before going to Dallas and facing our supposed rivals the Rangers in the Interleague silliness.
After getting stomped by the Pirates, who are actually starting to look like a .500 team, as opposed to a .400 team, we managed to take 2 from the Dodgers, who are currently supposedly unaffected by the little problem caused by Frank McCourt’s flagrant looting of the franchise. Remember how he got this loan from Fox of 300 mill and he said publically AND on the record that wouldn’t none of that $$$ be used for personal use, just to put into the club?
Uh hunh, suurrrre. Check out reporter Steve Dilbeck:
“The $300 million I made clear to baseball today, that the entirety of the $300 million is going directly into the Dodgers as equity,” McCourt said April 27th. “None of those dollars is being used in any personal way. I would be happy to make that commitment in writing.”
Well, he did make a commitment in writing Friday in his “divorce settlement,” though the money to be loaned by Fox up front had somehow mushroomed to $385 million.
And per the divorce agreement, out of that $385 million: $5 million would go each to Frank and Jamie McCourt to cover attorneys’ fees (hey, they stayed up to 3 a.m. Friday); each would get $5 million to do with as they please (down payment on another villa!); $23.5 million would repay Frank for the personal loan he acquired to make payroll (think that $30 mil Fox already loaned him); $80 million will be used to pay off debt (well, a little of it); and $50 million will be placed into an account subject to the court’s orders (no, not for a left fielder, it’s just-in-case money).
Grand total: $173.5 million.
Otherwise, not a cent of the TV money will be for personal use! Other than that $173.5 million.
I don’t know, other than that, I’m sure MLB is convinced Frank is reformed, has learned all those valuable lessons and will always put the Dodgers first. I mean, why wouldn’t they take Frank at his word?
- why am I mentioning all this stuff? Because Frank wants to hang on for dear life and he is constantly being exposed as a liar – and a liar who has no money except for a proposed Fox deal which might could be all KINDS of bad news in the not to distant future. Frank, you see, was highly leveraged when he was allowed to buy the franchise.
And he had more collateral than jim Crane. Maury Brown, whose expose in Forbes I linked to last entry, notes that although the Houston media is absolutely silent, that the Chicago Tribune had something to say:
“Despite an unflattering profile in Forbes Magazine, which details a long history of employment complaints from minorities and women, Houston businessman Jim Crane still appears on track to be approved as the Astros’ new owner. However, one source said Major League Baseball staffers are investigating one allegation raised in the story, with an outside chance it could complicate the transfer.
MLB long ago vetted Crane, who was involved in attempts to purchase the Cubs and Rangers, and excused him in almost all of the cases Forbes raises. But at least one element of the story surprised Selig’s staff, requiring additional legwork.
The source denied Crane is under additional scrutiny because of the troubles of the Dodgers’ Frank McCourt and Chuck Greenberg, whom Nolan Ryan and their other partners bought out within his first year of owning the Rangers.”
- Maury himself said he had another piece of information which he did NOT publish because he couldn’t find a second corroborating source, but I hope it is something that will keep Buddy boy from letting this sale go through because he just might could NOT want another repeat of what is going on in LA.
The Dodgers looked dispirited – I men, yeah, I know you don’t look happy when you get 4 hit by a guy with a 5+ ERA, or shutout by Wandy and bullpen – and Wandy didn’t have his best stuff again, but managed to throw 6 scoreless with 7 H, 2 walks and a GIDP. Bud Norris threw 6 innings of 1 hit 1 walk shutout ball and got a ND for his trouble.
Good news is that Chris Johnson has started hitting better. Not sure yet if Pence will be able to play with his lebow problem – too many athletes won’t rest injuries, then they get even worse…
Sorry about the no posts this weekend – we were enjoying a weekend off in Galveston and I just didn’t have the energy left over to stay up, watch the remainder of the late games then write. Yet ANOTHER reason why I don’t want my team in the West whether it’s NL or AL…
Tags: Dodgers, Houston Astros, MLB
Lance is now the starting first baseman for you St. Louis Cardinals! What a turnaround for him…
Cashman just called Wandy a “back of the rotation starter”. WTF? He’s posturing. Wandy is ranked 8th in the NL. There are 16 teams. This implies he is the #1 pitcher for over half of the teams in the NL. Wandy’s second half of last year combined with this year makes him one of the top pitchers over that time. Cashman’s full of @#$%@#$
Lisa — Several stories today are saying MLB is taking a second look at Jim Crane. With the problems with the Dodgers, maybe MLB is thinking twice about approving another owner with a questionable background and shallow pockets. It’s not over ’til it’s over.
