51s’ Logan among five inductees for local sports Hall
Don Logan has been "Mr. Baseball" in Southern Nevada for two decades. He will be rewarded today for his impact on the sport as one of five inductees in the 2011 class for the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.
"When you do something for as long as I have, you run into things like this," Logan joked. "Really, it's humbling. You do what you do because you love it; it's not work."
Logan, executive director of the Triple-A 51s, will be joined in the class by NFL running back Steven Jackson, Olympic medal-winning gymnast Tasha Schwikert, Lied Foundation trustee Christina Hixson and the undefeated 1944 Las Vegas High football team that held its eight opponents scoreless.
The class will be introduced at 11:30 a.m. today at the Findlay Automotive Store in the Galleria at Sunset mall. The enshrinement ceremony is June 10 at Orleans Arena.
Logan, 52, was recognized as the Pacific Coast League's top executive in 1991 and 1997.
He helped create Big League Weekend 21 years ago. The latest installment of the event drew 20,098 fans to Cashman Field on Saturday and Sunday for two major league exhibition games.
Logan called Big League Weekend one of his greatest accomplishments but said Rossi Ralenkotter, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, also deserves credit for the event.
Logan, a Tonopah native, started with the Las Vegas minor league team as an account executive in 1994 and seven years later became general manager. He was named team president in 2000, a position he held until moving into a new role with the club in January.
Logan's responsibilities include fan and sponsor relations, working with the parent club Toronto Blue Jays and trying to find an investor group to buy the 51s.
Logan also remains steadfast in his campaign to find funding for the construction of a new ballpark in Las Vegas.
"We have great fans and they deserve a state-of-the-art stadium. I told someone the other day that before I'm done that's what I want to see."
