Rising debt forced Selig to take over Dodgers

Associated Press

NEW YORK

As he read each report coming from Los Angeles, baseball commissioner Bud Selig grew more and more concerned.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie — the team’s former chief executive officer — were trading bitter accusations during a three-week divorce trial that centered on which of them owned the franchise of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda.

Then Frank McCourt fired Dennis Mannion, the team president. Having already burdened the team and its real estate with more than $450 million of debt, McCourt wanted to take out additional loans and was having trouble securing them. He retained a high-powered law firm and wanted to negotiate a new front-loaded television deal that would give the club more cash he might withdraw for himself.

Then on opening day, a San Francisco Giants fan was severely beaten outside Dodger Stadium, highlighting a security problem fans have complained about for years. The fan remains in a medically induced coma. And there were worries the Dodgers would not make their first player payroll on April 15.

Finally, Selig had enough. He took the extraordinary step Wednesday of saying Major League Baseball was taking over operations of one of America’s most famous teams, the one that integrated the national pastime, broke Brooklyn’s heart and paved the way for coast-to-coast expansion. The takeover is possibly a prelude to Selig forcing a sale of the franchise.

“It wasn’t one thing,” a baseball executive said. “It was a series of things that just kept building.”

Once a model, the Dodgers now are just a mess.

Selig wouldn’t go into details about why he decided to take over the team. He is expected to appoint his new head of the Dodgers early next week.

Steve Soboroff, hired Tuesday as the Dodgers’ vice chairman, said baseball’s concerns were unjustified and Selig’s decision was “irresponsible.”

McCourt’s planned deal “should be the model for other baseball teams. But Frank is being picked out,” Soboroff said. “He said, ’We meet these requirements.’ Other teams, like in New York, don’t. He’s being picked out and selected.”

Now, Soboroff said, any team expediture over $5,000 has to be approved by MLB.

Former Dodgers manager Joe Torre said he talked with Selig about the move, and that he hopes it produces a healthy franchise.

“It’s obvious the organization needed to be tended to, paid attention to, and I know it wasn’t easy for the commissioner to come up with the decision that he did,” Torre said.