Frank McCourt really knows how to get Dodgers fans all giddy
So our boy, Frank McCourt, said even if the Dodgers weren’t under financial duress, these are the kinds of players who would make up the team.
That McCourt, he’s a regular PR machine. Yep, that’ll get the faithful all excited again. Hope they have extra staff available at the season ticket windows today.
He told The Times’ Dylan Hernandez even if everything were simply heavenly, these Dodgers are the kind of team he would field.
"Yeah, I think we have a very, very good team," McCourt said.
Why, if those 19-21 Dodgers get a little better, they might be equal to their payroll -- 12th biggest in Major League Baseball!
Which might be swell if you were the 12th biggest market in the country. Note to McCourt: You currently live in Los Angeles, second-biggest market in the U.S. of A.
This despite the franchise being a financial disaster at the moment and still having 2½ years left on its existing TV contract. Still, if Selig would only approve the next deal, McCourt would increase the team payroll to baseball’s upper echelons?
Nope, he wouldn’t commit to that either.
I said, get that extra man power at the ticket windows immediately!
He can’t even tap dance well. He gets his 17-year "media transaction" and his nearly $300 million up front and you get the same caliber team. Oh, the heart races.
At this rate, he could get his 17-year deal and maybe make it all the way to the eighth season without being unable to make payroll and running back to Fox asking for its newest and greatest lifeline.
Have no fear, though, you will recognize the quality of the team. And season tickets are still available.
-- Steve Dilbeck
Photo: Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt comments on his meetings with Major League Baseball to oversee the team's daily operations on April 29, 2011. Credit: Damian Dovarganes / AP
The $12m to Broxton and Uribe sure is paying off.
Posted by: MikeOHara | 05/15/2011 at 08:10 AM
Steve - sarcasm? I like it!
.
By opening his mouth McLoser just keeps digging that hole he's in deeper and deeper. Pretty soon we'll be able to push the dirt in and bury the bas... gentleman.
Posted by: Labeldude | 05/15/2011 at 08:12 AM
Every moment this lout hangs about portends and even greater drought.
Boycott!
Posted by: Striker | 05/15/2011 at 08:41 AM
Scary stuff.
If this guy is allowed to keep the team, it would simply be tragic.
Someone call the IRS and Get them in the picture ASAP!
Posted by: F-U-frank | 05/15/2011 at 09:14 AM
Well stated.
Posted by: craig | 05/15/2011 at 09:21 AM
I used to wonder why Mcdumbass kept hiring new PR men. Now I see why, this guy just says dumb thing after stupid thing. At least lie to us and say if you get the money from Fox you will the Angel's payroll. I mean this is LOS ANGELES we should always have a payroll higher than the Angels.
I will not attend a game till this bum is gone. My four seats paid for will stand empty, and if McCourt still owns the team next season this Third Generation Los Angeles Dodger fan with money to spend is becoming an Angel Fan until McCourt is gone.
Posted by: CMM | 05/15/2011 at 09:33 AM
Can you blame me for leaving?
Posted by: Jaime | 05/15/2011 at 09:41 AM
This is also the man who, had be been able to buy the Red Sox (his real objective; the Dodgers were a consolation prize), would have torn down Fenway Park. Idiot of the century – and yes, I feel confident saying that, 88 1/2 or so years before it ends. No one is going to come close to challenging him.
Posted by: michael8888 | 05/15/2011 at 09:43 AM
The guy cannot be trusted. He has said he would field a better team with that Fox deal and now he's telling us the existing team is what he would field if he was well financially. What a disgraceful piece of ****. Here I though politicians were pieces of **** but McCourt gets the the Emmy, the Oscar, the Pulitzer Prize, he's the Ambassador of pieces of ****. I would give the guy more credit if I knew he was on crack....but nooooo...this dude is for real.
Posted by: BillyBobBLUE | 05/15/2011 at 10:19 AM
This whole story has the makings of a great book. Saw an intersting item in my local paper (Breeze) by an AP reporter who quotes Schieffer's examination of McCourt's business sturcture documents (26 separate entities) is like "drinking out of a fire hose." Bud is just doing a thorough job; and, Frank's days are numbered. And I'll bet his people are reading every tidbit written about this. (Hello, fellas!)
Posted by: Earl | 05/15/2011 at 10:26 AM
lol nice article.
Boycott the Dodgers until Divorce Mccourt gets out of LA!
