The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse Read Online Free PDF

assets was executed at Jamie’s insistence since she was worried her husband’s creditors would come after the family homes if his business deals soured, leaving her and their children with no place to live. Jamie, a former family law attorney, conceded she had signed the document, but said she hadn’t read it and had no idea what it meant. For reasons still unknown, Frank and Jamie each signed ten copies of the agreement. But when the lawyers unearthed all the duplicates from a safe they noticed something strange: five of the copies included the Dodgers on Frank McCourt’s list of separate properties, and five excluded the team. Jamie’s lawyers cried foul. Her case hinged on the enforceability of a contract that had different signed versions. In the end, the estranged couple spent more than $20 million in legal fees fighting over a document that cost less than $10,000 to prepare.“Frank and I practically raised each other and put everything we had into the Dodgers,” Jamie said. “The notion that I’d give that up is preposterous.”
    In perhaps the most pivotal moment in Dodger history since Walter O’Malley moved the team to Los Angeles, the judge ruled that the contract was unenforceable, which entitled Jamie to half of whatever the team was worth.
    Since the two could no longer stand each other, running the Dodgers together was not an option. The only way McCourt could split the franchise in half was to sell it. But even though he was broke, and their salacious divorce trial had dragged the Dodgers through a prolonged national embarrassment, McCourt made it clear that he had no intention of parting with the team. According to court filings, the Dodgers owed $573 million to creditors in January 2012. In 2009, the Miami Dolphins had sold for $1.1 billion—a record for an American sports franchise. Forbes valued the Dodgers at $900 million. If the team sold for near that price, most of that money would be wiped out by debts and taxes, leaving the couple with nothing. But McCourt had an aceup his sleeve. The Dodgers’ television deal with Fox was set to expire at the end of the 2013 season, and it was thought to be worth billions. If he could just hang on to the team for two more years, all of his financial problems would be solved, and then some.
    Major League Baseball officials were not about to let that happen. Team finances are state secrets, but, much to the ire of MLB executives, the McCourt divorce trial had forced open the Dodgers’ books for public consumption, and tawdry tales of the McCourt family’s extravagant lifestyle had horrified the sport’s commissioner, Bud Selig. The Dodgers were one of the cornerstones on which his league was built, and McCourt’s driving the team into the ground threatened the livelihood of the game. Thousands of Dodger fans pledged to boycott as long as McCourt owned the team. From 2009 to 2011, attendance plummeted by 22 percent. The morale of club employees was in the gutter, too.“Every day going to that stadium was like showing up to a funeral and watching the congregation get smaller and smaller,” said one Dodger executive. McCourt didn’t care. Selig wanted him gone, but ousting him would be tricky. The league viewed owners like country club members who could be evicted if they offended the populace. McCourt saw the Dodgers as his private property that no one could legally repossess. Both sides dug in for a protracted fight.
    Then, tragedy struck.
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    On opening day in 2011, a San Francisco Giants fan named Bryan Stow was leaving Dodger Stadium when he was assaulted by two men wearing Dodger gear. He was taken to a hospital with massive brain injuries and remained in a coma for months. Writers and columnists were quick to suggest that despite escalating acts of violence between the rival fan bases over the years,McCourt had been too cheap to pay for an increased security presence around the ballpark. The incident took place after dark and