Perhaps Peter O’Malley won’t want to take the reigns of the Dodgers again, after being out of the picture for 13 years. But what about Tom Seidler. Who? Tom Seidler. He’s Peter’s nephew. The grandson of Walter O’Malley. He has been groomed to be a baseball executive all of his life, and he is currently part owner and President of the Visalia Rawhide in the Cal League, (Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate).
Here is his bio from the Rawhide website:
Club President Tom Seidler moved to Visalia two years ago to take a more active role in the day-to-day operations of the ballclub. Tom has added several front office positions to better serve fans and players, and the larger staff led the ballclub to great improvement in 2007 and 2008, with a 35% boost in attendance (the #1 attendance increase among 180 minor league clubs in the country).
Seidler has been involved in professional baseball for 17 years. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1990, Tom began his career in baseball administration with ballclubs in Vero Beach and Kissimmee, FL; Mesa, AZ; and Caracas, Venezuela. Tom earned his MBA at Vanderbilt University in 1994 and then served three years as the General Manager for the Great Falls Dodgers (Pioneer League). Baseball America awarded the club the 1995 Bob Freitas Award for Operational Excellence.
Tom served as President of the Stockton Ports from 1998-2000, earning California League Executive of the Year in 1999.
Let me ask this, is there a more perfect fit for the Dodger organization at this time? He’s a baseball man with O’Malley bloodlines. Here is a young executive that has learned the game from the ground up within the Dodger organization. He was out grooming fields in the Cal League and arranging the laundrying dirty uniforms as a young man because the O’Malley family understood that their kids needed to learn the organization from the lowest levels. This is an educated executive that has worked in a management/ownership role. He has been involved in player personnel issues as a minor league GM and has been recognized as an excellent executive by his peers. He’s familiar with how the farm systems operate. This is a guy that wasn’t handed anything, even doing a stint in Latin America.
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| Tom Seidler, second from left, with Arizona Diamondbacks director of player development, Mike Berger, at Visalia Rawhide event last year. |
I fired off an email to Tom letting him know of my support for him and asking him to consider taking the reigns of the Dodger organization if he is asked. No answer yet, not that I expect one.
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