Bud Selig 'grateful' that Tom Schieffer has agreed to oversee Dodgers
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig confirmed Monday that Tom Schieffer will oversee the Dodgers, calling the former Texas Rangers president a "monitor" responsible for the club's business and finance operations.
In his statement, Selig noted that Schieffer would oversee the Dodgers and "all of the franchise's related entities." Owner Frank McCourt has separated the Dodgers as a business entity from Dodger Stadium and the surrounding land, but he has funneled revenues generated by the Dodgers toward those other entities.
Selig's statement:
Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today that he has appointed J. Thomas Schieffer, the former president of the Texas Rangers, as the Monitor of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. Schieffer will represent the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball in the oversight of the day-to-day operations, business and finances of the Dodgers and all of the franchise’s related entities.
Schieffer, an investor in the ownership group headed by George W. Bush and Rusty Rose that purchased the Rangers in 1989, was the club president from 1991-1999 and the franchise’s general partner from November 1994 until June 1998. The Fort Worth native was the club’s partner in charge of ballpark development in advance of the 1994 opening of The Ballpark in Arlington. The Rangers won their first three American League West titles (1996, 1998-1999) in club history in the years during Schieffer’s tenure.
As the president of the Rangers, Schieffer was a member of several significant Major League Baseball committees and boards, including the 1999 Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics. An attorney who specialized in oil and gas matters and investment management, the 63-year-old Schieffer served three terms as a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives after being elected at the age of 25.
Schieffer served as the United States Ambassador to Australia from 2001-2005 and then as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 2005-2009 under President George W. Bush. In 2009, Schieffer was honored by the Department of Defense with its Distinguished Public Service Medal, the U.S. military’s highest civilian award.
Commissioner Selig said: “We are very fortunate to have someone of Tom Schieffer’s stature monitor the operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers on behalf of Major League Baseball. Tom is a distinguished public servant who has represented the nation with excellence and has demonstrated extraordinary leadership throughout his career. The many years that he spent managing the operations of a successful franchise will benefit the Dodgers and Major League Baseball as a whole. I am grateful for Tom’s acceptance of this role.”
-- Bill Shaikin
Photo: In a 1996 photo, Texas Rangers President Tom Schieffer sprays Champagne on the field and at his players as they celebrate their American League West title. Credit: Jon Freilich / Associated Press
GREAT BUD, A IDIOT43BUSH, GUY IN CALI, THANKS FOR SENDING A GUY WHO HATES CALI LIKE IDIOT43
Posted by: joe S | 04/25/2011 at 12:57 PM
SO where does this leave Donald Trump?
Posted by: thealaskan | 04/25/2011 at 01:01 PM
Rangers? It would have funny if George W. Bush was put in charge of the team.
Posted by: Tim | 04/25/2011 at 01:03 PM
Good news! Better late than never.
Posted by: Rosario | 04/25/2011 at 01:08 PM
good news. now it's time to find a new owner.
Posted by: dg | 04/25/2011 at 01:10 PM
This may all come down to a test to see which is operating at the highest level" McCourt's greed, ego or intelligence.
I am betting on his greed being the leading factor and hoping that it has left an opening for MLB to get him.
At this point, I would let him walk with the millions he has siphoned off from the club just to get him out fast and easy and replace him with responsible owners.
I am concerned about how he has "under the table" broken off entities like the parking lot or the stadium from the team itself and may have some protection from MLB for them.
Good luck Tom Schieffer, MLB, the Dodgers and the fans - we all deserve it.
Posted by: Kirk Davenport | 04/25/2011 at 01:16 PM
There is no proof that Rightwingers can better manage businesses.
Posted by: John Dingler, artist | 04/25/2011 at 01:21 PM
Selig made the right move to take control of the Dodgers then dropped the ball when he put a Texan in charge of a California team. First of all, California teams have won the World Series many times and Texas teams have won the World Series...oh wait a Texas team has never won the World Series. Come on Selig keep your eye on the ball.
Posted by: Public Advocate | 04/25/2011 at 01:26 PM
Anything headed by George W. Bush is dodgy.
Posted by: David | 04/25/2011 at 01:29 PM
Since this Schieffer guy now has a lock on expenditures over $5 grand, does that mean Frank will be busy today taking out 10 withdrawals at $4999 each for his next 'do and to pay the guys cleaning the pools at his various estates?
Interesting to see when McCourt sues if he can pay his lawyers to file for him, or have to whine in documents about his personal expenses. How's he gonna pay all those mortgages now? File for bankruptcy, Frankie, the Dodger spigot is now off. And get a job, you vagrant.
