MILWAUKEE -- The first black team president in major league history likes his chances with the struggling Milwaukee Brewers.

"Sure we're in last place," Ulice Payne said Wednesday after taking over the team. "You might as well take a picture because that's probably the last time you're going to see that."

The Brewers, losers of more than 100 games for the first time ever, hired Payne to replace Wendy Selig-Prieb as president, and brought in Doug Melvin as general manager, replacing Dean Taylor.

Selig-Prieb, daughter of baseball commissioner Bud Selig, remained with the team in a newly created post as board chairman.

The team said Selig-Prieb wished to resign from her day-to-day duties with the Brewers, and her decision got things started on dismissing Taylor for a fresh start.

"I want to personally apologize to our fans for the failings of this season," Selig-Prieb said. "The season met no one's expectations."

She said she told the board of directors a few weeks ago of her decision to step down but delayed the announcement.

Taylor said at his own news conference that he didn't know about the changes until he was told Wednesday morning.

"I was working right up until the time I was told," he said.

Payne and Melvin, former general manager of the Texas Rangers, take on a team with 10 straight losing seasons, no playoff appearances in 20 years and sagging attendance in only the second season at Miller Park.

"We have to change the mindset here," Melvin said, "That's my goal as general manager. We have to start thinking that we do have a chance."

Payne is a former state securities commissioner, and also is a member of the Greater Milwaukee Committee -- a civic organization that lobbied for construction of Miller Park -- and the board of directors of Journal Communications Inc., which publishes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The newspaper first reported the management changes on its Web site.

"I'm going to take this challenge quite seriously," Payne said.

Baseball has several black and Hispanic managers, but critics say the sport has been too slow to hire minorities for front-office positions. Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox is the only black general manager among the 30 major league teams, and Omar Minaya of the Expos is the only Hispanic.

And he has a history of winning.

He was a junior on the Marquette basketball team that won the NCAA championship in 1977 -- Al McGuire's last game as Marquette coach. The next year, he threw out the first pitch on the Brewers' Opening Day.

Payne said he helped select Melvin to take over as general manager because of his baseball expertise, something Payne admits he lacks.

"I'm going to bring my efforts and my experience as a businessperson to the business of the club, but clearly the business of baseball, on-the-field decisions, have to go hand in hand," Payne said. "I have tremendous confidence in Doug."

Payne is a managing partner of the Milwaukee office of Foley & Lardner.

Another partner at Foley & Lardner is Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer and the longtime lawyer for baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

Melvin was Texas' general manager from 1994 until he was fired on the last day of the 2001 season.

"I don't believe in rebuilding plans if someone says it's going to take two or three years," Melvin said. "If there was a three-year plan, I would wait and buy a ticket in 2005."

Melvin said he would meet Monday with manager Jerry Royster and probably make a decision within the next week about Royster's future.

Royster, in Houston for Wednesday night's game, said he hopes Melvin considers keeping him as manager. Royster took over as manager after Davey Lopes was fired April 18.

"It is unsettling," Royster said. "I don't know what my future is. ... We had a very poor season here. Do I think it's my fault? No. I think it's a reflection of all us."

Taylor was hired as general manager in 1999. His contract runs through the 2003 season, and the team said it would be honored.

"It would have been nice to be here to see the fruits of our labor," he said.

The Brewers dropped to 55-103 with their 7-5 loss to the Astros on Wednesday night. The previous worst for the Brewers was their first season in Milwaukee when they went 65-97 in 1970. The previous franchise worst was when the team was the Seattle Pilots and went 64-98 in 1969.

The team saw attendance drop to just under 2 million for the season, down from 2.8 million in the first season of Miller Park in 2001.