Miller: With hot start, Dodgers on their way to regenerating buzz

“Mad Dog” Sawyer fans…the wait is over!

The Dodgers, which opened Dodger Stadium’s 50th Anniversary season Tuesday, actually are no longer feeling entitled about much of anything.

But you know what? With the McCourt Circus about to fold up its tents and leave town, maybe that’s a good thing.

Maybe a city and a ballclub are ready to fall back in love again. Maybe winning ‘em back one fan at a time isn’t a bad way to go.

...How much damage McCourt did to the franchise will be answered in coming months. What we know right now is that attendance shrunk nearly 18 percent last summer from 2010 because fans were so angry (and that accounting is just for tickets sold. Actual attendance, including no-shows, was even more sorry).

Last year was the first time in 16 non-strike-shortened seasons that the Dodgers failed to draw three million, and only the second time since 1989.

No, no longer is it good enough simply to tug on those crisp, white jerseys—one of the four best home uniforms in the game (along with the Yankees, Tigers and Cardinals)—and open the Dodger Stadium gates. And notably, McCourt, after sitting right next to the Dodgers dugout at last week’s opener in San Diego, hid upstairs in a Dodger Stadium suite Tuesday.