Frank McCourt meets press but sidesteps some questions

Offered a chance to address a variety of issues pertaining to the Dodgers that have emerged over the course of his divorce proceedings, owner Frank McCourt declined to do so on Saturday, saying the matters were of a personal nature.

McCourt said his lawyers would respond to the questions the same way they were first raised by the counsel of his estranged wife, Jamie McCourt — in court papers.

“I firmly believe in taking the high road and the long view on things, and my image and reputation will be fine,” he said. “I’ve lived my entire life that way. I’m not going to get into the back and forth of it. I’ll leave the process to the lawyers to deal with.”

McCourt spoke to a group of reporters for almost 11 minutes during the Dodgers’ 8-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch, but would not talk about the documents in recent filings that detailed the club’s plans to keep its payroll below what it was last year through 2018 while nearly doubling ticket prices.

Also left unanswered was why two of his sons drew a combined annual salary of $600,000 from the Dodgers, even though one works at Goldman Sachs and another attends graduate school at Stanford.

McCourt said he disagreed with the notion that he should respond to these reports because they affected the Dodgers’ paying customers.

“It’s just really impossible to try and deal with allegations and things like that and deal with every one of them because it’s an endless process,” he said.

McCourt said he did not think that whatever hit his image has taken in recent months would affect the way fans perceived the Dodgers’ future or the club’s ability to attract players. In fact, he would not even acknowledge that he had an image problem.

Asked if he was aware that there was a legion of Dodger fans who were upset with him, McCourt replied, “I think the fans want to focus on baseball.”

He would not comment about the revelations in court papers filed by his estranged wife that the couple did not pay any income taxes from 2004 through 2009.

Although team President Dennis Mannion now oversees the day-to-day operations of the Dodgers, McCourt said he still has the final say on major decisions.

McCourt said that General Manager Ned Colletti will be granted the same level of financial flexibility at the trade deadline as he was a year ago, when the Dodgers added George Sherrill, Vicente Padilla, Ronnie Belliard, Jim Thome and Jon Garland.

Asked if this year’s Dodgers could win a World Series, McCourt replied, “I hope so,” adding that he thought the team looks better on paper than it did a year ago at this stage.