The amount of property left that belongs to McCourt, not the team, is his responsibility, not the Dodgers’. The bad shape of that property is his shame, not the Dodgers’. It isn’t Dodgertown any more because, as noted, Fox gave the property away to the city. “Dodgertown” has since become the equivalent of “Dodger Nation”, not a specific place they no longer use. Everyone who hates McCourt should stop following HIS lead in associating the Dodgers with him. In bankruptcy court, he IS “the Dodgers”. Outside of bankruptcy court, he isn’t. Let’s follow that rule of thumb instead.

As for leaving Florida, O’Malley never chose to after the Dodgers left the East. All things must pass, however, and the idea the Dodgers betrayed Vero is just more East Coast Brooklyn-esque blather. It made great good sense to fans of the Dodgers to finally put the Dodgers’ spring training home close to LA. VERY FEW DODGER FANS MADE THAT MARCH TRIP TO VERO. I did twice. Since they’ve been in Arizona i’ve made that trip 3 times, at a FRACTION of the cost and time, tho will no longer until McCourt is left behind as well. THAT’S what makes and made sense, not this nonsense about “abandoning” Vero. Glendale’s proximity to the team’s fan base was a good and smart move, despite the fact it came to pass under McCourt (Fox started that ball rolling 11 years ago).

I would maintain it is the town of Vero Beach that benefitted from having the Dodgers more than the Dodgers benefitted from it, not the reverse. Had Brooklyn “fans” not stopped going to the games—6 pennants in 10 years brought out 25,000 fans, to a park that held 38,000, on opening day every year, and attendance went south from there—and had Robert Moses, the villain in the exodus, not insisted O’Malley move the Dodgers to Queens rather than let him build a stadium in Brooklyn as he wanted, there would never have been a reason to leave Vero. That it took the Dodgers almost 50 years to take their spring training home West was 50 years extra revenue and notoriety to the benefit of Vero Beach, and not to the benefit of Dodger fans in Southern California, where the team lived.

So let’s please kill this idiotic nostalgia. It’s over, East Coast, and about time. The Dodgers have played about 5 more seasons in Dodger Stadium than they did in Ebbets. The Dodgers have not resided in that dump for 54 years, already, where few fans bothered to come to the park. That was THEIR doing, not the Dodgers’. Ya wanna blame somebody, go kick a Brooklynite. Get over it, East Coasters, or at least find something new and different to whine about, something you can actually change. (You’ve got the Mets, THEY own the territory for the NL, whaddaya want?) The Dodgers will never leave LA. It is the cash cow Brooklyn (and Vero) never were, and once McCourt is kicked out, the park in LA will fill anew.

As soon as the Dodgers arrived from the sh*ithole it left behind, attendance doubled and championships quintupled. Eat sh*t NYers.

Perhaps they couldn’t afford to pay someone to maintain the property. If you’re spending $10,000 on a hair stylist can you imagine what a landscaper would cost?