Baseball.ca got the chance to chat with Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin (Chatham, ON) at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ontario prior to him being inducted on June 23rd.
Melvin has been GM with the Brewers since 2002 and prior to that held the same post with the Texas Rangers. Melvin also spent six years in the minor leagues as a pitcher with Pirates and Yankees organizations.
BC: How does it feel being inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame?
DM: I am very humbled by it. I was a little taken aback being inducted while still actively working in the game, but I’m very excited about the honour.
BC: With your busy schedule as General Manager of the Brewers, how often do you get back to Canada to visit?
DM: Not as often as I did when I was a minor league player coming home to spend the winter. There’s not much off-season in the front office so I only get back home for three or four days during the year. My ties are still here in Canada, I have a lot of family back in Chatham and the thing that excites me most about getting inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is I get a chance to come back a relive some of the memories I have from when I was younger. The induction will also give me a platform to thank a lot of the people that have helped me with my career.
BC: What were some of the challenges you faced as a young kid growing up in Chatham trying to make it as a baseball player and who did you look up to?
DM: There was a bit of a stigma back in the 1970’s when I was growing up that not all franchises looked at Canadian players. I think that stigma is gone now because of the talent that’s come through Canada and now being a part of the (MLB) draft. I was inspired by Fergie Jenkins who also grew up in Chatham and he, along with Billy Atkinson and I, were three Canadians signed out of our small-town. I kind of threw away my hockey skates to concentrate on baseball and Fergie was a big part of that.
BC: There are a lot of Canadians currently in the Brewers organization. Is there a specific reason that the organization has drafted and signed more Canadians than most MLB clubs?
DM: I think we recognize that a lot of Canadian players have a tougher mentality about sports. It’s a similar challenge to what American hockey players faced in the 1960’s breaking into the NHL. I have (Toronto native) Gord Ash as my Assistant GM and twelve Canadian players in our organization, but the main thing is that the players still have to be able to play baseball. When we evaluate players against each other it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you have to be able to play and compete. We’ve been very fortunate with Canadians in our system because of our focus in Canada. Jay Lapp in London and Marty Lehn on the west-coast are very good scouts and with Gord (Ash) being from Canada, he’s done a very good job keeping me informed on Canadian players.
BC: Junior National Team alum John Axford took a very interesting path to get to the big-leagues and is now excelling as your closer in Milwaukee. What has he meant to your club?
DM: Obviously he’s a very professional individual that has worked hard to overcome challenges. He’s had surgeries, got released by the Yankees and so on-his career path wasn’t easy to the major leagues. Now he’s one of the best closers in baseball and he’s been outstanding for us. We’re looking for more John Axford’s, we had three Canadians on the Pan Am gold medal team-there’s talent there and I like the character and the make-up of Canadian players.
