Friday, May 20, 2005 | 10:34 a.m.
For the past month, Don Logan, the president and general manager of the Las Vegas 51s, has been inhaling a nasal spray twice daily to combat allergies and to assist breathing.
"Two squirts in the morning, two in the afternoon," Logan said.
He has a deviated septum, courtesy of another basketball player's skull clocking Logan in his nose during his high school days in Tonopah, and Logan said his inhaler provides him with invaluable relief.
If he were a professional baseball player, the ingredients of that inhaler would also earn Logan a suspension from Major League Baseball.
"Could I pass the drug test?" Logan said he asked Dr. Mike Gunter, a general practice physician on the 51s' medical staff, of MLB's drug policy. "He said, 'Probably not.' "
That was a timely anecdote, as Logan and 51s manager Jerry Royster prepared Thursday night for imminent notification from MLB officials that at least two Las Vegas players will be suspended for violating baseball's substance abuse policy.
Logan, in his Cashman Field office, declined to reveal the names of 51s players who will be suspended.
By this morning, MLB had not announced those suspensions.
Royster said he expects an announcement later today and that he first heard about the violations from an executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the parent club of the Triple-A 51s, on Wednesday afternoon.
Royster also said he has not been told, by a league or team official, who will be suspended.
"People have better information than I do," Royster said Thursday in his clubhouse office. "I think people have jumped the gun here. It's not good to do that. I can tell you that I've heard that it's two players, I've heard it's three and I've heard it's four of our players.
"I've heard none of that from Major League Baseball."
Terry Collins, the Dodgers' minor league director, told the Sun on Thursday morning that he believed over-the-counter substances were involved in positive test results for two 51s players.
"There's no doubt in my mind this was guys taking a supplement they bought at the nearest drugstore," Collins said, "and had no idea that this was going to cost them."
Logan said he senses that MLB has been announcing its suspensions in waves, after visiting and analyzing drug tests from three or four teams, then three or four more teams, etc.
Late last week, MLB suspended 15 minor league players for violating baseball's drug policy.
"Players just have to understand that there's a new way of going about things and they'll have to make some adjustments," Logan said. "It's good for the game. We have to have no doubt about the credibility of the game and what's going on out on the field."
All Royster was certain of, he said, was that the imminent suspensions involve more than one of his players. He acknowledged that those violations will embarrass the franchise.
"Anytime you're associated with suspensions because of drugs, yes, I think it is (an embarrassment). I think it's bad," Royster said. "You don't want that to happen. You'd like to say, 'Our organization doesn't have it.'
"(But), if and when suspensions come down, it won't be the first one."
Last spring, MLB revised its anti-drug policy. First-time offenders receive 10-day suspensions, a second violation results in a 30-day suspension and a third offense calls for a suspension of 60 days.
The minor league policy calls for a 15-game suspension for first-time offenders who are not on a club's 40-man roster. Only six 51s players are on the Dodgers' 40-man roster.
Jon Weber was the first Dodgers player to be suspended for using banned substances. He tested positive last season, when he pitched for the Sacramento River Cats, but those results weren't completed until April.
Royster said he will dig, when the 51s' suspensions are announced, to find out as many details as possible.
"Was it knowingly?" Royster said. "What was it? How was it? I know, for me, personally, steroids ... that's tough. That's something I don't want to be associated with."
It would make a difference, he said, if something like an over-the-counter nasal inhaler, like the one Logan depends so much on these days, were involved.
"The only reason I say that is because it's already happened," Royster said. "Guys have been suspended for something other than what I consider injections with a syringe, sitting in some dark, shady place. There's a difference.
"I mean, there's a difference."
Still, with Congress and public opinion hammering away in recent months at baseball and a drug policy long considered soft, Royster said he knows rules will be enforced.
"So we'll certainly go along with it," he said. "But I'd feel a lot better about it if it's something of that (nasal inhaler) nature. I'd like to know, not that I ever will. They don't owe me anything.
"But I'd like to know for me. To me, it's important. It's a credibility thing. I have a respect for these kids that I would like to keep. If I have someone who's injecting himself (with a syringe) in the bathroom, I want to know."
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