Strike Three Called... Frank McCourt and the Los Angeles Dodgers Strike Out

I awoke this morning to the news that pigs were flying, hell had frozen over, and that apparently, after a month of Sunday’s, the apocalypse was upon us. For those raised on the steady stewardship the O’Malley family provided the storied Los Angeles Dodgers for over 40 years, news this morning of their bankruptcy filing was like a sucker punch. This is a franchise that was once one of the most valued in sports. And the most innovative. Baseball farm system? Developed by the Dodgers. First black baseball player? A Dodger. West coast baseball? Pioneered by the Dodgers. Tiered stadium design so all fans had open sight lines with no columns? Yep, that too came from the Dodgers. Campanella, Snider, Reese, Koufax, Drysdale, Garvey, Orel, Fernando, and of course, Jackie Robinson. Mike Piazza might have made that list, but after O’Malley sold the team, the new owners didn’t think he was worth keeping around. We have been assured in press releases from the current owners today that there will be "no disruption to the Dodgers' day-to-day business, the baseball team or to the Dodger fans." What the current owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt, fail to understand is that their ownership constitutes a disruption of the Dodgers baseball team and is itself, a continuing nuisance to the fans. From the moment the political leadership of Los Angeles rebuffed Peter O’Malley’s offer to build an NFL Stadium on Dodger property and bring football back to LA, we were doomed. O’Malley saw the writing on the wall. Understanding that it was becoming increasingly hard for a family to make money with baseball as your sole business, he thought he would use his own money and build a brand spanking new state of the art football stadium in LA. Los Angeles politicians however were still wedded to the aging Coliseum downtown and told him to back off. They had it handled. Strike one and O’Malley sold the team to Rupert Murdoch, head of FOX Broadcasting. Soon after taking over, FOX axed the famous grilled Dodger Dog and then handed future Hall of Famer and fan favorite Mike Piazza his walking papers. Strike two. Murdoch then sold the team to longtime Boston residents, Frank and Jamie McCourt, who learned nothing from Murdoch about respecting local legends and fired broadcaster Ross Porter, a Los Angeles sports institution almost before the ink dried on the contract. Now I can understand that it is your team, and you should have the right to hire and fire who ever you want, but when you choose to whack a 28 year loyal employee, don’t you think a personal call might be in order? The McCourts let Porter know he was being let go after 28 years by leaving a message on his answering machine! It was called third strike in the heart of the fans. And that was before we knew the lovely duo of Frank and Jamie had leveraged the team finances in a single handed bid to save the Los Angeles real estate market. Today the Los Angeles Dodgers are bankrupt. I hope the judge that will settle this understands that this bankruptcy extends well beyond the finances of the Dodgers. I hope he understands that it reaches into the very soul of this once great Los Angeles institution. Like Murdoch before, the McCourts have failed. Let’s hope there is indeed some disruption in the “day to day operation” of the Dodgers, because since the O’Malley family sold the team, that operation has struck out.

It Must Be True, I Saw It on The 'Net!

Some things are cool, like this image by Octavio Ocampo, titled Solo para Siempre. Some things are just weird, like these little tidbits below. Every once in a while we just need to change it up so we don't get stuck in a rut. Enjoy! An eagle drops a deer on power lines in Montana leading to a power failure in that state. Who knew an eagle could do that? Maybe he wanted it barbecued... See the report here. Here's a new spin on the old line asking if that is a gun, or are you just... well you get the point. Read about it here. Apparently the now unemployed representative from New York is not the only person who has some issues with the whole social media, texting, tweeting universe. Believe it or not, even Amish folk are not immune. And finally, just when you thought things could not get worse, a story like this comes along. I am not gonna ruin it for, suffice to say this has a very high ick factor.

Rep. Anthony Weiner Will Never Measure Up To This

All this talk about Anthony Weiner and his, well you know... has had me reminiscing about the good old days. Those days growing up in a little town east of Los Angeles. The biggest things going on in our little hamlet generally happened in the parking lot of In-n-Out Liquor at the corner of Glendora and Service Avenues. That was where my friends and I bought our half gallon jugs of Mother's Pride Root Beer, stole magazines, and watched the flames dance from the torches of the old Love's Wood Pit Barbecue. The center that housed our beloved liquor store was one of those classic strip malls of 60's that were so prevalent in the suburbs. I think there were maybe 8 small stores that were part of this little hub. There was a craft store where we bought all the models we used to put together with that incredibly dangerous glue, a beautician, [in those days they were not called salons] a laundromat that also housed the local Chinese Hand Laundry, and of course a Fotomat. For you young folks, Fotomat was where we took film from our Kodak Instamatics to be developed in just one day! And we had the Capri Theater. It was one of those big types of theaters that sat about 1000 people. I saw my first movie, Mary Poppins starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, there. If you weren't playing baseball over at the park, the place to be on a Saturday afternoon was definitely at the Capri. I saw a ton of those great Disney classics there. But one day, in the parking lot, we all got to see something really special. Sometime around around noon, on a day long ago past, he rolled up, got out, and showed everybody who was there the biggest wiener we had ever seen! It was magical. The stuff of dreams. Must've been about 20 feet long. It was, of course, the Oscar Mayer Wiener Wagon. This is the only wiener I care to be seeing in public and much more interesting than any of that other junk that passes for exciting news in todays world.

An American Classic Turns 40

One of the cars I lusted after as an uninformed kid was the Pinto, from Ford. That was before we knew a rear ender could send you to eternity faster than warp drive on the Enterprise. But that didn't matter. People thought this car looked cool and you wanted it. You even wanted the station wagon with the fake wood grain on the side. And if the car was orange, that was even better. This year the Pinto turns 40. Here's a nice story on the classic. And yes, this is one of those early Ford ad photos showing a cheerleader mom hauling the kids around. What was the first car you wanted as a teenager fresh from the DMV with your newly minted license?