For Dodgers, It’s More Like Cold Stove League

Dear Commissioner Selig:

I have always wanted to own a sports franchise, and would like to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers. I am willing to borrow any money necessary from News Corp., Aramark, Louie the Loan Shark and my parents, using my vast holdings in residential real estate (i.e., my family home) as collateral. I intend to let my husband and two daughters, all longtime Dodger fans, run the team.

Finally, I promise to raze Dodger Stadium and turn Chavez Ravine into a megamall, incorporating the Bud Selig West Coast Baseball Hall of Fame.

Call me at your convenience.

Bonnie Sloane

Los Angeles

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Having read The Times’ report regarding the Dodgers’ potential sale to apparent pauper Frank McCourt, I have a couple of questions:

When do we start the lynching? And whose neck is first in the noose? The execs at News Corp. for “selling” the team to this wannabe? Bud Selig and Major League Baseball, for apparently blessing the deal? Or McCourt himself for looking at Dodger Stadium and seeing condos? Having put almost none of his own money behind the purchase, it’s clear this is a real estate deal -- what bank would give anyone that kind of scratch without serious collateral?

No wonder Bud Selig likes it so much -- this will neutralize the Dodgers indefinitely.

Rob McMillin

Garden Grove

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Dear Frank McCourt:

Like many Dodger fans, I waited patiently while nothing happened in the winter meetings. I don’t have a problem in not making a deal if everyone wants the young talent it has taken so long to produce. My problem lies with the non-moves while the great amount of talent in free agency passes by the boards. They don’t cost young talent from your system.

I hear that you are going to have a payroll ceiling of $84 million or so, if your purchase of the Dodgers goes through. If it’s true, I have two words for you: Don’t bother. As in, “Don’t bother to buy the Dodgers.”

This isn’t the Montreal Expos or the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s not a small-market or low-attendance team. It’s a team with a winning history. It’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team has sliced over $30 million off the payroll, but it looks like Vlad, Pudge and all the rest are going to end up somewhere else.

We had another owner here once who hacked the payroll until the team could no longer compete at all and then moved it to St. Louis. This is starting to look a lot like that one.

The opportunities are still there. If that payroll stays down where it is, I’m going shopping for Angels’ gear.

Eric Monson

Temecula

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WANTED: Pedestrian baseball players whose career is going nowhere fast. Playoff experience not necessary. Because our general manager is an idiot, salary is correspondent with our desperation. Championship-caliber players need not apply.

Please send resume to: L.A. Dodgers, P.O. Box WE HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE, Los Angeles, CA.

Dan Schackart

Canyon Country

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In the Hot Stove League, Dan Evans is busily trying to light the pilot. Headline after headline gives Dodger fans false hope: Garciaparra, Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Tejada, Pudge Rodriguez. What does Evans do? Adds Juan Encarnacion. All Encarnacion has done in his career is prove that he is unable to get on base. He’ll feel right at home in the Dodger clubhouse.

How can deals for Garciaparra and Ordonez be held up by Evans’ reluctance to deal Guillermo Mota? Dan, in case you haven’t noticed, the Dodgers can’t score any runs.

Kevin Webb

San Bernardino

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I do not know too much about the Dodger prospects that Mr. Evans is fiercely protecting, but I’ll bet the people who are calling for his neck are the same ones who favored the deal that brought the Dodgers Delino DeShields at the cost of Pedro Martinez and Henry Rodriguez.

Samuel Yu

San Francisco

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I guess it is foolish to presume Dodger ownership/management would give a hoot that Paul Lo Duca is possibly today’s most popular Dodger player?

Shades of the Piazza trade.

Marty Brown

Long Beach

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When Peter O’Malley sold the Dodgers to News Corp., he said the days of private ownership of major league franchises were over, due to the current costs that demand the economic clout available only through corporate/conglomerate resources.

I guess Arte Moreno and Frank McCourt didn’t embrace O’Malley’s credo. Go figure.

Sid Skolnik

West Hollywood