out with the old, in with the new (brewers' manager) - ken macha and ron roenicke through the mail successes!

the brewers named former dodger ron roenicke as their new manager yesterday.  roenicke is another one of mike scioscia's staff that has moved out from under his wing to manage a team other than the dodgers, joining joe maddon and bud black.  will mickey hatcher be next?

anyway, roenicke was kind enough to sign and return a couple of cards for me earlier this year - his 1982 fleer

 and 1983 topps cards.

roenicke spent 4 years in the 90's managing in the dodgers' minor league system before spending one year at the helm of the giants' aaa team.  former teammate scioscia then tagged him to join his staff as a base coach and then eventually bench coach. 

roenicke's predecessor in milwaukee, ken macha, also fulfilled a ttm request for me during the season, signing his 1978 topps card

macha's 4 years of success managing the a's didn't translate to milwaukee where the brewers were 10 games under .500 in his two-year reign.

with all the compliments that roenicke is receiving from his colleagues, i am even less confident in ned's ability to find the right manager for the dodgers.  no, there was no need to look beyond the guy that torre had hand picked, right?  ridiculous.

thanks ron and ken!