I’m considering taking a nap soon so I can watch it live. Go M’s!
Magic Johnson’s ownership group has bought the Dodgers (and the parking lots at Dodger Stadium) for 2 billion dollars.
On the downside this has made Frank McCourt a billionaire, even after all his debt he is going to clear a billion on this deal. On the plus side, local ownership of the team and no rent being paid to McCourt and (probably) the naming rights to Dodger Stadium don’t get sold off.
Listening to the A’s and Mariners compete to see who can have the most embarassingly incompetent offense, a battle it looks like Oakland will win in extra innings.
At some point, following a leadoff double by Yoenes Cespides, the A’s called a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Allen, who baseball-reference.com informs me last completed a successful sacrifice in 2006, as a 20-year-old in single A Kannapolis. Allen popped up to third base, the runner did not advance, and the A’s did not score. I really don’t understand how many major league managers become and stay major league managers. If I were Billy Beane, I think I’d fire Bob Melvin right now.
[QUOTE=The Wall Street Journal]
The deal allows Mr. McCourt to enter into a joint venture with the new owners on the land surrounding the stadium.
[/QUOTE]
$2B and McCourt can still continue to make money off the parking lots or whatever they might dream up (DodgerWorld) without the trouble of actually owning the baseball team itself? Incredibly sweet deal.
Ichiro didn’t disappoint the hometown fans with his 4 for 5 today.
Yeah! First place! Yeah! Go Mariners!
More news from Bill Shaikin via twitter says that McCourt will be a minority owner of the parking lots, and that he will not have control of the lots for Dodger games, but that any non-baseball uses of the lots will have to be a joint venture between him and Dodgers ownership with the new owners having veto power.
Still it could be worse. And the other major ownership group in the bidding wanted to put Tony La Russa in charge of baseball operations, so, there is another plus! No La Russa.
Now that we’ve had a our first regular season game, here’s a link to the new thread.