Dodgers Name Blaney to Head Minor Clubs

The Dodgers’ front-office realignment was completed Thursday night when the club announced that longtime employee Charlie Blaney has replaced retiring Bill Schweppe as vice president for minor league operations.

Blaney, 49, worked the last 13 years as director of the Dodgers’ spring training facility in Vero Beach, Fla. Special assignment scout Guy Wellman, 65, will assist Blaney as a “field coordinator,” which club owner Peter O’Malley said is a newly created position.

Schweppe, 71, announced his retirement--effective at season’s end--in spring training. O’Malley said he interviewed “many people,” including minority candidates, but he said he preferred to hire the most qualified applicant from within the organization. Blaney’s replacement as Dodgertown director is Terry Reynolds, the general manager of the club’s Class A team in Vero Beach.

The Dodgers’ minor league system, once considered the best in baseball, has been widely criticized the last two seasons for not developing major league talent. The club’s Triple-A team in Albuquerque, N.M., however, won the Pacific Coast League title this season.

O’Malley said he does not plan to fire 64-year-old scouting director Ben Wade, who also has been criticized for poor drafting and trades.

O’Malley, who has vowed to increase affirmative-action hirings in the wake of Al Campanis’ firing as vice president in April for remarks that were interpreted as racial slurs, said former Dodger John Roseboro, a black, was a candidate for the minor league director’s job. Roseboro currently is managing one of the Dodgers’ two teams in the Arizona Instructional League.

“I’ve said on affirmative action that we’ll seek and search for top minorities in all positions,” O’Malley said. “That procedure was carried out in the hiring of this position and other positions.”