Dodgers vs. Mets

Bud Selig, who I don't normally defend, has recently been under fire for stepping on Frank McCourt's toes and taking over control of his Dodgers.  Those attacking Selig have said that if he's doing that to the Dodgers, he needs to do the same to the Mets.  Frank McCourt himself, it seems, is suing MLB for exactly that reason.

These people don't know what they're talking about.  As Selig said today, these are two unrelated, different problems and are therefore being treated that way.  The Mets are in trouble because, in the process of trying to help the team, ownership gave money to Bernie Madoff, who then made off (sorry) with much of said money.  The difference here is that the intent was to help the team.  The Dodgers are in trouble because the McCourts are using the team in their divorce squabbles in the same way that some people use their kids and dogs in such squabbles--and the team, the fans, and MLB are suffering because of it.  So the situation there is that the mistakes made are not even meant to be in the team's best interest--they're just two rich and spoiled people being bratty.  Besides that, there's an illegal situation between the Dodgers and Fox, which is and has been the de facto owner of the team, to the extent that Fox illegally allowed McCourt to borrow $200 million recently just to make payroll, and if the situation there stood, Fox--which has a national baseball television contract--would essentially own the team even more so than it already does.  This would be a blatant violation of interest.  McCourt has a ton of other legal and financial things going on as well, all of them shady.

Selig did the right thing to step in--and if you don't think that the other owners saw what was happening, and saw how it effected them, you're crazy.  And consider this: The Dodgers hold the major league record for most consecutive seasons selling over 3 million home tickets.  And with a one year break, they held the same record for many years before that.  In other words, they've sold 3 million or more tickets for 81 home games for, let's say, 19 out of the last 20 years.  And the Dodgers players don't have the contracts that the Yanks and Sox players do.  So how can the Dodgers be losing so much money all this time?  There's something rotten in the state of Chavez Ravine, and Selig and the other owners know it.  And I suspect that what we know now is only the tip of the iceberg of all things wrong in Dodgerland.  Stepping in was the right thing to do.

(And the Sox were lucky to win last night against the Angels, too.  They haven't played well--the As and Angels just squandered more and played even worse.)