Milwaukee Brewers - The Clinton Years (1990-1999)

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1990

Decade

1990

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Titles:

Top Brewers Players of the Nineties

None

Pitchers:

Ballpark:

Cal Eldred (13.17) - 46

Milwaukee County Stadium

Scott Karl (9.54) - 37

Ricky Bones (8.53) - 36

Team Name:

Jaime Navarro (7.01) - 35

Brewers

Bill Wegman (11.32) - 31

Chris Bosio (9.84) - 20

Owner:

Bob Wickman (5.06) - 19

Bud Selig

Doug Jones (3.75) - 14

Steve Woodard (3.54) - 14

General Managers:

Ben McDonald (7.08) - 14

Harry Dalton (1990-1991)

Mike Fetters (7.31) - 10

Sal Bando (1992-1999)

Angel Miranda (4.17) - 6

Managers:

Catchers:

Tom Trebelhorn (1990-1991)

Dave Nilsson (10.55) - 36

Phil Garner (1992-1999)

BJ Surhoff (11.66)- 34

Jim Lefebvre (1999)

First Basemen:

Hall of Famers:

John Jaha (8.66) - 27

Paul Molitor

Robin Yount

Second Basemen:

Paul Molitor (13.25) - 33

Rookie of the Year:

Fernando Vina (5.97) - 18

Pat Listach (1992)

ShortStop:

MVP

Jose Valentin (11.4) - 39

None

Pat Listach (5.53) - 24

Mark Loretta (3.4) - 14

No Hitters:

Bill Spiers (2.08) - 8

None

Gary Sheffield (1.77) - 8

Cy Young:

Third Base:

None

Jeff Cirillo (23.22) - 33

Kevin Seitzer (10.49) - 27

Notable Events:

Outfield:

1990 - Coming into the Nineties, the Brewers are mediocre, having gone .500 in

Greg Vaughn (14.92) - 42

'89. They're a mixed bag of some really good youngsters who are not quite there

Darryl Hamilton (10.98) - 34

yet and some really good oldsters, who are on the wrong side of the hill. The

Jeromy Burnitz (11.56) - 24

youngsters are former first round picks BJ Surhoff, Gary Sheffield and Greg

Robin Yount (7.12) - 23

Vaughn. The old timers are Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner and Dave

Matt Mieske (0.16) - 12

Parker. The big issue is the pitching. The group of outstanding young pitchers

Geoff Jenkins (4.23) - 11

that came up in the late eighties all have arm problems and are either

Marquis Grissom (1.05) - 10

ineffective or just plain gone by 1990:

Dante Bichette (-0.3) - 10

Chris Bosio; Bill Wegman; Juan Nieves; and Dan Plesac.

Only Teddy Higuera and Jaime Navarro remain healthy.

Notable Events:

1992 - Bud Selig takes over as commissioner of major league baseball as he

1991 - Righty Cal Eldred, 23. is a rookie - 17th overall pick in '89 draft

led a group of owners to depose incumbent Fay Vincent.

Vincent was a Commissioner who valued the good of baseball as a sport

1992 - SS Jose Valentin, 22, is a rookie - IFA 1986

over desires for short term profit by some of the owners.

This was not a good day for baseball or its fans.

1992 - Dave Nilsson, 22, is a rookie - IFA from Australia 1987

As bad a commissioner as Selig will be, baseball reaps record profits under

him as a lot of things that he had nothing to do with fall his way.

1992 - Ricky Bones, 23, is a rookie - IFA 1986

Selig may not have been good, but he sure was lucky:

□ The spate of great new retro ballparks that replaced the charmless old ones

1993 - The Brewers lose Paul Molitor to free agency -

□ The steroid induced home run derbys of McGwire and Sosa

to another small market team, the Blue Jays. The small market

(Selig had nothing to do with this other than turning a blind eye to steroid use)

Blue Jays go on to win the world series.

□ The parity that Selig declared was impossible to achieve under the

current financial structure, but actually turned out to be quite achievable.

1994 - The baseball lockout occurs. No post season.

Selig had precipitated a baseball strike in 1994 to try to change,

unsuccessfully, baseball's salary structure. Lucky thing he wasn't able to.

1997 - Inter League play is introduced and the Brewers participate in

□ A major factor in the turnaround of the popularity and financial well

their first Inter League game against the Cubs.

being of baseball was the rise of the Yankees in the mid to late Nineties,

just the thing that Selig and his band of small market owners were

1998 - 1B Geoff Jenkins, 23, is a rookie - 9th (1st round) overall pick in '95 draft

fighting the players union most about in the strike. TV ratings, and

therefore, TV revenue soared with the iconic New York club involved in

1998 - Baseball expands by two teams, Arizona in the NL and Tampa in

six World Series over a period of eight years.

the AL. Because of the limited number of interleague games at the time,

you could not schedule one every day. Therefore, in order to keep an

What Selig did accomplish on his own was to bring Major League baseball

even number of teams in the two leagues, Milwaukee is moved to the NL.

to it's lowest point in decades in 1994.

This creates a clunky imbalance between the two leagues of 5-5-4

Selig and Chicago owner Jerry Reinsdorf had declared war against the

division sizes in the AL and 5-5-6 division sizes in the NL

players union in '94. The sport was in a severe downward spiral since Selig

took over and his beat down by the players union was the best thing

A better solution would have been to do in 1998 what was finally done

that could have happened to baseball. The National Pastime, starting in the

in 2013. This was to make six five team divisions (each league

late Nineties, was a huge success due to all of the factors listed above

with three) and leave one inter league series going on at any time.

in spite of Selig, not because of him.

Yet, Selig didn't mind grabbing all of the credit for himself, of course.

My guess is that the better solution was not taken at the time because

The ultimate irony occurring when Selig was put into the Hall of Fame.

Selig was pushing for his Brewers to be moved to their rightful place

The World Series had been cancelled due to the strike in 1994. Not even

in the National League. The fact that having a team change leagues

two World Wars had caused the cancellation of the Baseball Classic.

was a calamity for baseball purists and historians was of little

For a sport so steeped in its historical stats, for this to happen was a catastrophe.

consequence to the self centered Selig. Also, the fact that there was

It was indicative of Selig and his lack of concern for baseball's overall well

now this clunky, oddball, 16 versus 14 setup of the leagues was also

being and it's history, all in the name of short term greed.

obviously not an issue to Selig, the Brewers were in the National

League, so what was the problem?

1992 - Sal Bando takes over as GM from Harry Dalton - no bueno for Brewers fans

The Major Leagues, once Selig was safely gone, went to the sane

1992 - The last year in the century that the Brewers would contend for a title

15-15 setup in 2013 by moving Houston to the AL. They obvously

as they finish four games behind the Blue Jays. It was also the last time that

should have moved Milwaukee back to their rightful place in the

they finished above .500 in the century.

American League in 2013, but, instead, compounded the lunacy.

1992 - The above three 1992 notes are all linked.

It's at about this time (1992) that Selig decides to own the Brewers

on the cheap. Its his stance that Milwaukee is a small market and can't win.

In an effort to prove this point, Milwaukee will never win again under Selig

because, as a small market owner, he will never spend to win. General

Manager Harry Dalton sees what's happening and leaves. Sal Bando takes

over. Selig proves his point about small market teams, but only to himself as

Milwaukee doesn't win and he doesn't spend. The fact that a bunch of other

small market teams continue to win doesn't seem to register in Selig's mind.

You need to use your financial resoruces or use your smarts, or use both to win.

Selig does neither because he has neither, apparently.