Comments on: The Dodgers and MLB have a long, boring hearing; outcome to be decided today

By: pjmarn6

pjmarn6 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:12:01 +0000

I remember when baseball games were free to watch on tv and hear on radio and seats were reasonably priced. Now we have $2000 seats at yankee stadium, no free radio or tv and players get multimillion dollar salaries for hitting .250 or having 5.00 era. How has this enourmous increase in salaries and forced payment to hear or watch the game benefitted the fan? What value extra has been added to the game to legitmatize this?

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:32:34 +0000

I’m pretty sure bigxrob was making a joke.

By: jimbo1949

jimbo1949 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:24:16 +0000

L & O is 40 mins long sans commercials, 20 mins lawyer part. 10 mins prep and 10 mins court. The hearing yesterday was 10 hrs of watching somebody think about painting a wall so you could maybe watch it dry someday.

No comparison.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:10:37 +0000

So has the Governator. It’s a common affliction. Even as we speak, Peorgie is up in his room helping Porcelain make the bed.

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:05:48 +0000

Although Lenny has had problems with the help.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:01:10 +0000

Except that it has been Lenny’s good fortune to be rid of his wives already.

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:55:49 +0000

McCourt is so delusional that he thinks the Dodgers are the cornerstone of a mega-sports empire. This Dodgers thing is just a starting point to owning some soccer club across the pond and a hockey team in the Great White North. He still sees himself as a provider for his children to be a part of his bounty. He’s so delusional, he really thinks he’s a lot like Rupert Murdoch, and he thinks that’s a good thing to be. McCourt doesn’t realize how foolish he looks. He can’t admit he’s a man of literally nothing.

He is, in essence, another form of what makes Lenny Dykstra.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:47:02 +0000

I don’t think he does…the dodgers are worth nothing without a stadium, parking lots, etc, so he won’t be able to sell the dodgers alone to pay off the creditors. To get any money at all for the sale, he’ll have to include the stadium and the parking lots, otherwise, the value of what is being sold will not be sufficient to pay off his debts. He is so highly leveraged, that he’ll probably have to sell all dodger properties as a group to be able to satisfy the creditors and have anything at all left over for himself.

This gambit was only a delay in the inevitable, and it isn’t clear (based on his behavior) the McCourt understood that his interests would essentially be ignored in bankruptcy court. At this point, McCourt is barely more than a bystander….because nothing short of a sale of the dodgers and associated properties will address the interests of the creditors….as long as he is owner, he will continue to lose money and get further in debt each month.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:34:37 +0000

But even if the courts rule everything in favor of MLB, there’s no denying that McCourt has MLB by the balls because of everything being split out, right? If McCourt owns the stadium, the parking, etc. then he can essentially NOT sell them with the team, right? And what owner would want to buy the Dodgers without getting everything? I’m no expert here, but from what I can read, it doesn’t seem there is going to be an easy way out of this for MLB without somehow repairing their relationship with McCourt and at least admitting the mistake and trying to make him even the slightest bit happy. Because otherwise, what is the end game here? Can the court really take EVERYTHING away from McCourt? I am not sure, but I doubt it.

By: craigbhill

craigbhill — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:22:31 +0000

$200 million is chickenfeed to F***k. The total take on an auction of the tv rights will be in the multiple of billions. That’s why F***k is hanging on. If the next owner gets to arrange his own best deal, which could happen if the judge decides no matter where the loan comes from, F***k is not the best administrator to pay the bankrupt entity’s bills and puts the team up for auction first, that next owner will have to pony up something well over $1 billion to get the team. There’s a big difference to F***k between $1 + billion he’ll have to split with his ex and several billion. Tho that denouement could be what happens.

I’m wondering whether the judge will put restrictions on how much McCourt will be able to get at when he rules for the MLB loan today. If he lowers the supply of oxygen to him even after a tv rights deal, which he could do, McCourt will be lost in space. He would have to sell to get his hands on anything. It’s looking better for MLB and the Dodgers.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:46:55 +0000

Yes, bud screwed the pooch – and at the time, as Allen Ginsberg put it, the pooch was screaming with joy.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:44:00 +0000

paper, we have debated this issue in the past and it is definitely something we will agree to disagree on. Sure, Bud is technically just a figurehead. But if you think he doesn’t control how most of the owners vote, then you have your head in the sand. If you think he doesn’t wield a large amount of power in MLB then you are being naive. And if you think the owners would EVER just “fire” Bud Selig, well, then I think you are just plain crazy.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:40:06 +0000

McCourt has already said repeatedly that he has no intention of selling to anyone. He has made it clear that the only way he’ll relinquish control of the team is if he is forced to do so. You can’t buy something from someone that isn’t willing to sell it.

Yes, Selig screwed up….but you act like he makes these decisions on his own and does not receive advice and recommendations from others. Owners are the ones that approve new owners, the commissioner can only make a recommendation…as such, the blame for the mess belongs to many more people than the figure head (a guy that only has a job because he does what the owners want him to do, they could fire him tomorrow if the mood so struck them).

By: bigxrob

bigxrob — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:34:56 +0000

I get the feeling that McCourt’s ego wouldn’t allow him to take a deal from Selig.

On a side note: Craig, I’ve watched a lot of Law and Order, and the court rooms are never boring. I’m not sure I’m buying that part of this post.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:29:55 +0000

I just don’t get how MLB doesn’t cut its losses, pay this guy some amount to get him to sell the team and everything else he has systematically taken from the team behind the scenes. Look, Bud, you screwed the pooch when you let this guy buy the team…when you let this guy break off all the little pieces of the team. It’s time to pay for that mistake in the form of cold hard cash. Does anybody think that if Bud privately told McCourt “MLB will give you a free $200 million to sell everything” that McCourt would say no? Or is that not allowed?