Desperation reared its ugly head Monday morning in a Delaware courtroom when John W. Henry-wannabe Frank McCourt made one last pathetic attempt to hold on to his three-quarter of a billion dollar play thing, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Any day now, Papa Selig will roust himself from his suburban-Wisconsin mansion and swoop in to ensure payroll obligations are met. At some point, a judge will do the same, but this time for the team’s extensive, if not fascinating, list of creditors (speaking of which: who wants to make a citizen’s arrest of McCourt if Vin Scully fails to see one dime from the $150,000+ the team owns him?  I’m game).

There are two camps when it comes to evaluating Selig’s tenure as MLB commissioner: those who praise the man for his sound financial decision-making, and those who see a dithering geriatric enjoying tremendous success despite his penchant for McClellan-esque decision making.  I tend to fall somewhere in the former group, but if there were ever a case to be made against Selig, the Frank McCourt stewardship of the Dodgers would be the most compelling piece of evidence against old Bud.

Leveraged to the hilt when he bought the team with his wife in 2004, McCourt was never a fit for one of the greatest franchises in all of sports.  After a failed bid to purchase his beloved Red Sox in 2001, Selig should have known better: McCourt never had the financial muscle to pull-off financing a major league club — especially one as storied and revered as the Dodgers.  Divorce documents show McCourt was so desperate for cash, he even borrowed against the team’s parking lots.  However, anyone with half of brain could have seen the warning signs before Jamie “Oh, he’s just my bodyguard” McCourt welcomed Frankie to Dumpsville.

For years, McCourt insisted on picking up as many Red Sox re-treads as he could: Grady Little, Nomar Garciaparra, Bill Mueller, Derek Lowe, and Aaron Sele (just to name a few).  But the biggest re-tread of all was Manny Ramirez.  When Manny finally got out of Boston and into LA at the 2008 deadline, he parlayed a ridiculous second-half performance into a two-year, $45M contract.  Normally, that kind of money isn’t too much for a major market team.  Hell, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Dodgers set the standard for $100M contracts when they doled out $105M to Kevin Brown in 1998.  Nonetheless, the cash-dry McCourt made the same mistake every 18 year-old makes during the first month of their freshman year: he put it all on credit.

Deferred compensation deals can work — Fred Wilpon’s been lambasted for the $30M over 30 years he promised Bobby Bonilla, but the Mets were doing the smart thing (save for the investing the cash with Madoff-part): the money set aside for Bonilla could actually turn them a profit if managed properly (and legally).  Unlike his similarly cash-strapped brethren, McCourt decided to defer the cash over a much shorter period with large lump sums due by 2013.  One wonders if McCourt ever had the intention of making those payments.

The disconcerting piece to all of this is that Selig and MLB’s executives have seen this all before.  From 1998-2002, then-Arizona Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo bypassed the typical growing pains of an expansion team and bought himself a perrenial playoff contender.  Financed on the back of nearly $150M in debt and deferred compensation, the Diamondbacks won 100 games in their second season and a World Series in their fourth.  Nonetheless, Colangelo couldn’t escape his creditors and was forced out shortly thereafter.  The team’s been paying for those decisions ever since — so much so that Colangelo is still persona non grata in Phoenix.  One would think an astute man like Selig would have learned his lesson in 2004… coincidentally, the same year McCourt was angling to sucker MLB’s owners into selling him the Dodgers.

Despite McCourt’s arrogance and Selig’s ineptitude, it’s a sad day for a benchmark franchise that’s played a monumental role in the history of the game.  Beyond the historical implications associated with the franchise, this year’s team is full of promise: in Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers may have the best position player and starting pitcher in all of baseball.  While McCourt’s baseball people contend the ongoing off-the-field mess isn’t affecting the product on the field, one only needs to take a look at the team’s $103M payroll — good enough for 11th highest in all of baseball… and only $9M behind the proverbial “small market” Minnesota Twins.  A ponderous existence for a team that should be anything but.  Thanks for nothing, Frank.

 

 

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