Dodgers Break Free of the Fox Trap

Wake up, you sleepy head. Rub your eyes. Get out of bed.

Wake up, the wicked Fox is dead.

It is not an overstatement to say that today, the Dodgers could experience their greatest victory since 1988.

They could win back their soul.

The Fox Group is giving up full control of the team--along with about 10% ownership--to a former Hollywood mogul and longtime Dodger fan named Robert Daly.

Don’t care if it’s John Daly.

Don’t care if it’s Tyne Daly.

Hear the phrase “longtime Dodger fan,” and just have to dance.

Hear that Daly once attended games at Ebbets Field and has spent the last seven springs in Vero Beach, and just want to cheer.

Bart Simpson is gone.

Homers could be back?

Cartoon yellow is gone.

Blue could be back?

Chase Carey is gone.

Maybe a pennant chase is back?

Mike Piazza is gone.

Uh, Mr. Daly, about that fix-it list. . . .

Since Fox took over the team two seasons ago, the Dodgers have sorely missed a commanding presence like Peter O’Malley.

Friends say Daly, 62, wants to be that presence.

Since Fox took over, the team has lacked the credibility that comes with one voice.

Daly, former co-chairman at Warner Bros., supposedly wants to be that voice.

Under the same sort of arrangement that had made George Steinbrenner the boss of the New York Yankees, and Al Davis the boss of the Oakland Raiders, without either man being a major investor, Daly will be the boss of the Dodgers.

Here’s hoping he’s a little like Steinbrenner and nothing like Davis.

Regardless, it’s splendid to hear that Fox has finally been silenced, ending the two-year cold war between Dodger fans and the suits who oversaw the systematic destruction of their team.

If there were a wall around Dodger Stadium, today would be the day to dance on it.

The Fox regime began two springs ago, when Fox executive Chase Carey help finalize the sale, then announced the name of his favorite team.

“The Yankees,” he said.

Incredulous, we didn’t believe him.

Then a couple of months later, he traded Piazza for a group of players who have either failed or been traded or been unhappy.

Then we did believe him.

In the end, that first worrisome sign proved to be a two-year-long theme.

The Fox people owned the Dodgers but were not Dodger fans.

Officials such as Carey and Peter Chernin understood how to sell but never understood who was buying.

They wanted to fire people like the general manager and manager, but they did it on the day Al Campanis died, a sour moment that will always contain former club president Bob Graziano’s fingerprints.

They wanted new advertisers, so they put those ads on the outfield fence.

They wanted a new Dodger Stadium, so they thought about moving it out of Chavez Ravine.

They wanted to reach younger fans, so they played loud rock music that alienated the older fans.

They made the players wear silly white-brimmed caps during batting practice and fired three longtime batting practice pitchers.

They either hired or controlled a front office that has depleted the farm system, paid lots of money to such players as Carlos Perez and Devon White, and fielded a team whose two best players would not even play on the last day of the season to maintain the integrity of a pennant race.

Fox wanted a business, not a baseball team.

Soon they realized they had purchased both, and while it was one thing to lose money in a business, it was entirely another to be publicly embarrassed by the baseball.

So they have kept most of the business, given Robert Daly the baseball team, and it will be safe for them to go to lunch again.

Daly will hold a news conference today. It is hoped it will mark the beginning of the sort of meaningful dialogue with Dodger fans that Fox avoided.

The first thing Daly can discuss is reports that he is bringing back the recently fired Graziano.

Which makes one worry, maybe Daly is not the serious fan that everyone says he is.

The good news about Graziano’s possible return is that it could also mean the return of respected public relations boss Derrick Hall, who could be an important liaison with disaffected fans.

Graziano tried to rehire Hall this summer before Fox mucked things up.

The bad news is that in his short time as boss, Graziano never appreciated the Dodger tradition that Daly supposedly embraces.

But, who knows, maybe that was Fox talking. Maybe the accountant will make a better accounting of himself with a new mandate.

Maybe with this good news, some things deserve a second chance.

As a sign of our good faith, if Graziano is hired, we won’t even call it a “peripheral event.”

But Daly should know that his new boss would have no honeymoon.

And Daly should know that struggling General Manager Kevin Malone ended his honeymoon long ago.

But that is for another day.

Let the joyous news be spread.

The wicked old Fox at last is dead.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.