Maybe this FINALLY will get that divorce judge off his/her? *ss, to announce Jamie gets half the team and wants it in cash, so Bud or Schieffer can announce it's up for immediate sale.
Posted by: Native Angeleno | 04/25/2011 at 01:30 PM
I have no comment on the current article, but I have never found a way to contact the offices of major league baseball or Bud Selig. If you could supply me with this, I would appreciate the information.
Posted by: Grant Sharp | 04/25/2011 at 01:33 PM
George W. Bush now runs the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Posted by: Hollywood Dodger Mark | 04/25/2011 at 01:42 PM
Since this guy served 3 terms as a Texas Democrat, he should know all about how to waste public monies...
Posted by: Jeff Conner | 04/25/2011 at 01:53 PM
Let's hope at the end of the day the Dodgers end up playing at DODGER STADIUM the same way it has been all these years, not some corporate sponsored YOUNAMETHE CO. stadium. I hope there is grassroots support behind this idea. Its a shame to have all these ballparks and stadiums named after some greedy, attention-hungry company. Staples Center does not make me shop at Staples and Great Western Forum did not make me open a bank account at Great Western Bank. You can be a supporter of the Dodgers without changing something precious... are you sponsors out there listening?
Posted by: Terry | 04/25/2011 at 01:55 PM
Tom Schieffer is actually a really smart guy. i read up on him and he's got a very impressive background. i'm not a big fan of selig, but this is a good move.
Posted by: david1973 | 04/25/2011 at 01:58 PM
Terrific!!! Now we have one of DUBYA'S friends in control of our beloved Dodgers. Can Bankruptcy be far behind.
Posted by: DERMOT RYAN | 04/25/2011 at 01:59 PM
Let's see if you can walk the talk Tom!
Your past successes seem solid, but you are walking into a different type of cluster that a selfish, self centered moron has created here in the City of the Angels and to our sacred Dodger organization.
The Los Angeles Dodgers is what Los Angeles is all about. As Angelenos we are the fabric of the city and fans that take pride in this organization.
Generations of families have spent time with family members who have since passed in this stadium. Their spirits will always be in the ballpark.
We have brought our loved ones here to see the team as children and now as grandparents bringing our grandchildren.
Tom you are only as good as your last move, make this one count pal!
It has been announced that any expenditure above 5k has to be approved by you, this ought to keep you busy.
Best wishes on your new assignment Tom Schieffer.
Let's go Dodgers! Team we are behind you, stay the course and win!
Marco Polo
Posted by: Mark | 04/25/2011 at 02:08 PM
Is our children gonna be winning now that a pal of The Smirking Chimp is running a blue team in a blue state? Gee, thanks Bud-Lite.
Posted by: Kip | 04/25/2011 at 02:12 PM
The Dodger situation is closer to the Texas Rangers situation than the Mets or any other one in Baseball, so it makes sense that they would send someone using that particular case as a model. The parallels to last year's Ranger team are becoming more and more eerie, with Matt Kemp our Josh Hamilton. We will be in the World Series with Tom Shieffer hugging George Sr. and Barbara as President Steve Garvey raises the trophy with Don Mattingly. Funny.
Posted by: Dodger Tony | 04/25/2011 at 02:15 PM
You Bush bashers writing above should take note that Tom Schieffer is a Democrat.
.
But, as usual, don't let the facts get in the way.
Posted by: Republican National Committee | 04/25/2011 at 02:21 PM
This is the same guy that used eminent domain to take taxpayer's land, using other taxpayer's money, and then gifted it all to Bush & Co?
Posted by: tom | 04/25/2011 at 02:23 PM
Great Choice! Bud got this right!
Posted by: campc4 | 04/25/2011 at 02:25 PM
Listen people. When an owner has to borrow money, means he has no money PERIOD!! Borrowing $30 million dollars from Fox means he has no money. Get it? Since McCourt was taken over, the Dodgers have won almost all their games! That usually means something! Means that the team didn't like him as owner. So this Texas Ranger guy comes in? So what? He isn't the owner! He is a temp worker. Big deal! The big deal is who they will get in there to be permanent owner! Maybe Magic Johnson is interested. How about O'Malley's again? How about Tom Gilbert?
Posted by: Sammy | 04/25/2011 at 02:28 PM
Wow, look at all the left wing nuts come out of the woodwork. Too funny!
Posted by: lmh | 04/25/2011 at 02:34 PM
Couldn't we have gotten an Angeleno to run things
Posted by: Stanley | 04/25/2011 at 02:45 PM
Schieffer is a Fort Worth guy who grew up with the Dodger (Brooklyn, that is)AA farm club-- the Fort Worth Cats back in the '50s. He is truly a Dodger fan even if he might try to move them back to Brooklyn!
