I have been a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1976 when Rick Monday was traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Dodgers. I know this might sound silly but the reason he became my favorite player was because I had never heard of anyone with a day of the week as his last name before him.
He did other memorable things in his career, especially saving the American flag from being burned on April 1976 while he was still with the Cubs. Ironically, to me, the Cubs were in Dodger stadium that day.
But this post is not about Mr Monday. This is about this season being the worst Dodger season I can remember since 1976. In truth I can only remember 2-3 losing seasons. I tried looking that up but so far no success.
From my memories 1991-92 were the of two worst seasons before this current ownership and I believe 91 was a strike year with only about half a season. For the most part the Dodgers were a well run organization with a great minor league system until the O'Malley's sold the team in 1998.
Since then the organization has been slowly crumbling, in my opinion. The next owners were Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp. From a distance I don't think Mr Murdoch cared about the team as long as they were making him money.
It was under Murdoch's ownership that General Manager Kevin Malone signed free agent pitcher Kevin Brown to a 7 year $105 million contract that many still consider to be the worst free agent signing in baseball history. I agree with them. I thought so at the time but I still think it was a terrible thing to do.
I personally think that Mr Murdoch and Malone were trying to be like the Yankees. A team that signs big name free agents in the hopes that they will help draw in fans and maybe win championships. I think that recent baseball history shows that overall that way of doing things really doesn't work.
Yes, the Yankees had a couple of World Series in the late '90's but I believe they have only won once WS since. But this is not about my dislike of the Yankees it's about the down turn of the Dodgers.
In 2004 the Dodgers were inexplicably sold to Frank McCourt. As I said before I am not much of a economist but I have heard and read from several sources that Mr McCourt "purchased of the Dodgers was financed mostly by debt. (wikipedia) I have no clue how that works and even less of a clue as to why Major League Baseball would allow a team to be sold in that way.
Other than a couple of winning seasons and two playoff appearances Frank McCourt's ownership of the Dodgers has been horrid. He hired a GM Paul Depodesta in 2004 who had zero clue as to how to properly do his job. Depodesta made the worst trade in Dodger history. Basically, he traded starting Catcher Paul LoDuca and Relief Pitcher Guillermo Mota to the Florida Marlins for 1st Hee-Chop Choi and CF Steve Finley. Choi was a huge bust and Finley was at the end of his career. After that season season the he signed some big name free agents for over $91 million and the Dodgers had the worst record since the moved to La 1955.
Even though DePodesta was fired things really haven't gotten much better since then. And the in the last two seasons things have basically exploded. Mr McCourt and his wife are having a messy divorce. A San Fransico Giant fan was beaten up outside of Dodger stadium, and apparently there was not proper security at the stadium until after that attack.
In the last few days news has come out that Mr McCourt will not even afford to meet his payroll.
Even though MLB has taken charge of day to day operations which is a step toward removing Mr McCourt from ownership of the team he is vowing to fight it.
All I wish I could do it beg him to just sell now and get what he can. We Dodger fans deserve a lot better than him.
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