From: Matt Rogina <midnightdreamer707@...>
Subject: [DODGERS] Some Dodger News
To: dodgersbigblueclub@yahoogroups.com, dodgerbaseball@yahoogroups.com, dodgers@yahoogroups.com, dodgernation@yahoogroups.com, dodgerbigblueclub@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 12:58 PM

 

According to court records, Frank McCourt said he only has 167k in his checking account, give or take a DirecTV bill.

 

That being said, team sources say, the baseball operations end of the ballclub is proceeding as normal. No ownership directives to cut payroll. No warnings to stay off free agents.

 

Dodgers considered a long shot at getting Roy Halladay due to he fact they are unwilling to include Kershaw or Etier.  Any deal would likely have to include Billingsley and Martin.

 

Scuatro interested in Dodgers.  I like this idea.

Dodgers not interested in Lackey.

 

Don Mattingly interested in managing Dodgers in 2011.  This explains why he turned down opportunities up ntil now.

 

More rumblings of a Sherill for Jackson trade with Detroit.  I like Jackson and didn't want to see him go in the first place. I like Sherill too.  Both have similar salaries.  In the end, Sherill is more replaceable.

 

Any thoughts?

From: Matt Rogina <midnightdreamer707@...>
Subject: [DODGERS] Some Dodger News
To: dodgersbigblueclub@yahoogroups.com, dodgerbaseball@yahoogroups.com, dodgers@yahoogroups.com, dodgernation@yahoogroups.com, dodgerbigblueclub@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 10:58 AM

 

According to court records, Frank McCourt said he only has 167k in his checking account, give or take a DirecTV bill.

 

That being said, team sources say, the baseball operations end of the ballclub is proceeding as normal. No ownership directives to cut payroll. No warnings to stay off free agents.

 

Dodgers considered a long shot at getting Roy Halladay due to he fact they are unwilling to include Kershaw or Etier.  Any deal would likely have to include Billingsley and Martin.

 

Scuatro interested in Dodgers.  I like this idea.

Dodgers not interested in Lackey.

 

Don Mattingly interested in managing Dodgers in 2011.  This explains why he turned down opportunities up ntil now.

 

More rumblings of a Sherill for Jackson trade with Detroit.  I like Jackson and didn't want to see him go in the first place. I like Sherill too.  Both have similar salaries.  In the end, Sherill is more replaceable.

 

Any thoughts?

From: Paris Bums <dharmabum@...>
Subject: Re: [DODGERS] Arizona Fall League
To: DODGERS@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, November 16, 2009, 5:41 PM

 

JayRod,

Were you in Arizona at the same time that the MLB GMs were having their meetings in Chicago? I heard Ned being interviewed on XM and he said they were having Dodgers organizational meetings in conjunction with the GM meetings in Chicago. Perhaps that's why there no Dodgers execs to be seen in Arizona.

Bum
could use some of that warm sun

JayRod wrote:

> Well, another AFL trip has come and gone.
>
> I had the opportunity to see Dodger prospects Lambo (OF) and Mitchell (1B). Not seeing them play over a long period (2 or more weeks), I can hardly judge their potiential. Both seemed to have a good approach at the plate and, in the games I saw, fielded flawlessly.
>
> One of the games I saw was at Camelback Ranch, the Dodger's spring training field. They had a table set up to accept 3 & 7 game spring training ticket packages, and spring season tickets. If they are already offered on the website too. Single game tickets go on sale January 9th.
>
> Other than the foul ball I got (got, not caught.; I snagged it as it bounced by) it was really uneventful. In years past I have had the opportunity to see and speak with Dodger executives, baseball HOF'ers, and even some of the AFL Dodger prospects. Not this year. But, I enjoyed the trip and the baseball!
>
> See yaw'all on the hot stove!
>
> Go Dodgers!
> JayRod
>
> ------------ --------- --------- ------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

The initial news was delightful: Mark Cuban wanted to buy the Dodgers. The follow-up news was depressing: a baseball team isn’t a possession he has to have.

