Letters: Dodgers fans won't settle for less than a sale

L.A. Times Archives

June 24, 2011 12 AM PT

Dear Frank and Jamie,

Thank you both so much for this bitter divorce proceeding. Had you both swallowed your pride and worked out a behind-the-scenes settlement, we might be stuck with your family still owning the Dodgers for years to come. Now, we get to enjoy watching you get the boot from Major League Baseball (where you never belonged in the first place) and possibly Mark Cuban coming to the rescue.

Phil Alvarez

Huntington Beach

My suggestion to whomever buys the Dodgers and doesn’t get the stadium, parking lot, concessions, sunflower seeds etc.... Here’s what you do. Move the Dodgers back to the Coliseum, where it all began, until a new stadium can be built. Change the name to the Los Angeles Free, if you have to, so Frank McCourt doesn’t get a piece of the souvenirs and be done with him. Let him have the parking lot, the bobbleheads, the Dodgers blankets and let him live in the stadium he took from the people of Los Angeles.

Oh, yeah. Let him have the same security force he had on opening day 2011.

Bruce Kalish

Encino

Wouldn’t it be great if Mr. McCourt has to give up the team but is able to retain the parking lot, the stadium, and the ticket selling part. Mark Cuban buys the team and cites the age and disrepair of Dodger Stadium as being the reason to build a new baseball-only stadium on the site that is now being touted as a football stadium on the site next to Staples Center. Cuban moves the team to Angel Stadium for two years as the new Farmers Field (for baseball) is built. In the meantime, the Los Angeles City Council begins eminent domain proceedings against the owner of the former Dodger Stadium and its parking lot to build low-income housing.

Jeff White

Palmdale

As a longtime Giants fan, I would be sorry to see the McCourts go. After all, nobody else has done as much as they have to diminish the value of the Dodgers franchise. And they’ve been a gold mine of column inches for The Times’ sportswriters, especially T.J.

Ray Mungo

Signal Hill

After his Dodgers days are done Frank McCourt should become a financial advisor. He’ll be able to make investors a small fortune. First you start with a large fortune...

Mike Gamboa

Buena Park

I don’t know what Ned Colletti has in mind for the Dodgers on the field, but I sure hope that Frank McCourt is a “seller” at the trading deadline.

Mel Powell

Sherman Oaks

Bud Selig sends a message loud and clear to Frank McCourt: “There’s no ‘I’ in ATM.”

Ben Coats

Ventura

Frank McCourt just announced that the next bobblehead will be a likeness of himself, done up all in gold. Attorney Bob Sacks wanted to add these hilarious dollar signs for eyes, but Jamie needed the extra dough to snatch up this cute little foreclosure in Malibu, next door to the Edge.

Get there early, kids.

Dan Kelly

Studio City

I was surprised to hear Bill Plaschke bought tickets to a recent Dodger game for $2.55. Based on the product the Dodgers are putting on the field these days I’d only go as high as $1.75.

Rob Osborne

Manhattan Beach

Does Frank McCourt believe that he is fooling all of us, or is he merely fooling himself? Wouldn’t the known problems in meeting payroll obligations give one pause to wonder just how he expects to fund the war chest that he will need to finance a court battle against Major League Baseball? Being broke is one thing; being broke and delusional is something else.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

I know who would be a great choice to buy the Dodgers. A few men who have made a ton of money over the past year. Their knowledge of the Dodgers is unsurpassed by other prospective buyers and they probably know more about the Dodgers than anyone in America.

Frank and Jamie’s lawyers.

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

Don’t count me in as someone who is celebrating Selig’s decision to nix the Fox deal. Not yet anyway. It’s kind of like being helped out of the pool by the guy who shoved you in there in the first place.

I read the Simers and Plaschke articles Tuesday morning. I’ve listened to sports-talk radio. Now that everyone’s finally getting on the same bandwagon that I and other enlightened Dodgers fans have been riding for years, we enjoy the company. But my frustration continues on.

We all need to realize that the timing of the hopeful sale is critical. We need to not only get a new owner in here immediately, but he/she absolutely has to have money this time because:

Carroll, Miles, Furcal, Blake, Barajas, Navarro, Thames, Broxton, Garland and Kuroda are all free agents after the season. We don’t need any of them back, with the exception of Carroll and possibly Miles. Broxton too, if he comes back looking like the Broxton we used to have. The 100-mph Broxton. But we’ll probably get most of them back because no one else wants them.

Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Brandon Phillips, Mark Buehrle, CC Sabathia, Jonathon Papelbon — all these guys might well be on the market. The Dodgers used to be players for talent like this. Even if McCourt would be willing to pony up the money, we will never be even considered a place the higher talent will want to play for with him as the owner.

Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Clayton Kershaw will leave as soon as they become free agents in another year or two. Guaranteed.

McCourt, stop being the petulant little boy you must have grown up as. Please be a man and sell the team now.

Eric Monson

Temecula

Thank you Bud Selig for rejecting the proposed Fox deal. These people don’t get it and never will. Frank McCourt knows how to do two things — live beyond his means and sue people.