Posted by: Joe | 04/25/2011 at 02:49 PM
ANDREW DENTON: Thank you, even though you are a lifetime Democrat, you are great friends with the very Republican George Bush. You became friends and business partners through the Texas Rangers baseball team. Why did you two get on?
TOM SCHIEFFER, US AMBASSADOR TO AUSTRALIA: We just hit it off. We had been involved in different groups that were trying to buy the local baseball team. Sports franchises in the United States are different than here in Australia in that they are bought and sold like businesses. And we were in competing groups and his group got the letter of intent to buy the team, and he called me up after that and said would I be interested in still investing. I said, "Well, probably not." Because I thought they were going to try to mark it up to the next set of sellers. He said, "If you came in on the same basis that we did, would you be interested?" And I said "Yeah, I might be." I met him, and we set up an instant friendship.
Posted by: Hollywood Dodger Mark | 04/25/2011 at 02:52 PM
Sell the team to someone who will spend for talents.
Posted by: chua hugo | 04/25/2011 at 02:53 PM
Fool us once, Bud, shame on us.... Fool us twice, uhhhh [pause], we can't get fooled again!
Posted by: Cardinal Fang | 04/25/2011 at 02:53 PM
ANDREW DENTON: It's not just about listening, it's also what you say, a matter of trust, really. Many in the world feel misled over the weapons of mass destruction and perhaps more tellingly, today, right now in America, 60% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was in alliance with al-Qaeda with the September 11 attacks, which we know not to be true. Why has no-one from this administration stepped forward to say that's not the case?
TOM SCHIEFFER: I don't think anyone in the administration really made that case.
Posted by: Hollywood Dodger Mark | 04/25/2011 at 02:55 PM
TOM SCHIEFFER: What our critics have tried to say is al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were not in alliance. I don't think we really know how much contact there was between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. I don't think we have to make that connection or argument. What Saddam Hussein was involved in was terrorism. It might not have been the al-Qaeda brand, but it was the Abu Nadal, Hamas, Hezbollah brand. He was paying suicide bombers in Israel. That's terrorism, a part of terrorism. The reason we went into Iraq was because we felt our security, and the security of the western democracies, was at risk. We felt that weapons of mass destruction were there, and programs were there, that terrorists could avail themselves of, whether they call themselves al-Qaeda or Abu Nadal or Hamas. That was the danger. What bothers us and should bother us about the inability to find these weapons of mass destruction is not the effect they have on the political argument, it's what happened to them. The United Nations... We know through the United Nations inspection process that certain weapons were there, programs were there. What we have not been able to do is reconcile the weapons we knew were there with what we find now. Only three things could have happened to them. They were either destroyed, they were hidden or they were given to somebody else.
ANDREW DENTON: Or they were not there.
TOM SCHIEFFER: That's not... I don't think it is in dispute that they were there. What I'm saying is you don't have to take our word for it. If you look at what the United Nations said was there, we can't reconcile that now with what we find. Because we can't reconcile that with what we find it ought to be very troubling to us because it can only be one of those three options. We don't know at this point in time whether one or all three of those options was exercised by Saddam Hussein. Until we find that out, the whole idea of weapons of mass destruction should be very troubling for us.
Los Angeles is one of the most , if not, the most Liberal city in America. To appoint a crony of George Bush to run the Dodgers _ and I believe, get a foot in the door to purchase the team, is a slap in the face to this Democratic town. Do you wnat to look up at the Luxury Box next to Vin Scully and see George Bush waving down at the fans during God Bless America???
Here's Tom Schieffer carrying George Bush's water:
TOM SCHIEFFER: The reason we went into Iraq was because we felt our security, and the security of the western democracies, was at risk. We felt that weapons of mass destruction were there, and programs were there, that terrorists could avail themselves of, whether they call themselves al-Qaeda or Abu Nadal or Hamas. That was the danger. What bothers us and should bother us about the inability to find these weapons of mass destruction is not the effect they have on the political argument, it's what happened to them. The United Nations... We know through the United Nations inspection process that certain weapons were there, programs were there. What we have not been able to do is reconcile the weapons we knew were there with what we find now. Only three things could have happened to them. They were either destroyed, they were hidden or they were given to somebody else.
ANDREW DENTON: Or they were not there.
