That, and 3 Dodgers Just Won the Gold Glove

Once again Dodgers achievements on the field have been overshadowed by events in the courtroom. For the first time in Los Angeles history, three Dodgers won a Gold Glove award. Clayton Kershaw, who topped NL pitchers in just about every other major category in 2011 with a pitchers triple crown of 21 wins, 248 strikeouts, and a 2.28 ERA took home the award for pitchers (and, there is a decent chance he will top it off with a Silver Slugger and, in a few weeks, a Cy Young award). Matt Kemp, who put as good of a scare into a triple crown run as any player has since 1967, and ended up leading the NL in both homers and RBI, also hauled in his second Gold Glove in Center Field, while his fellow All-Star Andre Ethier took home the award in Right Field. The new rules of the award made this result either more or less likely, depending on your viewpoint. Instead of just selecting three outfielders, the award was given to one person at each outfield position. Frequently, three Center Fielders will win the award, and Kemp had to overcome two other solid Center Field finalists, including reigning three-time Gold Glover Shane Victorino. Meanwhile, the change probably made it easier for Ethier, whose solid defensive play is worthy of recognition in right field, but probably would not have topped Kemp, Victorino, and Chris Young, the third NL Center Field finalist—and possibly even Left Field winner (and Dodger villain) Gerardo Parra.

But no one is talking about that.

The big news, ends up being the ownership drama. All season long, Clayton Kershaw’s dazzling pitching, Matt Kemp’s five tools, and a Dodger team that was closer to the playoffs than the Cardinals were and had a stronger record in the last five weeks to finish the season.

The good news, unquestionably, is that Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the Dodgers. We can all celebrate this development. There is no doubt that his ownership of this storied franchise has become unsustainable, and putting this chapter in the past is a good thing for Dodger fans.

But while we can hope that this is the last time when the on-field accomplishments get overshadowed, it is probably fool-hardy to bet on it yet. For starters, we have no idea who will buy the Dodgers. Dodger fans (at least Angelenos, not so much the Brooklynites) still long for the O’Malley days where the ownership was stable, where a 24-year manager was replaced by his heir apparent who managed the team for 20-years, only then to be replaced by his heir apparent. Only three men served as GM while the Dodgers were in LA and owned by the O’Malley family; Dodger Stadium was beautiful and safe (it largely still is, but there does need to be some help in those areas), and when it was not one of 15 seasons when the Dodgers kept playing after the regular season, there was always hope for next year.

Mark Cuban, a controversial billionaire, but one who has gained a lot of support as a possible owner (especially after his basketball team just won the NBA title), is interested, but has reportedly balked at the $1 Billion+ price that the Dodgers are likely to command. The $1.2 Billion offer by Ron Burke, a respected Los Angeles businessman and sports-owner may have some merit, but the fact that it is backed by elements of the Chinese government should make everyone uneasy. And to make matters even worse, there is talk that Fox could buy the Dodgers back in order to assure their TV rights. Soon after buying the Dodgers, Fox traded future Hall-of-Famer Mike Piazza for cable TV rights to the Marlins, fired long-time GM Fred Claire, fired Dean of the Dodgers Bill Russell, let Mike Scioscia, probably the best manager in baseball, leave the only organization he ever played and coached in, and made the post-season a grand total of zero times. And when they sold the team, the left them with a local TV deal that would have hampered even a good owner. (Reports are now coming in saying that Fox will not try to buy the team, but even the idea is scary.)

While the end of the McCourt era is good, it is worth remembering that in the eight seasons Frank owned the team, the Dodgers finished atop the NL West four times, including one season with the best record in the National League, and twice appeared in the National League Championship Series, and they built the young core of a team that should be perpetual competitors (including in 2012). If Frank and Jamie had never split, we would probably never know of their profligate spending of the team’s resources. There would be a lot of negative attention because of the Bryan Stow tragedy, but without having to pay for lawyers to blast Jamie (and Jamie to pay for lawyers to blast Frank), and maybe even some scrimping and saving here and there, they probably would have limped through until they could auction off the TV rights and continued to own the team. And if you are as optimistic as I am, you could see the 2012 team picking up where the 2011 team left off in the second half and winning the division.

None of which is an endorsement of McCourt—whatever goodwill he earned before 2009 has all been spent and then some. But until we have stable ownership that is committed to the team (and a good start is basically following the checklist set out at DodgerThoughts) I am not quite willing to declare our long national nightmare as over.

UPDATE--Just announced after this posting, Matt Kemp unsurprisingly won a Silver Slugger award, while despite my prediction Clayton Kershaw did not, losing out to the good-hitting Daniel Hudson. Kershaw is still pretty handy with the lumber, a fact that allows him to keep pitching later in a game, and I think should still win the Cy Young.

ONE OTHER NOTE--In addition to the three Gold Glove winners, Hiroki Kuroda and James Loney were also finalists for the Gold Glove at their positions. A lot goes into these awards, so there are plenty of imperfections, and without taking away anything from the winners here, ironically Loney is probably the best defensive player of the bunch and did not win.