If MLB has to seize the Dodgers later this month, I can’t see how MLB could approve Crane and all his debt a few weeks later. McCourt’s lawyers would have a field day with that.
——–
I posted this last night in the old thread. Re-posting here in case people didn’t see it:
Funny comment by Gil LeBreton in his Star-Telegram column today:
“… proposed new Astros owner Jim Crane has been quoted as saying he has no interest in moving the team to the American League. Crane grew up in St. Louis and reportedly considers himself a traditionalist. …
“Think Crane will get Ray Davis’ and Bob Simpson’s vote, after the way he helped to jack up the price of the Rangers last summer?”
– Crane actually hasn’t been quoted about anything since the press conference in May, but the part about Davis and Simpson was an angle I hadn’t even thought about. No one has written about it, but there have to be some owners lobbying against Crane behind the scenes, whether it’s Reinsdorf because of Crane’s EEOC problems, Davis/Simpson for Crane’s antics last year, etc.
—————
Shifting now to Dallas’ other major paper, does anyone subscribe to the Dallas Morning News? This article looks like it might be interesting, but it’s behind the paywall:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/texas-rangers/headlines/20110620-fraley-youthful-astros-have-long-way-to-go-major-rebuilding-job-ahead.ece
Gerry Fraley has been around a long time and usually does a good job.
steve,
wandy has been one of the top 10 lefties in the NL for 3 years, probably 4. cashman is full of youknowwhat or he doesn’t know the NL or he is doing the usual pretending that Al pitchers are soooooooooo much bettern NL pitchers.
ann,
i HAD heard that if frank mccourt’s fox deal was shot down by bud, then we might could get lucky and have him nix crane in favor of one of the groups that have like, you know, MONEY – and don’t plan to hire some basketball guy as CEO…
Lisa — Maury Brown keeps churning out articles that talk about all of Crane’s issues but then he always says he fully expects Crane to be approved. I’m not sure if Maury is just trying to be fair or to hedge his bets or if he’s confident the $680 million will trump everything else.
I thought Maury would be pushing the debt issue and the Dodgers angle, but Maury seems to be taking the opposite approach. In today’s article, Maury says Crane’s debt is “manageable,” which seems like a charitable description since Crane will be way over MLB’s debt limit, possibly for years to come. Unless Crane is a magician, the Astros’ revenues are likely to decline for a few years rather than increase.
The other odd thing about Maury’s coverage, which has been excellent, is that he hasn’t been making any connection to the Dodgers. As I said above, I don’t see how MLB can seize the Dodgers because of debt and then approve Crane a week later. McCourt’s lawyers, and the media, would have a field day with that.
Lisa said: “i HAD heard that if frank mccourt’s fox deal was shot down by bud, then we might could get lucky and have him nix crane in favor of one of the groups that have like, you know, MONEY – and don’t plan to hire some basketball guy as CEO…”
This is interesting. Except for that Friedman guy from Houston’s stadium authority, I haven’t heard a single word about other possible bidders since Crane was announced as having a deal. I wonder what would happen if Crane’s bid hits some bumps in the road or is rejected. It seems like McLane would open things back up for bid, but I wonder if he’s working on a fallback option behind the scenes. I had heard there were people with more money than Crane who are or were interested in the Astros, but I also heard their offers were in the $500s and not $680.
As I said a long time ago, if I were McLane, I would have waited until after the Dodgers are sold. A lot of big money will be available then. This whole fast deal with Crane never made sense to me, and it makes less sense the more I read about Crane — unless, of course, McLane WANTS a new owner who makes Uncle D look great by comparison.
Annnnnnnnnnnd JA Happ can NOT pitch. Lovely game tonight, Happ throws 86
pitches, and CAN’T get through the 3rd. inning.
Lisa, Wandy ca out pitch any Am league pitcher out there! The guy KNOWS
how to get outs! By the way…..I REALLY like this new catcher, Corporan! Becky:)
ann
uncle D wants the most money he can get even if it ruins the franchise. i think it’s like ballplayers who have to have the biggest p***s, i mean, contract, on the team – it’s “respect” – and uncle D knows very well he is getting 200 more mill than the franchise is worth.