TOM SCHIEFFER: That's not... I don't think it is in dispute that they were there. What I'm saying is you don't have to take our word for it. If you look at what the United Nations said was there, we can't reconcile that now with what we find. Because we can't reconcile that with what we find it ought to be very troubling to us because it can only be one of those three options. We don't know at this point in time whether one or all three of those options was exercised by Saddam Hussein. Until we find that out, the whole idea of weapons of mass destruction should be very troubling for us.
ANDREW DENTON: Hans Blix from the UN said there were no weapons.
TOM SCHIEFFER: He didn't say that in the lead-up to the war.
ANDREW DENTON: Once he got there.
Posted by: Hollywood Dodger Mark | 04/25/2011 at 03:00 PM
Mattingly and Blake think that everything is and will be hunky-dory. Wait until their paycheck bounces . . . . . they can play ball for nothing
Posted by: Robert M Kraus | 04/25/2011 at 03:07 PM
Haha. You guys are so focused that this guy is associated with W and he's from Texas. Further proof that Californians indeed have the third lowest IQ in the nation.
Posted by: BrianWilsonsVag | 04/25/2011 at 03:14 PM
Orange alert!
Friend of the worst. president. ever.
Help us, oh great Dodger in the sky!
Posted by: Chin Music | 04/25/2011 at 03:18 PM
Adding insult to injury. Proof Selig has not a clue.
Posted by: oldtimer | 04/25/2011 at 03:20 PM
Tom is a great choice. I held season tickets for the Texas Rangers through the years he was general manager. Tom was liked by all and was never the subject of anything other than praise for his integrity. He is definitely the antithesis of the McCourts, knows and loves baseball and will bring only good things for the Dodgers.
Posted by: Mike Wigton | 04/25/2011 at 03:24 PM
Now it's time to find a new owner. Bon voyage McGreedy.
Posted by: Alex | 04/25/2011 at 04:04 PM
Owner Frank McCourt has separated the Dodgers as a business entity from Dodger Stadium and the surrounding land, but he has funneled revenues generated by the Dodgers toward those other entities.
It's called rent, Bud.
Posted by: don in rs35 | 04/25/2011 at 04:56 PM
Team has 1 foot in the bankruptcy door. If that happens which is highly likely then anyone can buy the team and move it anywhere they want. As long as they have the bucks MLB will not necessarily require them to keep the team in LA.
Don't be shocked if the Angels are the only game in town.
Posted by: Johnboy | 04/25/2011 at 05:14 PM
All MLB tobacco chewers should be required to pull their lip down for the cameras so that they can show their skeleton teeth and pre-cancerous lesions.
Posted by: mediocre | 04/25/2011 at 05:29 PM
So - question: Does this mean McCourt no longer has an office at Dodger Stadium? I mean - is he just "out" in all aspects? Is this a case of immenent domain?
Posted by: Uriah Heep | 04/25/2011 at 05:50 PM
This is the first step in moving the Dodgers to Austin, Texas. We will love them here.
Posted by: ted | 04/25/2011 at 06:12 PM
This move is Ok by me, a lifelong Dodger fan who was 10 years old when they came west. For those of you who think Tom Schieffer is a right winger or a Dubya guy, Schieffer is a Democrat! Dubya did get along with Demo's in Texas and Dubya is probably a good guy to dring beer & talk baseball with..and that's about all (maybe ride horses)...Let's give Tom a chance..he has the credentials and experience.
Posted by: maceoc | 04/25/2011 at 06:30 PM
the very fact that he was affiliated w/the WORST U.S. prez in modern times (lil' bush) & now part of dods make sme wanna toss-my-cookies......
this is NO improvement whatsoever, & sure hope this clown doesn't last a day
& the fact that he comes from both TX & the "rangers", who we must remember were once the olde Wash. Senaotrs, one of worst baseball organiz-shuns of all-time.......
such a slap in dods face to have a former "senator" such as this clown now in charge of the once-proud franchise
Posted by: SendInTheClown | 04/25/2011 at 08:33 PM
Just reading these posts, fixing California is hopeless.
Posted by: Native Californian | 04/25/2011 at 09:55 PM
Hopefully this guy is setting the table for another Texan to buy. You reading this Cuban? Hurry up and place your bid.
Posted by: Wilton "Corky" Guerrero | 04/25/2011 at 10:45 PM
Frank, you can salvage (maybe) some pride and money by accepting Mr. Selig's takeover, and Mr. Schieffer's stewardship, and just sell and get out, because I think you should thank whatever lucky stars you have left that you were unsuccessful in your pursuit of the Bosox. If you had done this to them, your various body parts would probably be floating in the Charles, and Jamie could have been hauled off to Salem and burned!
Posted by: jim c. | 04/26/2011 at 08:11 AM