Brewers Gain a National Following

In their new training complex here, the Milwaukee Brewers are preparing to play in a new division and new league. As the cover of the Brewer media guide says, “We’re Taking This Thing National.”

Translation: The Brewers are moving from the American League Central to the National League Central--the first team to switch leagues since 1891 and the possible forerunner of a larger realignment in 1999.

It’s not entirely out with the old and in with the new, however, because Milwaukee was a National League city originally, home of the Braves from 1953-1965.

Given the enthusiastic fan response to the realignment, those NL roots seem to run deep. And combined with the new complex here and the new retractable-roof stadium being built beyond the center-field fence at County Stadium, “We all sense a new energy and excitement,” Manager Phil Garner said. “It’s like the good times are coming back.” The fans certainly are.

The 1993 record of 8,994 season tickets appears certain to fall. The sale of individual game tickets has tripled.

A combination of the ticket income, anticipated revenue from Miller Park (scheduled to open in 2000) and the revenue-sharing largess from larger colleagues--the Brewers received $4 million in 1997 and are expected to get about $6 million this year--influenced Bud Selig and his ownership group to build on the enthusiasm by taking the payroll from the $20 million of the last few years to almost $35 million.

The big hit was the trade with the Cleveland Indians in which Milwaukee absorbed the $20 million that Marquis Grissom has remaining on his contract. The Brewers also joined the spreading industry pattern of signing their best young players to multiyear contracts. Eight Brewers are signed through 2000.

“The final ingredient in all of this is to go out and win some baseball games,” Garner said.

Can they?

“Something is wrong if we don’t,” he said. “For the first time since I came here in ‘92, our starting nine is set. We have a very competitive club.”

Competitive?

“You never know what’s going to happen that last month, but we should be in the hunt,” Garner said. “If a couple other teams go out and add a couple big-name players [down the stretch] and we can’t do that, then I think we’ve done a real good job staying in it, and that means being within a game or two of having a chance to win.

“I mean, if the [Chicago] Cubs have a chance to win, the Tribune Co. can grease up the [financial] printing press and go get another player or two, but our ownership may have tapped out just getting us to where we are now.”

The Brewers have been undermanned, underfinanced and racked by injuries the last few years, and Garner has done a remarkable job of keeping them competitive. He has shown the adaptive tenacity that earned him the nickname Scrap Iron as a player and once, when they were Dodger teammates, prompted him to exchange punches with Mike Marshall, believing the first baseman was malingering.

“I’m not begging for mercy, but we need some good fortune,” Garner said of the injuries that have hit early and often in his tenure.

The Brewers were third in the AL Central last year, eight games behind the Indians at 78-83 and 8-7 in interleague games against their new colleagues in the NL Central.

However, Garner said he had not seen enough to make any judgments on comparative styles or strengths, but that he does think the Brewers may be on a more equal financial playing field in the NL Central than in the AL Central, in which Cleveland (and the Chicago White Sox if they choose, he said) could blow rivals away financially.

Most forecasts put the Brewers third or fourth, behind the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros and, in some cases, the Cubs.

But injury free, Garner said, his team should present a balanced attack, featuring the catalytic Grissom and emerging power of Jeromy Burnitz, John Jaha, Dave Nilsson, Jeff Cirillo, Marc Newfield and Jose Valentin.

“We won’t lead in home runs, but we have some guys who can hit them,” Garner said. “We won’t lead in stolen bases, but we have some guys who can run, some guys who can put the ball in play, meaning we can hit and run.”

Maybe. The Brewers were 11th in the AL in batting and 13th in slugging, on-base percentage, runs and home runs.

But injuries were a factor, and the key issue in 1998 may involve the depth of the pitching in a league more pitching oriented than the AL.

The Brewers gave up valuable relievers Mike Fetters and Ron Villone in the Grissom deal, are plugging nomadic Jeff Juden into a rotation devoid of any starter with more than 13 major league wins last year and have to hope 40-year-old Doug Jones, who saved 36 games, can author another miracle.

The Brewers also have to adjust to new fields, new opponents and new umpires in ‘98, and Garner worries about paralysis by analysis.

How and how much scouting and computer data to feed his players?

“We’re breaking new ground here,” he said. “This hasn’t been done in this century.”

Garner smiled, saying he thought it was bunk when fans told him that Milwaukee was really a National League city. He believed it was an excuse for not consistently supporting American League ball.

Then he did a little research, he said, and learned about the 13 consecutive winning seasons that the Braves produced in Milwaukee, the World Series visits of 1957 and ‘58, the golden names of Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Henry Aaron and others, the then-National League record of 2.2-million attendance in 1957, and he concluded that Milwaukee and the NL were a match.

“I’m excited because the fans are excited,” he said. “It’s all over the papers and talk shows, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is.”

The question is: Will it last? The Braves never drew more than 910,911 in their last four years in Milwaukee. By then, however, rumors of a move to Atlanta were rampant, and the team spent its last season in town only because it was court-ordered to do so. That left the American League Seattle Pilots five years later to restore baseball in a city--like most others--in which the key initials aren’t AL or NL. They’re Ws and Ls.

LOPES’ HOPES

Intelligent, a true leader when he played, Davey Lopes says he has forsaken his major league managerial aspirations, having tired of the frustrating interview process and trying to analyze why he can’t get a job.

His latest rejections came last winter from the White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

“They’re not looking for what they perceive me to be,” the San Diego Padre coach and former Dodger second baseman said. “I’m astounded how some of the people who get these jobs suddenly have characteristics they never had as fringe players who were never leaders.

“I mean, I can only assume they interview well. Is that what it’s all about? I know how to work within a system and can be a successful manager, but I’m not sure anything I say or do will be good enough. I’ve taken so many hits that I’m kind of like a punch-drunk fighter, but I’m not envious of anyone who has been hired, and I don’t hold grudges.

“I still have a passion for the game, but I no longer expect to manage in the big leagues.”

BELLE VIEW

The White Sox were last in the American League in defense last year, but new Manager Jerry Manuel, seeking to improve the offense, is hoping to use Ruben Sierra as designated hitter and return defensively suspect Frank Thomas to first base.

This prompted the noted Tarnished Glove, Albert Belle, he of the 10 errors and one assist in left field last year, to chuckle during an interview the other day and say, “It’s a good thing Frank is big. He has a chance, at least, to knock the ball down.”

THE HALL VOTE

Larry Doby broke the American League color barrier only 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson had broken the major league barrier. As player and pioneer, Doby’s Hall-of-Fame election by the veteran’s committee was richly deserved.

The election of Lee MacPhail, the longtime major league executive and former AL president, may not have gotten as much attention but sets up the intriguing possibility of a three-generation family in the Hall. MacPhail’s late father, Larry, a longtime executive, already has been inducted. Lee’s son, Andy, was general manager of the Minnesota Twins when they won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 and is now president of the Cubs.

“Maybe if Andy can get the Cubs to the World Series, he’ll be elected too,” Lee MacPhail said.

No doubt about it. If the Cubs break what is now a 90-year Series drought, MacPhail’s election probably should be instantaneous.