<strong><u><em>Ted Green</strong></u></em>: It may be spring, but in Manny talks it’s nuclear winter

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Now it’s personal.

Now it’s not Manny and Scott Boras negotiating with the Dodgers and Frank McCourt. It’s Manny against McCourt. The Ultimate Fighting Championship. The gloves are off and so are all bets. They’re at Defcon 4, getting ready for nuclear winter here in spring.

One more edgy, sardonic back and forth in the newspapers, and this deal is on the brink of extinction.

At this fragile stage in the staredown, it’s adversarial, it’s confrontational, it’s bitter, it’s sarcastic and it’s way too public. It’s no one’s fault and it’s everyone’s fault -- and at this point, who cares whose fault it is? But riddle me this:

Didn’t the Dodgers get a .400 hitter for free for three months last summer? They didn’t pay Manny one thin dime, so if they’re only $1.5 million apart now, or it’s an argument over deferred payments, wouldn’t you think the owner would want to get this done just to show his fans he means business?

Since the jury still seems to be out on what Frank McCourt is all about, wouldn’t he want to prove he cares more about his team winning than he does about winning a contract skirmish? And this too: When was the last time you saw Jerry Buss in a bitter, angry, protracted four-month negotiation? I’ll tell you when the last time was. Never. That’s because we’re all in perfect agreement that Buss’ primary objective is to win championships. And by and large he’s adept at keeping the business part of the Lakers’ operation out of the newspapers.

By contrast, McCourt now seems impelled to win an ego contest with a self-important agent and a prideful player. We EXPECT that from them. But the owner is being as stubborn and willful as they are.

Is that really necessary if the end result will be to turn the Dodgers back into an almost unwatchable .500 ballclub?

Is THAT in the best interest of the Dodgers?

Today, you can talk to 1,000 passionate Dodger fans or 100 media experts and get 1,000 strong opinions and 100 more critiques of who’s right and who’s wrong and who is more of a jerk.

But in the end, I will say only this: If the deal falls apart over a few sheckles and the Dodgers stink in ‘09, then just like their investment in Manny in ‘08, I will not spend one thin dime of my own money, either, to support a product where the owner cares more about being right than he does about being in the World Series.

-- Ted Green

Ted Green used to cover sports for the L.A. Times. He is currently Senior Sports Producer for KTLA Prime News.