Deliverance!

Break out the bubbly! Time to party like it's 1988! "What?" you ask. "Have you abandoned the Blue and become a Cardinals fan?" Not at all, but today's news is the best news Dodger fans have heard since that wonderful day in October, 23 years ago. Yes, the Ass is leaving the building. That little bastard is selling the team, god willing, to someone who cares and knows what he's doing and we can return to being true blue fans. That means coming back to the Ravine, inhaling Dodger Dogs, hopefully cheering on a winning team again. It's been a long time coming, - 2 years - seems like forever, but believe me, it could've been longer. There was nothing subtle about McCourt. He was as obvious a bad guy as the Riddler in Batman, except without the tight green suit. The question marks, however, have been there for quite a while. This thing could have been protracted out for months, even years if judges couldn't make decisions. There's even a very slight chance McCourt could've prevailed and been able to keep the team. What a nightmare that would've been. But the reality is that it was likely just a matter of time before McCourt would've had to leave town with his pointy devil's tail between his spindly legs. We must thank Commissioner Selig as well as admonish him one more time for allowing this fiasco to happen in the first place. But now it's all water under the bridge and soon, some rich bastard who cares about the Dodgers, cares about the fans in LA, and loves and appreciates baseball and winning will fork out a billion bucks to buy back our team and make us whole again. Will it be Ron Burkle? Dennis Gilbert? Casdan? Attanasio? Hershiser/Garvey? Someone new? The word on the street is, that the venerable Peter O'Malley - the man who came to LA from Brooklyn with his dad and took over the team we all fell in love with - is interested in putting an investment group together and becoming chief exec of the Dodgers again. Man, it'd be amazing if he could do that and I'm sure Bud Selig would love it. We could relive our childhoods. The good parts. The Dodgers winning parts. Only time will tell, but hopefully, whoever the new owner is, he'll have his cash-flush hands on the team in time to sign Prince Fielder and maybe even a third baseman (Aramis Ramirez declined his option with the Cubs today. He could be a good fit for a year or two) and we'll have a viable contender with the right mix of youth and veterans that could both hit and pitch. Of course, any big free agent signings of Fielder's caliber is a long shot now, with no owner in place. Chances are, Fielder will be long signed by the time our new owner is named and no one expects lame duck McCourt to sign any big names to any long term deals. Still, things couldn't look rosier for Dodger fans. Yes, we have something to look forward to in 2012.

As far as my Postseason Post-mortem, since 1995, it has been proven that any one of the 8 teams that makes it to the playoffs have a reasonable chance of getting hot and winning it all. The Cards, though not altogether deserving of a a shot to take the crown, had been hot as Hades for the last 3 weeks of the season and proved themselves better than everybody when it counted. At least, as long as Nelson Cruz doesn't catch that very catchable ball with 2 outs in the 9th in Game 6. How must he feel? How must closer, Neftali Feliz feel? What an amazing game! And Ranger fans have to be a bit irritated that MLB exec, and ex-Cardinal manager, Joe Torre's odd decision to postpone Game 6, (it rained for 1 hour) thereby allowing an extra day of rest for Redbirds ace, Chris Carpenter to pitch a possible Game 7. And they should be a little upset with some of the odd decisions made by manager, Ron Washington. Feel bad for the Texas Rangers, but with that offense and President, Nolan Ryan's grit and determination, they should be back.

Now, if there's a God in his Heaven, Kemp will win the MVP (had no business winning the Gold Glove), Kershaw will win the Cy Young and an owner we can all be proud of will restore our beloved Blue to us. Hallelujah!