Your move, Bud. Again.
Rarely is that the case, given that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig already played his card, squashing a broadcast deal between the Dodgers and FOX, and stepping on soon-to-be-former owner Frank McCourt’s neck.
But the ploy only bought time. It didn’t save the team, bad and broke and embarrassing for baseball, itself needing something of a savior.
Selig needs a hand with the Dodgers first, the first domino for baseball’s falling up. Lucky for him, his guy—the one to replace McCourt and restore the franchise—is just a phone call away. Six numbers down, one more to dial.
…Right?
I mean, Selig does have a succession plan, doesn’t he?
He should. He has to.
If not, if Selig doesn’t have a fill-in ready, things will worsen, and quick. Instead of one step back to take two forward, it’ll be three steps back and taking a seat.
It already has to sour before it sweetens. In order for Selig to seize control of the team, McCourt has to default on his payroll. Sync your watches for June 30, kids, judgment day for a FOX-less and penniless McCourt, toast without the $1.7 billion deal with an up-front $385 million that would’ve spared him.
McCourt’s not history yet—Bill Plaschke strung together a series of unlikely but theoretically possible circumstances in the LA Times today that could stave off the end for McCourt. But barring miracle, McCourt’s story rests in a press at Pearson, waiting to be published in the past tense.
After that, the team should hit the auction market. Kind of like a repo auction, only with an $800 million franchise, according to Forbes, up for grabs and for pocket change. When that happens, Selig has to nudge a bad team and new owner together.
To pull that off, he’s got to have a guy. A candidate. A man to pitch.
Commandeering a so-called ‘open bid’ is fair game in baseball. At least it has precedent, after Selig bucked a $600 million bid from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to route the team to Nolan Ryan’s investment group.
(Even if there wasn’t a first, Selig would have had to make this it.)
Who he’s got, I can’t be sure. Maybe it’s Larry Ellison, who flirted with buying the Golden State Warriors about this time last year. Stingy or not—Ellison wouldn’t budge past $400 million, more than affordable for Forbes’ No. 5 richest man in the world—the CEO of Oracle brings the bankroll and buzz the Dodgers need. If not him, Michael Dell seems a visionary and Hollywood enough to pull it off.
Bud Selig (left) couldn’t see through Frank McCourt (right) in 2006. But maybe he can see beyond McCourt’s ownership of the Dodgers, a defining transition for the team, league and commissioner.Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Cuban made the most sense, that ‘new ring’ scent fresh on his finger and an intoxicating air of savvy hovering overhead. Selig doesn’t seem to want any part of that, turning his nose up to Cuban three times now. (Selig said Cuban had ‘zero’ chance of owning the Cubs in 2008.)
Why Selig isn’t sold on Cuban, who knows? With a net worth lingering around $1.8 billion, according to Forbes, Cuban is better leveraged than most. He’s admirable, having built his fortune on beads sweat and grassroots entrepreneurship.
He’s savvy, having done it during the dot-com boom. He’s accountable, never questioned for his intentions, even if showing it gets him scolded. And he’s flavorful, something a stale sport could use.
In other words, he’s not McCourt. Or Sam Zell, who bought and botched Tribune Co. and the Cubs. Or Fred Wilpon, cigar buddies with a Ponzi schemer. Or any of a procession of idiots parading around owners’ meetings, incapable of or uninterested in winning.
But Cuban also doesn’t seem to be next in line. So that’s that.
The final word for Selig, though, hasn’t been uttered. Validation for him in this defining moment—don’t kid yourself, this is huge—remains TBD.
Mediocrity might be success here. Strange as it sounds, baseball would be more-than-content with a ho-hum owner who pays his bills and fields a team. Someone to be No. 15—not No. 1, but not No. 30, either—on the league’s 2012 best owners rankings. So long as he doesn’t lengthen the line of god-awful owners, the next Dodgers buyer would be an upgrade.
Baseball could use top shelf, though, with three of its five most storied franchises—the Cubs, Mets and Dodgers, minus the Yankees and Red Sox—turned nightmarish. And with bridging the disconnect with the fan base, navigating realignment and hammering out a collective bargaining agreement on the agenda, the more brains and bills in the room, the better.
And Selig had better make a move. Or have one, at least.
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