MLB taps ex-Rangers president J. Thomas Schieffer to run Dodgers

Former Texas Rangers president J. Thomas Schieffer was hired by Commissioner Bud Selig on Monday, April 25, 2011, to run the Los Angeles Dodgers. Schieffer was U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2005 to 2009.
Schieffer, younger brother of "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer, took over immediately. In seizing control of the franchise, MLB told the Dodgers that any expenditure of $5,000 or more would have to be approved.
"Tom is a distinguished public servant who has represented the nation with excellence and has demonstrated extraordinary leadership throughout his career," Selig said in a statement. "The many years that he spent managing the operations of a successful franchise will benefit the Dodgers and Major League Baseball as a whole."
The 63-year-old Schieffer invested in the group headed by future President George W. Bush that bought the Rangers in 1989 and was team president from January 1991 until April 1999, 10 months after the team was sold from Bush's group to Tom Hicks. Schieffer also served as general partner from November 1994, when Bush was elected governor of Texas, until Hicks took control of the team in June 1998.
Schieffer served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives in the 1970s after being elected at the age of 25. Bush appointed him ambassador to Australia in 2001, a job held until he became ambassador to Japan from 2005-09. In business, Schieffer managed investments in oil and gas.
Schieffer currently is senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the same position held at the firm by New York Yankees president Randy Levine.
The Fort Worth native was the club's partner in charge of ballpark development before the 1994 opening of the Rangers' new stadium. The Rangers won their first three AL West titles in 1996 and 1998-99 during Schieffer's tenure.
As the president of the Rangers, Schieffer was a member of several significant MLB committees and boards, including Selig's 1999 Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics.
Once one of baseball's most powerful franchises, the Dodgers have been in near constant turmoil since October 2009, when Jamie McCourt filed for divorce a week after husband Frank fired her as the team's chief executive.
Selig told Frank McCourt last Wednesday he would appoint a MLB representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the club.
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