — tag along for the ride. We’ve been making the trip for a few years now, and as my friend Max says, “I start getting excited about next year’s trip the day after I get back from Vegas.”

To be honest, I have never actually joined my friends in watching any of these tournament matches, which are taking place this year at the Las Vegas Convention Center, just down the street from the Las Vegas Hilton (home of Star Trek: The Experience and Barry Manilow’s mind-blowing “Music And Passion�). But my new mission to chronicle strange sports in far-flung places requires that I at least check out the wrestling final on Saturday. (And we’ll see if the final coincides with what I’m anticipating will be a hot streak at the $2 craps table at Slots-O-Fun.)

For a sports fan, of course, the best part about a trip to Vegas is the Vegas sports book. Every casino has one, but some are bigger and better than others. I’m a devotee of the LV Hilton’s book, ever since Barry Manilow and I executed an elaborate, 13-minute-long series of chest bumps to celebrate Troy University’s football Trojans covering a 17.5-point spread against the University of Louisiana-Monroe. True story.

The best sports books are essentially Disney World for betting junkies, a cavernous hall filled with hundreds of cushy seats stocked with degenerate gamblers and college kids, and “the wall� — a 30,000 square feet montage of some thirty TV screens, each showing a sporting event you can legally bet on.

So, keep your fingers crossed for the Sportstrotter this weekend and tune in Tuesday for a full report featuring heartbreaking tales of back-breaking losses on Sunday NFL bets, and maybe a few tales of swarthy men in singlets. If you’re lucky.

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Posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 2:45 pm. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.