Posted by: Sell the team Divorce McCourt | 05/15/2011 at 10:27 AM
Not surprised. This is the guy when asked why they don't go after elite free agents,he smirked and replied in a very condescending tone,"what,Manny wasn't a top free agent?" He is so out of touch he still thinks he can fool the fans with those cheap made-in-China bobbleheads and free giveaways. Seeing all the empty seats on TV put a smile on my face and makes me proud of my fellow Dodger fans.Let's keep on fighting.
Posted by: Boycott! Boycott!! | 05/15/2011 at 10:27 AM
Frank McCourt, poster boy for the wealthy with a sense of entitlement.
Posted by: affableman | 05/15/2011 at 10:58 AM
Hey Frank - you're right WE THE FANS are stupid. By the way how soon does the RC Quakes' payroll meet the parent club's payroll OR rather the ability of the parent club to make payroll?
Posted by: formerCeltAD | 05/15/2011 at 11:35 AM
@ Donald Sterling - great strategy keep your mouth shut & Frank will make you look like a future Jerry Buss!!!
Posted by: formerCeltAD | 05/15/2011 at 11:38 AM
This chump deserves every ounce of the hatred, disgust and scorn he gets. What an idiot. This nightmare just can't end soon enough.
Posted by: FormerLifelongDodgerFan | 05/15/2011 at 11:40 AM
Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott! Boycott!
Boycott! The Dodgers until they have a new owner.
Posted by: VekikS | 05/15/2011 at 11:47 AM
As Nancy didn't say, Just Don't Go. We got the m##########r in the bathtub, all we have to do is stomp on his neck for two more weeks.
Posted by: Native Angeleno | 05/15/2011 at 12:29 PM
I have been BOYCOTTING ever since this broke farce of an owner showed up! Didnt any of you see the writing on the wall when he hired DePodesta and his MONEYBALL beliefs?! In essence, its a "how to" book on how to assemble a team on the CHEAP!!!!! In other words, generate as much as possible "for yourself" while spending as little as possible "on the team"! This was all stategically planned since day one! From the simple fact that the Dodgers have the "12th or 13th" highest payroll in major league baseball should speak volumes!!! That is absolutely PATHETIC!! Thank God he's standing on financial quicksand now and hopefully, with any luck at all, he'll be ousted and replaced with a worthy owner who can "AFFORD" to field a great team in the "2nd" largest city in the country!
Posted by: santuri1 | 05/15/2011 at 12:40 PM
Outstanding post, Steve!...great stuff. Sometimes you wonder if this guy is for real. Unfortunately for all of us, he is.
Posted by: bob cuomo | 05/15/2011 at 12:57 PM
WE ALL NEED TO CONTACT "FOX" TO TELL THEM TO RESCIND THEIR OFFER TO MCBROKE IMMEDIATELY!!!!! ITS THE ONLY LIFELINE HE HAS LEFT, WITHOUT IT, HE'LL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SELL!!!
FOX
10201 w. pico blvd. # 103
los angeles, ca. 90035
(310)369-1000
web: FOXSports.com
Posted by: santuri1 | 05/15/2011 at 12:58 PM
I really hope selig takes the team off this SOB burglar, meanwhile I wont go to watch the dodgers in LA
Posted by: javo | 05/15/2011 at 01:07 PM
this season I wont spend even 1 cent that contributes to fill the pockets of the burglar
Posted by: javo | 05/15/2011 at 01:10 PM
The best thing Dodger fans can do is stay home and deprive this guy of ticket, parking, and concessions revenue.
Posted by: David | 05/15/2011 at 01:21 PM
Congratulations McBroke, you have now officially replaced Donald Sterling as the "worst" owner in sports!! As bad as he's run the Clippers, atleast he's never had the team seized from him! That takes amazing talent, Bravoooo!
Posted by: santuri1 | 05/15/2011 at 01:40 PM
This is his philosophy, "be competitive". This is what he testified to during the divorce. All he needs to do is get in the playoffs, and his buds can go on bragging about how successful the Dodgers have been under frankie. It never enters his mind to win a World Series. If you win, the fans might want you to win again. In the second largest market in the country you should win SIX TIMES A DECADE!!!!!!! Brooklyn has more people than Philadelphia and more than Boston and yet they spend more on players than this poor excuse for a human. And don`t forget how complicit our over expanding over playoffed teamed commissioner buddie is!! At the owners meeting he told the other owners not to pay too much in the upcoming draft for prospects, no wonder the other sports are getting the better athletes!! THE BOYCOTT MUST CONTINUE UNTIL frankie IS GONE AND buddie IS AWAKENED TO THE FACT THAT LOS ANGELES WANTS A WINNER WITH DOLLARS!!!!
