Boston Globe: Artful Dodgers, bleeding, blue

It was 2001, Frank McCourt had just pitched a roomful of businesspeople on his bold dream to buy the Red Sox and turn 24 acres of pavement he owned on the South Boston Waterfront into a state-of-the-art ballpark. Sensing some resistance to the idea, the silver-haired landowner agreed to sweeten the deal, and was about to offer an enticement when his wife, a blond, slender-framed woman with sharp features, cut him off.

“Shut up, Frank,’’ said Jamie McCourt.

To those in the room familiar with the couple, the exchange, recounted by a lawyer who was present, was typical. For two decades in Boston, the hard-nosed husband and wife developers had proved themselves to be shrewd, but combative, even with each other. It was a style that won them few friends in the business community or at City Hall, and when their play for the Sox failed and the McCourts headed West to take over the Dodgers, many wondered how their headstrong approach would play in Los Angeles.

The answer, it seems, is badly. Last month, sensational details of the couple’s bitter divorce - Jamie McCourt’s alleged affair with her driver, the collection of multimillion-dollar homes and penchant for $400 dinners and $5,000 hotel rooms - became fodder for the front page and grist for gossip websites. A local columnist has taken to calling Frank McCourt “the Boston parking lot attendant’’ and his wife “The Screaming Meanie.’’ Their pending split has fans of the venerable L.A. baseball franchise up in arms and may force the McCourts to sell the team.

“It’s not good when you’re getting your baseball news from TMZ,’’ says Mike Petriello, who runs the popular Dodgers blog MikeSciosciasTragicIllness.com and referred to a leading gossip site. “Everyone here is kind of horrified with Frank and Jamie McCourt.’’

So like, is Boston proud of this power couple?