Brewers Seem Glad to Reach the Firing Line

When Wendy Selig-Prieb assumed control of the Brewers after her father, Bud Selig, became permanent commissioner, there was speculation in Milwaukee that she wouldn’t be tough enough to fire prominent employees.

After canning General Manager Sal Bando and Manager Phil Garner on Thursday, Selig-Prieb must have thought, “What’s so hard about this?”

Bando practically asked to be fired. When he and Selig-Prieb agreed to dismiss Garner, Bando said he told her, “It was time to make a change with Phil and myself. . . . It’s something she obviously had been thinking about, because she understood how we were linked together.”

Garner, who usually got the most out of his low-budget teams, seemed relaxed and almost relieved as he met with reporters, wearing blue jeans, hiking boots and a Harley-Davidson T-shirt.

“I’ve got to call it justified,” he said. “We didn’t play up to my expectations or their expectations. You come into this job knowing that’s the way it’s going to be.”

When told he looked rather happy for a guy who had just been fired, Garner smiled.

“I came here with no managerial experience and probably very little knowledge,” he said. “I’m leaving with a lot of managerial experience and, hopefully, a little more knowledge. I can’t be bitter about that.”

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Stunning second-half collapses aren’t the only common thread linking the Angels and Padres. San Diego, which used a 24-7 run to cut 13 games off Arizona’s lead in June, has lost 17 of its last 21 and fallen 13 games behind the Diamondbacks.

While Angel bats have sputtered, two former Angels have been a drag on the Padre offense. Third baseman George Arias was benched and eventually demoted to triple-A Las Vegas after hitting .244 with five homers and 54 strikeouts in 162 at-bats.

First baseman Wally Joyner, who is batting .239 with three homers and 32 runs batted in, was benched in the midst of a nine-for-52 slump last week.

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If the shoe doesn’t fit . . . wear it anyway.

Pitching with a pair of size 9 1/2 shoes on his size 10 1/2 feet, Juan Guzman, acquired from Baltimore in July, won his first game for the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, holding Pittsburgh to one run on four hits in seven innings before leaving because of blisters on his big toes.

“All my shoes had orange on them [from Baltimore],” Guzman said. “My company sent me a couple of pairs, but they were the wrong size. Nobody on the team had 10 1/2s. Besides, I was going good and didn’t want to change.”

Said teammate Denny Neagle: “If he keeps pitching like that, we’ll buy him some golden slippers.”

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Cincinnati General Manager Jim Bowden said he wants to re-sign Greg Vaughn after this season, despite the left fielder’s .230 average.

“I’ve never been a batting average guy,” Bowden said. “I’m a production guy. Vaughn is on pace for 100 RBIs [he has 76] and he’s hitting home runs [28]. The thing is, the guy is hurting . . . his knees, shoulder. But he won’t come out. He wants to play and he wants to win.

“The last few years, we’ve had outfielders we couldn’t get on the field, but we can’t get Vaughn off. He’s great in the clubhouse and is a positive influence on our young players. We wouldn’t be where we are without him.”