Posted by: Jim McVeigh | 05/15/2011 at 01:45 PM
Even without financial and divorce related issues, FRANK SAID HE WOULDN'T HAVE PAID FOR BETTER TALENT! Pitchforks, torches, nooses and whatever, he NEEDS TOGO NOW!
Posted by: SangreAzul | 05/15/2011 at 01:57 PM
A carpet bagger he sure is. Dodgers fan keep boycotting anything connected to the Dodgers that makes him money. He just like a Nasty fly that won't go away. Selig, please use your fly swatted and get rid of this pest. Los Angeles would be so grateful.
Posted by: Tedd51 | 05/15/2011 at 03:16 PM
Although I have a '14 game' ticket package, I have elected not to go to my last three games.
This team is no fun to watch.
Bad Team.
Posted by: Not Going to The Dodger Games | 05/15/2011 at 03:43 PM
I am driving down right now for my season tickets.
Posted by: the Big Big Lebowski | 05/15/2011 at 04:19 PM
As a former long time season ticket holder I only have 1 word to describe this years Dodger team- DEPLORABLE! To hear the idiot owner say he has a very good team makes me so happy to know I stopped putting money in his pockets. I will never go back to Dodger Stadium again as long as his name is on the deed, not even for free. For years I rarely missed a game either in person or on TV, and I would travel with the family to watch the team play on the road in a different city every year. Now when I watch the games on TV its painful because they are so truly pathetic. What happened to the Dodger brand? What did this Clown do with all the revenue of one of the top money making teams in the sport? With only 2 quality players who are sure to jump ship whenever they get a chance, surrounded in an everyday lineup by stiffs, has been's, and never will be's, I hope this team is circling the toilet, 20 games back by the end of June.
Posted by: HallofFamerGilHodges | 05/15/2011 at 04:50 PM
The fan boycott continues.
Posted by: California Sun | 05/15/2011 at 05:02 PM
This is a very good team for finishing in last place in the weakest division in all of Major League baseball. Some Triple A teams can beat this team because they have more talent, not a bunch of utility players and cheap pickups. Great job Mr. McCourt.
Posted by: tede51 | 05/15/2011 at 05:24 PM
boycott- it is working. the good news is that mayor tony can get discount tickets
Posted by: -1bruce fishman | 05/15/2011 at 05:41 PM
This guy is becoming more and more of an embarrassment for all of the Major League Baseball owners. The more he opens his mouth, the worse it gets for him.
Posted by: tede51 | 05/15/2011 at 09:14 PM
Arte is happy that the 2nd biggest TV market only have 1 major league team left. The other one has been re-assigned to the minors.
Posted by: steve | 05/15/2011 at 09:27 PM
While McCourt is clearly off his nut...don't dismiss that this is the exact sort of comment it will take to mollify Heir Bud. Buddy boy wants owners under his thumb, especially those in the big markets. You know Bud got permanent wood when he knew Fox was selling. Bud could not force Fox to any level of payroll but he can totally control McCourt. For this reason if McCourt says this sort of thing and swallows hard for Heir Bud then my money is McCourt is going nowhere anytime soon.
Best we can do is lay back and get used to the inevitable. It is gonna hurt so try and unclench that way it won't hurt too much.
Posted by: grumpy3b | 05/15/2011 at 10:33 PM
I'm just sad that this mess is Vin's last year.
Posted by: DodgerOtter | 05/15/2011 at 11:20 PM
McCourt is beyond delusional. We have more deferred contract money by far than any other team in baseball. McCourt sees no problem with spending future television revenue to make payroll in May 2011. Does he even consider the fact that while other teams are raking in big tv money in 2013 and using it to support a big league payroll, that the Dodgers will be bankrupt and in this mess all over again. McCourt does not have the business acumen to run an ice cream shop, much less a MLB team.
Mr. Selig don't give in to this financial idiot!
Posted by: Airedale | 05/16/2011 at 05:01 AM
And let's not forget all the cuts made in scouting, player development, and draft signings. Of course, that's planning for the future, and Frank's only future planning involves trying to avoid paying for the mansions, haircuts, and private jets.