With George Steinbrenner in muted seclusion, baseball has run out of charismatic owners. Look where you may, there’s not a lovable lunatic to be found in an owner’s box anywhere in the game.

Since the beginning of time, larger-than-life owners have been as much a part of baseball as hot dogs and peanuts. From Harry Wright to Col. Jake Ruppert to Connie Mack to Bill Veeck to Charlie Finley to Steinbrenner, the game’s narrative has been as much about the owners as it has been about the players.

No more. As the price of doing business has increased, so has the degree of dullness. Oh, there are plenty of bad owners, but not one who goes out of his way to create headlines. Most of them are as anonymous as bus drivers.

That’s why it was so exciting to hear that Cuban might be back in the hunt for a big-name team after losing out in a bid for the Chicago Cubs. I had thought that he’d be the perfect man to finally drag the Cubs out of their morass of mediocrity — and to inject some front-office drama back into the game. Alas, it didn’t work out that way.

So when his name popped up as a possible bidder for the Dodgers, whose ownership has become a fiercely contested prize in the nasty divorce of owners Frank McCourt and his soon-to-be ex-wife Jamie. The McCourts have showed no interest in selling, but with the property settlement phase of their split yet to come, that could change.

And again, who better to take over than Cuban? OK, maybe someone from Hollywood like Mel Gibson. He’s enough of a lunatic, but he’s more into breeding a baseball team than owning one. And nobody else seems that interested, either.

So it’s back to Cuban, the last man in America who still knows how to own a sports team with panache. If only he’d show a little more interest.

Instead, he addressed the possibility of branching out into baseball by saying, “It’s just one more business opportunity. If it’s the right deal, I’m going to do it. And if not, I’m not.”

In baseball, there’s no such thing as the right deal, at least not with a team that’s worth owning. The price will be too high, the profits too low, the headaches unending.

But if you’re born to own sports teams, none of that matters. It’s in your blood. You have to do it.

I’m hoping that’s how it’s going to be with Cuban, because baseball needs an owner we can hang a headline on, and there just aren’t any prospects out there.

Cuban would immediately be the game’s most interesting owner. He wouldn’t be perfect, not like Steinbrenner was, but to criticize him for that would be like criticizing a grizzly bear for not being more like a T-Rex.

When Steinbrenner was at the peak of his powers 20-30 years ago, no one could match him. He was a bombastic, blustering, browbeating brute, and that was when he was in a good mood.

You’d think someone like that would be as popular as herpes, and that was pretty much the case with people who found themselves in his line of ire. But those were always people who worked for him. With the public, he played the gruff uncle with the heart of gold.

Fans almost universally adored Steinbrenner because he was nice to them and treated underperforming rich guys the way fans think they should be treated — like cockroaches. If the vintage Steinbrenner were around today, in fact, he’d be the guy everybody would want to see riding herd on Wall Street.

No one this side of Vlad the Impaler is going to give us that kind of entertainment, and Vlad is unavailable, having been terminally dead for more than 500 years.

Cuban is not Vlad, nor is he Steinbrenner. He’s got the bluster, charisma, boundless enthusiasm, burning desire to win and the bankroll, but he lacks the mean streak, at least when it comes to is players. He can out-Steinbrenner The Boss, but only when the object of his displeasure is a referee or a league executive.

Players and coaches are a different matter. When he gets in a fight with a coach, as he did with Don Nelson, he hands it over to his lawyers. And if he has ever been furious at a player, he keeps it private. Instead of beating the players up, even when they fail to meet expectations, he buys them a new luxury airplane or installs bigger flat-screen televisions in their lounge.

Still, he’d be a breath of fresh air. And if he didn’t browbeat the hired help, he’d at least tee off on the umpires and league executives until commissioner Bud Selig was praying for the good old days when the only thing he had to worry about was the next revelation about which superstar was doing steroids.

So, come on, Mark. Quit worrying about making a good investment. Throw a pile of money at the McCourts, and if they won’t bite, make the pile bigger. Baseball needs you.

URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/33873580/ns/sports-baseball/