while a lot of people are rejoicing about this sale, tj simers of all people is asking a lot of pointed questions. for one thing, it sure doesn't look like frank mccourt is going away. and magic johnson is saying and doing weird stuff, like sitting with mccourt at a game in san diego. or was it arizona? anyway, you get the point.

this converges with my pet nutty conspiracy theory, though. i believe bud selig engineered this sale because he doesn't want solid ownership in L.A. because he doesn't want to have to deal with another george steinbrenner. i have a colleague who is talking about how mccourt has screwed baseball with this sale, but what is actually happening in my opinion is that mccourt is screwing the new ownership of the dodgers. selig doesn't care about that -- the team was sold for 2 billion, which is what he's happy about. now franchise value is preserved. what goes on in L.A. is the ownership's problems.

i believe bud selig engineered this sale because he doesn't want solid ownership in L.A. because he doesn't want to have to deal with another george steinbrenner.

Hard to believe that there are many people with $2B to invest who couldn't run an operation the size of a MLB team, or who wouldn't see the link between on-field performance and long-term revenue. But perhaps Bud knows a lot of dim bulbs.

this converges with my pet nutty conspiracy theory, though. i believe bud selig engineered this sale because he doesn't want solid ownership in L.A. because he doesn't want to have to deal with another george steinbrenner. i have a colleague who is talking about how mccourt has screwed baseball with this sale, but what is actually happening in my opinion is that mccourt is screwing the new ownership of the dodgers. selig doesn't care about that -- the team was sold for 2 billion, which is what he's happy about. now franchise value is preserved. what goes on in L.A. is the ownership's problems.

Hey, Kasten is part of the deal, and he screwed Washington. Imagine what he can do with four years in Los Angeles.

Judge Kevin Gross sided with the Dodgers

Shouldn't he have recused himself from this case, given that it involved his former employer?

I can't believe a $2.15 billion sale of an MLB team was approved yesterday without MLB apparently even knowing for sure how the new Dodgers ownership breaks down. Unless it was bad reporting, stories have said the only name in the sales agreement is that of Guggenheim exec Mark Walter. It's widely understood that Magic, Guber, Kasten, and a few others are part-owners, but their shares apparently haven't been determined or announced. It looks like McCourt steamrolled MLB both legally and financially.

On a related note, Shaikin reported last night that it's believed not all of the Dodgers' new TV money will be subject to revenue sharing, due to McCourt's settlement with MLB. That could be one of the reasons the bidding ended up where it did. (And, if true, it could be why some other MLB owners are "furious," as I believe Shaikin and/or others have put it.)

I can't believe a $2.15 billion sale of an MLB team was approved yesterday without MLB apparently even knowing for sure how the new Dodgers ownership breaks down. Unless it was bad reporting, stories have said the only name in the sales agreement is that of Guggenheim exec Mark Walter. It's widely understood that Magic, Guber, Kasten, and a few others are part-owners, but their shares apparently haven't been determined or announced. It looks like McCourt steamrolled MLB both legally and financially.

Yeah, this is weird. Everyone's so happy to get rid of McCourt a lot of stuff is sort of getting ignored.

Yeah, this is weird. Everyone's so happy to get rid of McCourt a lot of stuff is sort of getting ignored.

I thought the media did a great job covering this sale until the actual deal was announced, at which point the media fell back into McCourt mode (circa 2004). I'm impressed with the Magic/Kasten/Walter group and the Dodgers should be in very good hands, but the media's coverage of the deal has generally been silly, as Magic's presence has seemingly created a Steve Jobs-type "reality distortion field" around the deal.

No doubt, this was part of the Kasten/Walter plan and it was brilliant, but from the media standpoint, when T.J. Simers and a retired Ross Newhan are asking the best questions in the country's second-biggest media market, something has gone wrong. Stan Kasten and Mark Walter are the key guys here and should be getting 98 percent of the attention, not Magic. (Hell, Newhan claims Magic's total investment was $1 million, which, if true, means he'll profit just for showing up.)

when T.J. Simers and a retired Ross Newhan are asking the best questions in the country's second-biggest media market, something has gone wrong. Stan Kasten and Mark Walter are the key guys here and should be getting 98 percent of the attention, not Magic.

yes, i agree. i also think that if mccourt had not gotten divorced, he'd still be an owner in good standing. his skimming of the proceeds isn't what got bud selig up on his hind legs, it was the public disclosure of how the club was being run.

Hell, Newhan claims Magic's total investment was $1 million, which, if true, means he'll profit just for showing up.

Magic wouldn't be the first person enlisted for such purposes. George W. Bush put down just half a million for his piece of the Rangers, and that was borrowed.

Bush made out well with the Rangers, but I believe he actively put the investment group together, etc. (similar to, if not exactly like, Chuck Greenberg ~20 years later).

I just noticed I forgot to mention Bill Shaikin in #7, which was a major blunder. If anyone has ever covered an MLB team sale/saga as well as Shaikin has covered the Dodgers bankruptcy, sale, etc., I'd like to know who. As an inside-baseball junkie, I hope the Los Angeles Times trades him to San Diego or New York to cover whichever team sells next.