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Frank McCourt mum on Dodgers’ ownership situation

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Frank McCourt met with reporters on Friday for the first time since training camp opened, but he declined to comment on the Dodgers’ unsettled ownership situation.

McCourt had not seen the Dodgers play this spring until Friday’s charity game to benefit the victims of the Jan. 8 Tucson shootings. He specifically declined to explain how he could be so confident that he would retain sole ownership of the team amid significant legal and financial hurdles.

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‘I’m not going to get into any details at all,’ he said. ‘To me, it would be hugely disrespectful for us to shift gears today when we’re here ... to play a baseball game and raise funds in the memory of the victims and for the families and the community. To start talking about my personal situation would be very much the wrong thing to do today.’

McCourt said he would address the ownership situation at a later date.

Attorneys for McCourt and his ex-wife, Jamie, are engaged in settlement discussions aimed at resolving a divorce that has left ownership of the Dodgers in dispute. In the absence of a settlement, a court would determine whether the team should be considered community property, but that decision almost certainly would not come before the end of this season.

It is uncertain how McCourt could finance a divorce settlement and manage the Dodgers’ stiff debt as well. McCourt has said he does not want to sell a share of the team, and Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a proposal in which Fox would have loaned McCourt about $200 million.

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-- Bill Shaikin, reporting from Tucson, Ariz.

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