Showtime in Chavez Ravine

He did it again. Just like he did in 1979, we now have hope. Tuesday evening Earvin “Magic” Johnson was again drafted by Los Angeles. And just like then, he has set the city abuzz. The LA Times is on it. Facebook is lit up. Sports talk radio is alive. And life could not be better for Los Angeles sports fans. With the stroke of pen, Magic is once again the hottest sports figure in the city. Just like he was back in the day when Jerry Buss signed the skinny kid from Michigan State to a Laker contract. We don’t know how this is going to turn out. Magic is walking into a situation that has few usable parts and the parking lots are still owned by the Butcher of Baghdad, er Boston, Frank McCourt, who can wreak havoc from afar. But we have hope, an owner who wants to do right for Los Angeles, even if only to preserve his image, and a reason to go out to the ballpark. This year I will my buy first Los Angeles Dodger tickets since Rupert Murdoch traded Mike Piazza and started this once storied franchise on the road to ruin. Not because I believe everything Magic touches will somehow turn to gold, but because he already has. The O’Malley did not win every year, and neither will Magic. But the Dodgers are back. And because of that, Chavez Ravine will become the new home of Showtime for Los Angeles. Now excuse me while I dream of sitting in the stands, watching the sunset over Chavez Ravine and a great baseball game while eating a grilled Dodger Dog. I just wish my parking lot fees weren’t going to settle a divorce decree.

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.