Mr. McGlue signs off (finally) at Midnight Circus

It was going on 3 a.m. today, and Kevin McGlue, the play-by-play announcer for the Colorado Eagles, was in a station break after the Wranglers beat the guys he travels with 3-0 in the annual Midnight Circus hockey game at Orleans Arena.

Because it was going on 3 a.m., I had to resist the temptation to say “Oh, McGlue, you’ve done it again!”

That’s what Mr. Magoo used to say in those old cartoons, but Kevin McGlue’s spectacles were nowhere as thick as Quincy Magoo’s. Plus, I couldn’t tell him that he had done it again, because Kevin McGlue said this was the first time he had called a hockey game that had begun at midnight, or 11:59 p.m., if you’re scoring at home.

Or 12:59 a.m., if you were scoring at home — or even listening to a minor league hockey game — in Colorado.

They were listening at home, too, even at that rude hour, Kevin McGlue said. He started to turn his laptop around to show me the emails.

Then he yawned.

During the first period, I spotted Billy Johnson, the Wranglers president, on the concourse. He took out his cellphone to show me what the team’s new digs at the Plaza Hotel downtown are going to look like. Before he could get to it, a photo of his slot car track popped up.

I told him I was happy he had put together the deal, and that he and the Wranglers would be staying around. Because sports in Las Vegas is a little more interesting when Billy Johnson is a part of it.