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10-26-2004, 01:32 PM
<b><font size=4>Selig-Prieb ready for life after the Brewers</font></b>
The Milwaukee Brewers will be somebody else's baseball team before long, and the chairman of the board will have to find something else to do. It will take a little getting used to, but Wendy Selig-Prieb doesn't seem to be having any more trouble looking forward than she does looking back.
Given the choice, she definitely would have preferred more championships and probably less attention than she got when she was running the operation. But what's done is done, and Selig-Prieb says she'll definitely be done with the Brewers once a sale is complete.
"I wouldn't trade a day of the experience, and you know with some of the struggles and travails I've been through over the last 15 years, it's a pretty big statement," she said. "Having said that, I'm prepared for the next phase in my life, and I feel really fortunate because I've gotten to do pretty much everything I've wanted to do in this business.
"I think I've had the best job in baseball."
She's certainly had one of the most interesting ones. In addition to being the chairman of the board and daughter of the founder, she was also the highest lightning rod on the roof when the storm broke last year over Ulice Payne's departure as president. The word around town then was that the Brewers could never fix what was broken until the Seligs let somebody else take over.
They heard the word and found a buyer, which will forever rank as the second-best thing they ever did for Milwaukee baseball. The best thing they ever did for Milwaukee baseball was bring a team here in the first place.
Selig-Prieb has been part of all of it from the time she was a 10-year-old hanging around County Stadium with her father until she moved into his spot at the top. In between, there have been 2,677 victories, 3,016 losses, one tie, one World Series and one spectacular new stadium with a cranky, sliding roof.
Much of that was going through Selig-Prieb's head last Sunday when she and her husband, Brewers vice president Laurel Prieb, went to the last home game of the season and probably her last as anything but a fan.
She said the emotional part of that was talking to game day staff she'd known most of her life and to fans she'd never met before. One of the latter was so overwhelmed, he offered her the dish of ice cream he'd just bought from the concession stand.
She declined the ice cream but appreciated the sentiment.
Speaking for the whole family, Selig-Prieb said, "We absolutely believe this is the right thing for us and the right thing for the franchise. I have one sister, but it's always felt like there were three kids in the family, and the third was the franchise."
History will have to decide whether the Seligs leave with a job well done or a ledger of unfinished business. Selig-Prieb sees something in between, comparing her time with the club with the Brewers' current season.
You would hope it ends better than that, but her point is it's been a little of everything.
"There have been some wonderful moments, some wonderful accomplishments, and there have been some disappointments and challenges along the way," she said. "I wouldn't trade a day of it for anything, because at the end of the day I was doing something that I loved. I've been involved in something that I think is so important for the community.
"If you said I could change one thing, it wouldn't just be one championship, it would be multiple championships. If you let me write the script, it's the thing I'd write differently."
There are no mulligans in this business, so Selig-Prieb's influence on possible future championships will be limited to those of a fan. She intends to play that part enthusiastically, but she says the role that interests her most at the moment is being a mom to her 6-year-old daughter.
"When I look at what I love, which is the Brewers and baseball, I feel like I've done the best of what I would ever want to do," she said. "I'm also pretty young, and while I don't know all of the things the future might hold for me, I can tell you in the near term when this process is completed, the thing that I want to have some time to focus on is my family.
"I have a young daughter, and I'm still at that age where Mommy is everything. Soon enough, we won't be at that stage. I'm smart enough to know that."
Laurel Prieb may be making some of these same decisions if the new ownership cleans house. Selig-Prieb says she doesn't know what her husband's next step will be, and she doubts he knows at this point.
The situation is fluid for the outgoing chairman, but the attitude is stable. "This," she said, "won't change my emotion and passion for this franchise."
The Milwaukee Brewers will be somebody else's baseball team before long, and the chairman of the board will have to find something else to do. It will take a little getting used to, but Wendy Selig-Prieb doesn't seem to be having any more trouble looking forward than she does looking back.
Given the choice, she definitely would have preferred more championships and probably less attention than she got when she was running the operation. But what's done is done, and Selig-Prieb says she'll definitely be done with the Brewers once a sale is complete.
"I wouldn't trade a day of the experience, and you know with some of the struggles and travails I've been through over the last 15 years, it's a pretty big statement," she said. "Having said that, I'm prepared for the next phase in my life, and I feel really fortunate because I've gotten to do pretty much everything I've wanted to do in this business.
"I think I've had the best job in baseball."
She's certainly had one of the most interesting ones. In addition to being the chairman of the board and daughter of the founder, she was also the highest lightning rod on the roof when the storm broke last year over Ulice Payne's departure as president. The word around town then was that the Brewers could never fix what was broken until the Seligs let somebody else take over.
They heard the word and found a buyer, which will forever rank as the second-best thing they ever did for Milwaukee baseball. The best thing they ever did for Milwaukee baseball was bring a team here in the first place.
Selig-Prieb has been part of all of it from the time she was a 10-year-old hanging around County Stadium with her father until she moved into his spot at the top. In between, there have been 2,677 victories, 3,016 losses, one tie, one World Series and one spectacular new stadium with a cranky, sliding roof.
Much of that was going through Selig-Prieb's head last Sunday when she and her husband, Brewers vice president Laurel Prieb, went to the last home game of the season and probably her last as anything but a fan.
She said the emotional part of that was talking to game day staff she'd known most of her life and to fans she'd never met before. One of the latter was so overwhelmed, he offered her the dish of ice cream he'd just bought from the concession stand.
She declined the ice cream but appreciated the sentiment.
Speaking for the whole family, Selig-Prieb said, "We absolutely believe this is the right thing for us and the right thing for the franchise. I have one sister, but it's always felt like there were three kids in the family, and the third was the franchise."
History will have to decide whether the Seligs leave with a job well done or a ledger of unfinished business. Selig-Prieb sees something in between, comparing her time with the club with the Brewers' current season.
You would hope it ends better than that, but her point is it's been a little of everything.
"There have been some wonderful moments, some wonderful accomplishments, and there have been some disappointments and challenges along the way," she said. "I wouldn't trade a day of it for anything, because at the end of the day I was doing something that I loved. I've been involved in something that I think is so important for the community.
"If you said I could change one thing, it wouldn't just be one championship, it would be multiple championships. If you let me write the script, it's the thing I'd write differently."
There are no mulligans in this business, so Selig-Prieb's influence on possible future championships will be limited to those of a fan. She intends to play that part enthusiastically, but she says the role that interests her most at the moment is being a mom to her 6-year-old daughter.
"When I look at what I love, which is the Brewers and baseball, I feel like I've done the best of what I would ever want to do," she said. "I'm also pretty young, and while I don't know all of the things the future might hold for me, I can tell you in the near term when this process is completed, the thing that I want to have some time to focus on is my family.
"I have a young daughter, and I'm still at that age where Mommy is everything. Soon enough, we won't be at that stage. I'm smart enough to know that."
Laurel Prieb may be making some of these same decisions if the new ownership cleans house. Selig-Prieb says she doesn't know what her husband's next step will be, and she doubts he knows at this point.
The situation is fluid for the outgoing chairman, but the attitude is stable. "This," she said, "won't change my emotion and passion for this franchise."