McCourt Needs to Keep the Celebration Going

It has become an annual event, this gathering of the McCourt family at their Cape Cod home, only this year Frank McCourt has an extra-large birthday present: a first-place baseball team.

On this, McCourt’s 51st birthday, the Dodger franchise he acquired in January leads the National League West.

“I’m thrilled, obviously, with the way the team is playing,” McCourt said. “But I’m an optimist by nature. I had a very good feeling about this team and its prospects. I said before the season started that I really felt the team was better than it had played.”

The McCourts have two family traditions. Frank’s sole request is that his four sons spend time with him on his birthday. His wife, Jamie, has an incentive program to get everyone together for her birthday: She gives gifts to the kids.

If the Dodgers are lucky, Frank McCourt will adopt his wife’s approach and celebrate the good times by giving back.

It has been a summer of exceptional performances at Chavez Ravine. The cohesive group of players got off to a good start, faltered for stretches in May and late June, and has surged to a 29-10 record since July 1.

The energized fans keep pouring into Dodger Stadium. Through 57 home games, an average of 42,392 fans have made their way to the ballpark, for a total 2,416,351 and on pace for 3,433,751 this season -- which would be the third-best in team history.

Now the question is to what degree McCourt will reward everyone in the off-season. He made his money in real estate, but the proper analogy might be found in the stock market: Will he reinvest the dividends? How much impact will the success of 2004 have on the approach to 2005?

“It’s great that the team’s doing well and attendance is up,” McCourt said. “We’re building an organization here. I don’t want you to think that we’re making decisions here based on the short term or short-term events or for the long term. We’re making decisions that we think are in the best interests of the organization for the short term and the long term. We’re trying to build a perennial winner for L.A. This is L.A. It’s a big-market team. It will always have a payroll reflective of the fact that we’re in a big market.

“There was a lot of discussion about payroll this year and next year. We’re going to spend what it takes to put a winner on the field. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s the statement I made before the season started, it’s the statement I’m going to make for you now.

“I don’t think you have to spend $160 million to win every year. It’s about spending money wisely. It’s about being smart about how we spend money.”

The bold move General Manager Paul DePodesta made came right before the trading deadline, when he tinkered with the team’s winning formula and sent away popular catcher Paul Lo Duca and reliable reliever Guillermo Mota in one of the two deals that brought in pitcher Brad Penny, outfielder Steve Finley and first baseman Hee-Seop Choi.

I liked the strong signal that the Dodgers wouldn’t be content to simply make the playoffs; they wanted to do damage. But the failure to consummate a potential trade for Randy Johnson (owed $16 million next year) opened the possibility that the Dodgers didn’t want to take on his salary, or were wary of the cost to retain Lo Duca when he became a free agent after the season.

McCourt said Johnson’s contract was a “non-issue” in trade talks for him.

“There were players that were an issue because we weren’t going to let them go,” McCourt said.

He also said that Lo Duca’s status wasn’t a factor in the decision to trade him.

“Not at all,” he said.

The big test will come when Adrian Beltre becomes a free agent after the season. Instead of waiting for his usual second-half awakening, he has been producing from the start, already setting a career high with 32 home runs to go with his .326 batting average and 79 runs batted in. He could see his $5-million salary double.

Another $5-million player, Eric Gagne, deserves a raise. The Dodgers can get to work on that or else go to arbitration and have to make ridiculous statements such as, “Well, he did blow that save on July 5.”

Of course, the Dodgers can’t play their negotiating hands yet. This is what McCourt says for now: “These are two guys that are hugely important to this organization. I certainly hope very much that they’re in a Dodger uniform for a long time to come. They’re important players to this team. I hope they want to play for the Dodgers as much as we want them.”

The Boston native has adapted quickly to the team he bought with a leveraged $430-million transaction, just as he has discovered the city’s distinct neighborhoods, and learned how to navigate the sprawling metropolis.

“I’d be lying to you if I told you I had all the backstreets down,” McCourt said. “Freeways, I’m cool there. I can get anywhere. I’m beginning to understand the shortcuts. I’m getting there.”

If he can navigate the notoriously confusing streets of Boston, he’ll be fine here. He says he got to know that city because his family rebuilt most of the roads. In fact, one day his father came home and told him they had to relocate the site of the Boston Massacre to redo a street.

If the McCourts can move the location of an event from 1770, does that mean they could raze a certain 42-year-old stadium?

“No,” Frank McCourt said. “We’ve fallen in love with Dodger Stadium. I know there was a lot of discussion when we arrived about what was our view of Dodger Stadium. We’re committed to Dodger Stadium and think it’s great.”

So on the eve of his birthday, McCourt said the stadium and those who created the magic there this summer will stay.

It’s up to everyone else to close their eyes, blow out the candles and hope their wishes come true.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.