Steve Owen

San Diego

Ticket: $40

Parking: $15

No. of Dodgers runs: 0

New ownership: Priceless

Michael Zweig

Encino

The Dodgers have a lot of nerve whining about problems in left field. Juan Pierre was the hottest player in the league while starting when Manny Ramirez was serving his 50 game suspension. When Ramirez returned they exiled Pierre from Mannywood. Ramirez flamed out and then they got rid of Juan Pierre altogether. Imagine an outfield with Ethier, Kemp and Juan Pierre.

Gerard Lollie

Altadena

Old times

I see that 80-year-old Jack McKeon has been named manager of the Florida Marlins. Having a grizzled veteran at the helm is one thing, but this is ridiculous! Who’s going to be coaching third base, Moses?

Jack Wolf

Westwood

Fixing baseball

Baseball’s unmistakable demise is most attributable to its lengthy periods of inaction as well as the emphasis on specialized pitching. Closers and relief specialists make for few exciting of the finishes that football and basketball enjoy.

One rule would change that, maintaining the integrity of the game but amplifying its excitement: No changeof pitcher once the inning begins. Period. Whoever starts the inning must finish. If injury occurs, he must leave the field and another position player on the field then must pitch, leaving only six defensive players behind him.

Imagine the increased pace, offense and drama that baseball lacks now. Fans would love it.

Rick Wallace

Malibu

Here’s how baseball can make itself more relevant. Shorten the season by two weeks so the playoffs don’t finish until late October when sports fans are interested in other things. Keep the playoffs, but start the games earlier in the day so they are not past a kid’s bedtime. For the rest, I agree with Ken Burns: Leave the game alone! And, please, settle this Dodger thing.

Paul L. Hovsepian

Sierra Madre

Baseball is thinking realignment and maybe this is what the Angels need. With the Angels having one of the best records in interleague play, they should just ask Bud Selig to move them to the NL.

Jimmy Corona

Diamond Bar

Dear Lakers

Attention Jerry Buss:

Dwight Howard has openly stated he will become a free agent at the end of this next season and has even stated in the past that he would like to become a Laker.

How long will it be before your son’s hand-picked discovery, Andrew Bynum, suffers another injury?

I’ve been a Lakers fan since Chickie began broadcasting games in 1961 and besides Kobe and Magic, this is the best opportunity the Lakers have had to promote the future of their franchise. Pulling the trigger on a trade for Howard is a no-brainer and everyone is expendable, except Kobe.

And if the Lakers don’t acquire Howard, where might he go to haunt the Lakers? Boston? Miami?

Michael Grant

Huntington Beach

I think the new Lakers coach deserves a chance to prove himself. However, without major roster changes, the triangle is the best offense for this team, if the players use it properly and stop shooting so many three-pointers. This team is too old to run and gun. The triangle allows the team to run plays that eat up the clock, and when run properly it will get them good shots at the basket. Turning away from it with the current makeup of the team is not a good idea.

Steve Watson

West Hills

Go see Cal

Your article about Cal’s baseball team was heartwarming and inspiring.

Some decades ago, when I attended Cal, I did not much care about our teams. I liked sports — I spent many spirit-saving hours on the basketball and tennis courts, and on the track — when the teams were not using them. I attended a few of the lower-priced team events, like gymnastics, but I could not afford the others.

But I could afford the tuition and living expenses, and I knew that Cal offered me a wondrous array of majors to choose from and the chance to finish any of them in four years.

That is not true for today’s students. For them, costs are rising beyond their means, classes are being cut so that degrees will take five years instead of four, and some majors are being eliminated entirely.

I wish I could read more heartwarming, inspiring stories about how wealthy alumni dig deep and save some of those academic programs, giving some short, skinny, nearsighted students the chance to power the revival of the California economy, in addition to giving athletes the chance to play baseball.

David Datz

Altadena

As a former Cal baseball player, I was delighted to read David Wharton’s article on the saving of the Bears program. On the other hand, I was mortified to discover that we actually accepted donations from our sworn enemy, the Stanford Cardinals. I guess it is true when they say that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Maury D. Benemie

Corona

So much for that

UCLA will win the BCS Championship 10 consecutive seasons, the Clippers will capture 11 straight NBA titles under GM/Coach/starting point guard Kobe Bryant and USC will score a dozen NCAA hoops crowns guided by Paul Westphal (and ably assisted by Jumpin’ Joe Mackey, Mo Layton and Spoon Riley) before the first shovel of dirt is dug for Farmers Field.

Bill Bell

Mar Vista

Clubbing the Bruins

I see that UCLA has officially joined the ranks of the “win at any price” with the commitment of Jordan Adams. With Korey McCray now on staff, I give the Bruins three years before the NCAA slaps them with sanctions. The sleazy world of AAU and club basketball, and McCray’s ties to it can only spell trouble for the Bruins down the road. Ben Howland needs to call Pat Haden now to get some tips on how he should prepare his defense before the NCAA infractions committee.

Ken Stachler

Costa Mesa

Open and shut

Father’s Day weekend, I sat down in my easy chair to watch NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Open. However, I didn’t get to see the tournament because all NBC showed was flashbacks of previous days’ action, Jimmy Robert’s phlegmatic stories, tedious interviews with Bob Costas and commercials. By the way, who won?

Larry Larson

Redondo Beach

Just wondering if Tiger Woods was listening to the Eagles’ “There’s a New Kid in Town” while watching Rory Mcllroy breeze through the U.S. Open.

Roger Saevig

Simi Valley

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