Bankruptcy

In a move that would have been Earth-shattering in my youth, and is now almost completely expected, the Dodgers have filed for bankruptcy. It is hard to fathom how baseball's most storied franchise--and until 14 years ago, the most well-managed sports enterprise in the world for nearly a half century--could be in this position. Obviously, there are plenty of people to blame: Fox and NewsCorp, Frank and Jamie McCourt, Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, and probably even Kevin Malone (though he was really just a small part, and I bring it up more to point out that these days, he is doing so much good). Fox drained the franchise of its great history, made horrible management decisions, an awful, awful trade for Mike Piazza, took a long-term, undervalued TV deal, never managed to win anything, and then sold out to the McCourts. The McCourts at least made an effort, making improvements to the stadium and fielding a team that topped the division four times in seven years (and two trips to the playoffs), but had a terribly leveraged position, and then funneled excessive funds into their personal coffers (I have no problems with MLB owners paying themselves--handsomely, even--but you cannot drive your team into bankruptcy). Selig and MLB let this all happen--in fact, they encouraged the NewsCorp sale to the McCourts to please their broadcast partners at Fox (who have done a middling to poor job in covering the game). And while Selig made a big point of rejecting the TV deal that the McCourts had worked out with Fox, he never bothered to stop the sale to the overly-leveraged McCourts, never stopped severely underpriced TV deal that Fox had left the Dodgers before McCourt took over, which put the Dodgers in a bad financial position for years, nor did he stop Fox's trade of Mike Piazza for TV rights to the Marlins. But now, with McCourt over a barrell, Selig seizes control of the club, putting McCourt in a bad negotiating position, forcing either a bad TV deal or bankruptcy.

Not to blame are the loyal Dodger fans of Los Angeles (and still a few in Brooklyn) and the rest of the world, who have come to the Stadium to see their team more often than any fans of any sport. Fans who have put up with years in the wilderness, waiting still 23 years from that October when Gibson homered and Hershiser pitched to see another world champion. Also not to blame are the 2011 Dodgers. Not just Matt Kemp and his MVP season, or Clayton Kershaw and his Cy Young bid. But James Loney, who struggled at first has come alive, Andre Ethier is putting up All-Star numbers again, Hiroki Kuroda stayed in America for another season to pitch fantastically, Chad Billingsley has gutted through several outings as he works to return to form, and Jamey Carroll who I almost forgot about quielty filling whatever role he might be called on play. Even the Broxtons, Kuos, Furcals, Blakes, and Uribes who have been disappointed by injuries and some subpar play have been working hard under a cloud of the ownership. And rookies like Jerry Sands, Dee Gordon, and Rubby De La Rosa have shown that the team still has a bright future--if Selig, McCourt, and the courts don't screw it up.

Unfortunately, the bankruptcy was filed in Delaware, not LA, so the odds that the Bankruptcy Judge will be a Dodger fan is low. But this probably gives us our best hope to solve this mess. The Bankruptcy Court will have broad power to bring together the various rights that the McCourts sold into various corporate sub-entities (many will say this was Frank's effort to keep MLB away, it is more likely just an overly complex financing scheme, but not that uncommon). The Bankruptcy Court will likely end up ruling on a number of issues, such as the Commissioner's power over the team, and require that the issue of community property be resolved quickly in the California courts. And while Frank McCourt is hoping to hold on to the team, the most likely outcome is for a fairly orderly sale of the franchise. We can hope we are as lucky as the Rangers were last year when the team was sold to a local group obviously committed to baseball (and led by Nolan Ryan), but the drama of the Dodger Divorce becomes more drawn out with the Dodger Bankruptcy.

Vin Scully is in his 62nd season as the voice of the Dodgers. We do not know how many more summers we will get of the great red-head, and fans and players were hoping that this might be the year that the game's greatest announcer once again called a World Series. And it still might--because with the Dodgers, you never know. But the hopes of a city and a team--held by the fans and players who care about the franchise--are being slowly destroyed by a group of pure evildoers who obviously do not.

The Dodgers may have filed for bankruptcy today. But the real bankruptcy is the souls of evildoers like Bud Selig, Jamie and Frank McCourt, and Fox, who are to blame for screwing this all up.