Our prayers have been heard, (or, perhaps, read,) and finally answered. Ding ding! The bell has rung and Bud Selig has played the part of the winged angel, just like I begged for two blogs ago. No more Frank McCourt! Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead! No more Jamie McCourt! The hostage-takers have been vanquished. Gilligan, the Skipper and the other castaways have finally gotten off the island. And any other metaphors you can come up with for the liberation of our beloved Blue after more than 7 years in the evil clutches of the McCourts.
As my witty friend, local KFWB sportscaster, Bret Lewis says, "You know you're in bad shape when Bud Selig is an upgrade." That's how bad things have been. As of today, the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball Club and all their affiliates and holdings have been taken away from the McCourts and will be in the control of Major League Baseball and an appointee brought in by Selig in a few days. Why did Selig do this? What comes to mind initially is he finally felt the need to right the wrong he perpetrated on LA fans in 2004 when he allowed the highly leveraged sale of the team to the McCourts to take place in the first place. McCourt was hardly responsible for the Dodgers division win in 2004 and and 2006. What he was responsible for was not acquiring the players they needed to get further in the Playoffs those years. He just didn't care. He wanted to keep fans in the seats and stay just competitive enough. In 2008, he acquired a steroid-enhanced Manny Ramirez for free. Manny took the team from 3rd to first and led them past the Cubs in the first round. McCourt made a fortune off Ramirez, so he ponied up for the next two years. The team had just enough Manny, in spite of his long suspension, to win the West again and, frankly, got a little lucky in the NLDS in getting by St Louis. (Holliday's dropped line drive helped immensely) However, had McCourt cared enough to acquire someone like a Cliff Lee or any of the other available players prior to the deadline, the Blue may have had what it took to overcome Philly. But McCourt didn't care. And it's since come out in his divorce that, all this time, he's been cheating the team and the fans, using the profits for his own luxuries and personal needs and letting the team go to hell. Now, it's going to come out that there may have been serious tax violations and we know there's an investigation regarding his paying a $400,000 salary to a guy who was running a charity. With the beating up of a Giants fan on opening day, thus shedding light on the fact that McCourt made major cuts in stadium security and with McCourt having to take out a $30 million loan from Fox just to meet payroll this month, Selig finally had enough. Selig did the right thing. The long and short of it: Frank McCourt and his wife were awful owners and I question their character as human beings.
And as my other witty friend, Bob Brody - a lifetime Dodgers fan who's always looking for the positive, even when there is none - directs the following to Frank McCourt, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." I couldn't agree more, Brody. Don't let the goddamn door hit your sorry ass criminal asses on the way out. In fact, Frank, if you don't end up in prison for your questionable business practices and tax issues, please take your sons, your whole kit and kaboodle - that's right, I said "kit and kaboodle" - and get out of town. Go back to Boston. Go anywhere. Ya just gotta get da the hell outta here! Your days of destroying our Dodgers and their once brilliant reputation are over. Go away.
Now, what about the Dodgers? Fans, feel free to come back to the ballpark... as soon as there's a new owner and you're no longer enriching the McCourts. In the meantime, the Allies have landed, they just have to get the armistice signed. Don't get too excited yet. The team will likely continue to stink. With Selig and MLB running the team, it's doubtful anyone's going to let Colletti go shopping for any big names by the deadline, although, there is precedent of the opposite happening. See Texas Rangers circa 2010. Also, there's a chance Dennis Gilbert or Tony Attanasio or one of the other interested parties, may buy the team before the season is over and changes could be made quickly. Should be interesting. Hopefully, MLB doesn't institute a fire sale and we can hang on to Kershaw and "Kethier." Beyond those two guys, with the exception of possibly Billingsley, I don't care who they lose. There is hope, once again, in the Ravine. Maybe not for this year, but, depending on who our new owner is, perhaps for the very near future. Please let it be someone who loves the Dodgers and what they have always meant to the National League, to baseball and to sports. Please let it be someone who loves Los Angeles, preferably, a local, but the O'Malleys weren't from here and they did just fine. Here's hoping maybe, at least for the time being, it could actually BE Mr. OMalley.
Today, George Bailey reached into his pocket... "How about that, Clarence! It's Zuzu's petals!"
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