A team run (into ground?) like nobody’s business
You can imagine Page 2’s reaction to the news that the Los Angeles Business Journal recently selected the McCourts the city’s “Power Couple of the Year.”
Time for Jerry Buss to lock onto one of those 18-year-olds for keeps to become eligible for Power Couple of the Year.
Now it’d be easy to scoff at such acclaim, but the McCourts have always placed a premium on hiring the very best image makers in the business, so finally their money’s well spent.
Or, as the Business Journal put it, “the McCourts have re-energized the Dodgers.”
And here I thought Manny Ramirez, who cost the McCourts nothing, had done that.
But I also discovered that in so many ways I’ve been wrong for some time now in almost everything written here, while both the McCourts and Plaschke have it right.
More on that chilling revelation in a few paragraphs.
AS FOR this award, the Business Journal explained that the McCourts won it because “attendance has increased along with the team’s winning ways. Last spring, the McCourts unveiled a $500 million plan to transform Dodger Stadium into a year-round retail and entertainment destination.”
That’s interesting. I know the McCourts improved Dodger Stadium for the rich folks on the first level, which remains off-limits to the unwashed once the game has started.
But as for that $500-million plan, they’ve put it on hold and are doing nothing this off-season to improve the stadium. Probably wanted to keep their calendar free to accept awards.
“Beyond that,” the Business Journal reported, “the McCourts have gotten involved in the community taking seats on some of the most prominent boards in the area.”
More kudos to their image consultants.
“Also last year,” proclaimed the Business Journal, as if it were a good thing, “they became the lead investors in the purchase of the Los Angeles Marathon.
“That’s why the Business Journal has named the McCourts, L.A.’s Power Couple of the Year,” concluded staff reporter Joel Russell. Interesting to read in the coming months some of Russell’s other conclusions.
The Business Journal also named Stewart & Lynda Resnick and Richard & Daphna Ziman “L.A.’s other Power Couples,” getting second billing to the McCourts, and they’ve probably got to be asking themselves today where they fell short.
Maybe they couldn’t afford to own side-by-side houses in Malibu for more than $40 million after already buying side-by-side Holmby Hills homes for more than $30 million.
No indication yet which home will be leveled to make way for a Little League field.
I’VE BEEN so wrong. I’m in the minority here, a fine publication such as the Business Journal taking all the powerful people into account and coming up with the McCourts.
I could have spent the next year, every minute working on this, and would’ve never come up with them.
And yet it should’ve been easy, given the pool of viable candidates -- maybe a dozen or so after eliminating those in L.A. not divorced. Hard to hype Power Divorced Couple of the Year.
But the important thing here is that some folks think the McCourts are doing well.
I know Plaschke almost always likes what they’re doing, and while he was steadfastly against Ramirez’s return, now that it looks as if he’ll be back, he’s fine with signing him -- albeit cheaply.
I don’t care what the Power Couple spends on Ramirez because it’s not my money.
If I had to make the mortgage payments the McCourts make on the four homes the wife wanted, I’d be the Screaming Meanie.
The McCourts are Power Couple of the Year and Plaschke was Associated Press sports columnist of the year, so we’re talking heavyweights here, and most of you folks out there are siding with them.
No other way to explain the news earlier this week that the Dodgers expect to sell the same number of season tickets this year as they did last.
You people have spoken with your credit cards. You like what the McCourts are doing and agree with Plaschke it will not be the end of the season if they don’t land Ramirez. That’s why he writes for Page 1, and some never seem to make it.
I remember what the Dodgers and the Stadium were like before Ramirez arrived, but why argue with the ticket-buying fans of L.A.?
These are tough economic times, and such fan reaction is very impressive, a tribute really to Plaschke & the Power Couple, who have made such a compelling case to accept whatever.
The Dodgers’ chief operating officer, Dennis Mannion, told The Times earlier that the pace of sales of season tickets is ahead of last year, so there you go.
The outrage on Page 2 has been wasted, which admittedly for some might not come as a news flash.
Why should the Power Couple worry about losing Ramirez if the fans don’t? Why should Plaschke endorse the return of Ramirez when the paying customers have already made it clear it won’t affect their economic decision to support the Dodgers?
Funny thing, too, the Dodgers probably will end up with the guy by default, and a year from now the Power Couple will be accepting awards for watching out for the best interest of their fans.
And Plaschke will be writing the story on a job well done, while back on Page 2, only a reminder that when it comes to Dodgers fans -- these people live among you.
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