L.A. Times: Desperate Brewers betting on surprise elevation of Sveum

Dave Sheinin
Los Angeles Times  —  9/17/2008 9:11 pm

CHICAGO — It was the same canned story line that occurs in a handful of spring training camps around baseball every February: The new manager gathers his charges on Day One to explain what he expects of them, outline his approach, introduce the new coaches and ask if there are any questions. (There never are any.) And then, he steps onto the grass and into the sunshine, perhaps affording himself a brief moment to reflect upon the fulfillment of a mid-life's dream and to ponder the infinite possibilities of what lies ahead on that grass, under that sun.

That's how it went for Dale Sveum, 44, on Tuesday afternoon as he spoke to his Milwaukee Brewers, except the speech did not occur in some sleepy outpost in Florida or Arizona; it happened in the cramped visitors' clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

It wasn't mid-February; it was mid-September. And what lay ahead was not the slow crescendo of a full eight months' worth of baseball, but the sustained fortissimo of 12 critical games, beginning Tuesday night against the rival Chicago Cubs, in the throes of a heated playoff race that carries enormous stakes for the Brewers' franchise.

It was not exactly the way anyone envisions his managerial career beginning, and in fact, no manager in history has ever done it this way — taking over a team in such a contending position at such a late date.

"There's a lot of anxiety right now," Sveum confided a few minutes before addressing his team. "You've got to sit back, take a deep breath and gather yourself."

The anxiety stuck around Tuesday night, the deep breath never quite escaping. A 5-4 loss to the Cubs in Sveum's debut — with ace CC Sabathia losing for the first time in a Brewers uniform — combined with the Philadelphia Phillies' win in Atlanta dropped the freefalling Brewers out of a tie for the National League wild card.

"There was definitely more life in the dugout," Sveum said, settling for that small consolation. "There was some life and some really good at-bats."

The unprecedented tumult thrust upon the unsuspecting Brewers by its front office and (more accurately) its ownership on Monday — with Ned Yost getting the ax, and Sveum (pronounced "Swaim") promoted from third base coach to manager — spoke to the precipitous nature of the collapse that has occurred over the previous two weeks, with the Brewers now having lost 12 of their last 15 games to squander what was once 5 1/2-game lead in the wild-card race, as well as the sense of urgency with which this stretch is viewed by an organization that hasn't made the playoffs in 26 years.

"I guess they felt they had to change it up and get us going in another direction," said Corey Hart, the Brewers' all-star right fielder. "I think we're all shocked."

This September collapse comes on the heels of a similar one last August in which Milwaukee's best wasted an 8 1/2-game lead over the Cubs in the NL Central, and with the team's aces, lefty Sabathia and right-hander Ben Sheets, both reaching free agency after this season, the Brewers clearly saw their window of opportunity narrowing.

"I told the players, 'Don't let the last two weeks ruin your season,' " General Manager Doug Melvin said. "'Let the next two weeks MAKE your season."

The year 1982, when the Brewers last made the playoffs, is the nifty ribbon that ties the whole sordid mess together. That was the year Buck Rodgers was fired 47 games into the season, with Harvey Kuenn taking over and leading the Brewers to a division title. Yost was the backup catcher on that team, playing behind all-star Ted Simmons, who served as Yost's bench coach until Monday, when he was let go along with Yost.

Sveum, meantime, was the Brewers' first-round draft pick in the summer of '82, and one of his first phone calls late Monday morning — after being awakened at 10:30 a.m. by a call from Melvin informing him of the change in his job status — was to former Brewers legend and Hall of Famer Robin Yount, whom Sveum asked to be his bench coach.

"When he asked if I'd come back, it was pretty easy," Yount said, looking youthful again in his Brewers uniform. "I'm doing it for the organization I love and the manager who asked me to do it."

The Brewers' bombshell Monday was part of what surely must have been the weirdest day in the history of pennant races. While the Brewers were holding their news conference announcing Yost's firing in the Cubs' home city, the rival Cubs were playing what amounted to a home game at Milwaukee's Miller Park against the Houston Astros — whose manager, Cecil Cooper, was the first baseman on that 1982 Brewers team — necessitated by the devastation inflicted upon Houston by Hurricane Ike.

So, as the Brewers were imploding, the Cubs were taking the second of two displaced games from the Astros — their two wins consisting of a no-hitter by Carlos Zambrano and a one-hitter by Ted Lilly and three relievers.

Meantime, on his first day on the Brewers' job, Sveum made swift changes, moving veteran Mike Cameron into the leadoff spot, dispatching rookie left-hander Manny Parra to the bullpen and letting his players know he intended to use the sacrifice bunt and the hit-and-run more frequently than did Yost.

Mostly a backup during a 12-year playing career, Sveum is perhaps best known for getting released by the New York Yankees in August 1998 during their World Series run, but loving the atmosphere so much he asked to be allowed to warm up the team's relievers and pitch some batting practice for the rest of the season.

A decade later, somebody decided to make him a big league manager, and on the second-to-last Tuesday of the season, with the fate of a franchise in his hands, Sveum took his seat on the bench for the first of 12 lonely games, all that is guaranteed him.

Dave Sheinin
Los Angeles Times  —  9/17/2008 9:11 pm