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Frank McCourt's Delusion a Detriment to Dodgers
Delusion and defiance is dragging down what was once a proud franchise in the Dodgers into a complete embarrassment in the sports world. It is two words, exclusive versus inclusive, that has the McCourts fighting tooth and nail to grab onto what they consider to be their private ATM machine.
“I have a very, very strong instinct that I’m going to own the team for a long, long time and someday, God willing, my boys are going to own the team.”
This was the mantra Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt repeated to reporters three times after Friday’s press conference announcing manager Joe Torre’s retirement at the end of the season and the promotion of Don Mattingly as the next Dodger manager.
Smug and defiant, McCourt tried to deflect as much as he could away from the spectacle he and his estranged wife Jamie McCourt have created less than a year ago the morning when the Dodgers started their NLCS showdown against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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“Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt confirm that they are separated,” read a press release issued by the Dodgers. “This is a personal matter and they request that their privacy be respected. They will be making no public statements.”
But thanks to the divorce, a lot of documents have been made public which have spoken louder than any statement possibly could. It illustrated a couple who are highly leveraged, starting to default on loans and unable to convince any bank or individual to give them a loan to run the team.
Of course Frank McCourt doesn’t see how any of this affects the team.
“We’ve really done a very good job, certainly as good of a job as we could, to separate [the divorce proceedings] from what goes on with the team. It doesn’t have the same day-to-day bearing in terms of what goes on down there on the field as you think. I know people talk about that. It really doesn’t.”
Also Frank McCourt believes that the Dodgers have enough financial capabilities to field a winning team without securing a loan.
“We’re going to have plenty of financial flexibility. We’re going to do what it takes, like we do every offseason, to bring the talent in here to win.”
However when talking about potential changes in the offseason, he gave us this: “There’s always some changes on a team during the offseason, so I’m sure we’ll have some changes. But our core will stay the same.”
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Frank McCourt has no idea what he wants to do. No one knows where he’s going to get the money to do anything. And with this legal quicksand likely to drag on for years, there is no idea what state the Dodgers will be in once it reaches the light at the end of the tunnel, if there is any light.
Bud Selig, Peter O’Malley, fans and media can all cry out that Frank McCourt should sell the Dodgers, but it makes no difference if he is too delusional to do so. And from what is coming out of his mouth right now he will stay on until he has dried up every last resource Dodgers be damned.
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