As a lifelong Milwaukee Brewers fan, I’ve been a lot of things: humbled, embarrassed, humiliated, saddened. There’s one thing, however, that I have never been, and that’s betrayed. That is, until this week. When news broke of the tight-fisted board of directors’ plan to cut the team’s payroll to $30 million, the team delivered a collective sucker punch to every fan who has stuck by the lousiest franchise in professional baseball, and every resident who ponied up the dough for Miller Park.
This is a team that has not put together a winning season since 1992, a team that has not been to the playoffs since 1982, a team that only a true baseball fan could support.
As the 2002 season — the second worst in team history — drew to a close, the Brewers cleaned house. Dean Taylor was ousted as general manager, replaced by Doug Melvin, and Wendy Selig-Prieb took a back seat to new president Ulice Payne. Together Melvin, Payne, and new manager Ned Yost were to lead a turnaround. Even though the team was hopelessly under talented, what Payne did turnaround was the attitude and perception of the Milwaukee Brewers. With a hustling team on the field led by Yost, Payne talked the talk and walked the walk off the field.
The only time I have seen Payne in person was at last year’s Jim Rome Tour Stop. Now, for a team that has been as bad as the Brewers, the Rome audience was not the most receptive crowd around. Ulice knew he was going to get booed, yet he manned up and came anyway. By the time he was done talking, many people including myself had a whole new respect for the former Marquette basketball player. As many have said, Payne was overqualified to be the President and CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers. The guy should be mayor. He was blazing trails, becoming the first African American President in Major League Baseball history. That’s right, he was, as in past tense.
Ulice Payne’s short tenure leading the Brewers appears to be over, after the board of directors, chaired by Wendy Selig-Prieb, went behind his back and decided to lower the payroll without consulting him. He should quit. He came to the Brewers to win; something Wendy and the board obviously care little about. They ambushed him, and they ambushed the state of Wisconsin. To quote the great Lou Brown from Major League, “I’m tired of this nickel and dime sh-t!” Everyone who has seen that modern marvel of a movie knows what line comes next, and can draw their own conclusion as to what Ned Yost should say to the chair of the board.
Now I know that baseball economics handcuff Milwaukee and other small markets, and I have accepted that. I’ve lived with trades of Gary Sheffield, Greg Vaughn, Jeff Cirillo and others. But, what the board of directors is proposing for 2004 goes far beyond anything this team has done in the past, and it is sickening. This is not about trading a player who was going to leave as a free agent. This is trading players just to be cheap, pure and simple.
At some point in time, this franchise must show a commitment to winning. That is what sports are all about. The sole purpose of maintaining a professional baseball team is to be competitive, period. It’s not about being thrifty, or about clever marketing, or most of all about making money. If you operate a baseball franchise for the sole purpose of making money, you are in the wrong line of work. If that’s what Selig-Prieb wants to do, fine, go ahead, but don’t try it with the Brewers. Go start a dot-com company, go have a garage sale. I don’t really care, but get out of Milwaukee. For anyone on that board to even try and convince their fan base that they are committed to winning is ludicrous.
This franchise will not compete until it fully commits itself to the product on the field. Imagine a factory owner who thought they could profit without modern equipment. The same holds true for baseball; winning requires quality players, and in the current baseball economy, good players will cost money from time to time.
When Miller Park was built, it was with the understanding that a new stadium would allow the Brewers to compete economically. That has been anything but the case. If Wendy planned on being Ebenezer Scrooge, why even bother with a new park? They could have stayed in County Stadium and stunk up the joint, nice and cheap. Attention Prince Fielder, J.J Hardy, Rickie Weeks and Brad Nelson: you are apparently this team’s only hope. No pressure.
By lowering the budget, the organization has effectively erased every bit of good will that Payne and Yost built up with the fan base over the past year. For many fans, this is the last straw.
The small band of loyal Brewer supporters have stuck by the team through thick and thin, mostly thin. It’s nice to see that their favorite ball club has no qualms about stabbing them in the back.
