Frankrupt

From: frankrupt.com


There used to be an old joke about owning a baseball team: Q: How do you make a small fortune owning a baseball team? A: You start with a large fortune.

That may have been true in the '70s, but notsomuch nowadays. Baseball (and football and basketball) franchises are nearly impossible to lose money on since the '80s. Franchise values have soared, along with television rights fees. It's almost impossible to screw up a baseball franchise, especially one that is a blue-chip brand, like, say the Dodgers.

Enter Frank McCourt. McCourt and his wife Jamie bought the Dodgers from FOX, who had bought the team from the storied O'Malley family.

Owning the Dodgers should let an owner be able to print money, but the McCourts found a way to screw that up. The cracks in the foundation started when the couple divorced. The details are too long to get into, but between the McCourts using $100M of the team's money for personal expenditures, having their TV deal with FOX voided by MLB, and being stripped of the day-to-day operations of the club by commissioner Bud Selig have pushed McCourt to having the team file for bankruptcy. The Dodgers.

I didn't know anything about the McCourts prior to their acquiring the Dodgers; apparently, others did. However, it's clear that neither McCourt is fit to be a baseball owner.

And Mark Cuban can't join this club?!

Bud Selig, Batting .500

From: The Los Angeles Times

I've never been a fan of Bud Selig, with interleague play, removing the distinction between the NL and AL (except for the DH rule, of course), the All-Star Game fiasco in Milwaukee, the owning a team while being interim commissioner and expanded playoffs. Wait, what?

There are murmurings that MLB will be expanding the playoffs again. One of the reasons I like baseball is that it used to be you had to be first to get to the postseason, unlike other professional sports. I've been deadset against the wildcard since they started that in '95. Please, Bud, there's too many teams in already! Make the regular season count for something!

On the other hand, I have to give Selig kudos for taking control of the Dodgers this week. That's a bold move considering that all of these owners have a very special fraternity. The McCourts must've really screwed up to make Bud do this. I guess it makes MLB mad when you go behind the commissioner's back to get a loan to make payroll.