Yes, we need the IRS in the middle of these 26 companies he formed.
Posted by: Airedale | 05/16/2011 at 05:04 AM
I think this confirms to most of us die hard "Blue" fans, Frank McCourt is living in a fantasy world and if Bud Selig doesnt take this team away at the end of the month, its a freaking travesty !
Frank and Jamie, stole 108 MILLION dollars from the team to fund their life style, of course, who doesnt need 6 homes !
The rest of us have one mortgage or one rent payment, and we then start to struggle to pay bills or eat, but Frank the idiot needs 6 homes !
Please everyone, this team is gutsy, they try, but we have to stop Frank in his tracks, please stop attending games, we need an owner that will go after top echelon free agents, this team is going south fast, hopefully Bud will make a move before we fall out of playoff range !
And, oh, nice move cutting loose the chief of security Frank, seems we had a problem in the parking lot, you blithering fool !
Posted by: John Boyes | 05/16/2011 at 07:07 AM
Maybe we can work out a trade, Frank McCourt for Momar Ghadafi, Frank can wise crack his way thru Libya, while we can watch a "towel head" ramble
utter insanity to his fans, seems to look like these two idiots came out of the same egg doesnt !
I used to hate Jamie McCourt just as much, but lets give her credit in realizing, the cat McCourt is a sham and a carnival barker who somehow got his hands on our team!
When is the circus in town again, can we trade Frank for a elephant, nope, sorry, the circus said no, they offered a pile of dung !
Posted by: John Boyes | 05/16/2011 at 07:17 AM
Frank McCourt cooked the books. Lied to Jamie. Lied to MLB. Lied to IRS. He will be gone sooner than you think.
Posted by: skyharbor | 05/16/2011 at 07:43 AM
Keep up the boycott Dodger fans. Only two more weeks to go before MLB kicks McCourt to the curb.
Posted by: Two More Weeks | 05/16/2011 at 08:17 AM
What would the payroll ranking be when all the deferred payments (15 mil) are removed? Not that it matters because McBroke will go Chapter 11 before the end of the month.
Sadly this embarrassment is not going away anytime soon!
Posted by: Dodger Fan | 05/16/2011 at 08:32 AM
no ones gonna cry for this joker when he's run out of town!
Posted by: joey | 05/16/2011 at 09:04 AM
Annonced "crowd" of 40,000 at yesterday's game, which included 10,000 little leaguers, actually 10,009 little leaguers, if you count the Dodger "players". Did anyone catch during the tv broadcast, late in the game, losing 4-1, Kemp, Either and another player were at the end of the dugout, draped over the railing of it like boneless chickens, smiling, laughing, like they had not a care in the world. I could just imagine Billy Martin seeing that and the fight would have been on.
Posted by: Terry | 05/16/2011 at 10:17 AM
I thank Frank McCourt very much for inspiring us with a few false hopes back in '09. That and the change from analog to digital meant I bought a nice flatscreen to watch our boys play and listen to Vin tell it like it is, so I don't miss a moment of this fantastic team that Frank says is the best he would ever wish to give us!
Of course, when Fox shows the games, we don't get to listen to Vin. Fox really knows how to please Dodger fans too. Just ask all the fine Dodger faithful back in Vero Beach, whose taxpayer dollars went into Fox's pocket with the promise that they wouldn't pull the Dodgers out of Dodgertown. With all the good times we've had with Fox, and considering how well Fox ran the team as owners, I can see why Selig is so eager to see McCourt mortgage the team's future to Fox! They'd never blackmail us or the team like they did Vero Beach, after all.
Posted by: Blueeyedgal | 05/16/2011 at 10:20 AM
McBankrupt is a joke. He can't ever give a straight answer to a straight question. He dodged the question about payroll because he damn well knows he wouldn't increase payroll with this Fox deal.
The sad thing is that this core of Kemp, Ethier, and Kershaw is talented and would thrive with an owner that actually cared about builing a winner instead of stealing equity. But this past offseason we saw Carl Crawford go to Boston and Cliff Lee go to Philly. Both cities are smaller markets than Los Angeles BTW.
Posted by: Lou | 05/16/2011 at 10:43 AM
So McBroke, if the Dodgers weren't under financial duress, these are the kinds of players who would make up the team huh??!! Well ladies and gentlemen, there you have it!! What a disgrace!!
Posted by: santuri1 | 05/16/2011 at 12:46 PM