Nepotism Only Goes So Far

Just how bad have the Brewers been this year? So bad that the team president and closet Brewers owner Bud Selig's daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb, has been relieved of her key to the executive wash room. GM Dean Taylor will also turn in his wings in the housecleaning. Taylor reportedly will be replaced by former Rangers GM Doug Melvin. Selig-Prieb will remain with the club in some other capacity, that is, she gets to keep the second half of her former title, team president and Bud Selig's daughter.

Ulice Payne, the managing partner of the Milwaukee law office of Foley & Lardner, will take over as president. Evidently Payne worked on a Milwaukee committee that helped the Brew Crew get a new stadium. So now it's payback time. By the way, Payne is an African-American, something that is not mentioned in the article but is apparent from his picture. He will be the first African-American to run a major-league ballclub that I'm aware of. I have to applaud Selig for making that move. Baseball still takes its lumps, deservedly, for minority hiring. Bud is putting someone who happens to be in a minority group in control of a club. I would be the first person in line to criticize Bud Selig. Hell, I would I would get back in line for seconds, but I have to pay him his props here.

And yes, by the way, Selig still does run the club and will while Payne is the president, but it's still an important move.

Melvin was the GM in texas from 1994 to 2001. Every division title that the Ranger franchise has ever won was while Melvin was the GM. They also fell to last for his last two years. Melvin worked for the president, George W. Bush, if you didn't know, when he was the Texas owner. Melvin's first trade was Jose Canseco for Otis Nixon and Luis Ortiz. Canseco went on to play 7 more years (2 in Boston) and hit 186 more home runs (52 in Boston). Nixon lasted one year in Texas before free agency beckoned, and Ortiz had only 45 at-bast left in his Texas, and major-league, career. Melvin did improve however. He was the major league executive of the year in 1996. He rebuilt the depleted Ranger minor leagues. But when the now-austere Tom Hicks took over the team, he wanted to make a splash and spent money freely, thinking it would make the team winners. When the opposite occurred, Melvin took the fall. The Brewers could have done worse.