May Day Marks the End of the McCourt Era

The closing of the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club was slightly delayed, but the team is officially sold to the new ownership group as of today. As you may know from your own dealings with home sales and what-not, a projected closing date almost never actually occurs on the scheduled day. There is always more number crunching, paper work, and other bureaucracy that needs to be completed. You can imagine how complex a $2+ billion deal is. The new ownership group is comprised of: Mark Walter- CEO of Guggenheim Partners (he will be the controlling partner), sports executive Stan Kasten (he will be the Dodgers’ President and CEO), Magic Johnson (he will be the public face and part-owner), and other investors including Peter Guber (experienced Hollywood executive and Mandalay Entertainment chairman) along with Guggenheim Partners President Todd Boehly and Texas energy investor Bobby Patton. Tomorrow morning there will be a live press conference with the new owners at 10 AM. It will be broadcast live on KCAL, Prime Ticket, MLB.com, Dodgers.com, AM 570 Radio, and MLBTV.

McCourt said goodbye to Mattingly in the clubhouse last Saturday. He reportedly seemed a bit sad at how things turned out, and he was downtrodden to the fact he never brought a World Championship to Los Angeles. Obviously Mattingly is somewhat thankful to McCourt since he gave Donnie the chance to manage even with his lack of managerial experience.

The fans have spoken loud and clear over the years that the black cloud of McCourt has plagued our beloved team. Once the anchor of negativity was lifted and the ownership saga finally came to an end with the announcement of Magic Johnson’s bidding group being the chosen one to have the blue torch passed onto them, the fans began to come back to Dodger Stadium. The team and city of angels has breathed in the fresh air of renewed hope. Remember Dodger fans, there were good times during the McCourt regime as well. It wasn’t all bad.

I look forward to the new ownership shaping the team into a real contender this year. I think with a couple of needed cuts and a few possible acquisitions, this team could easily be still playing in October.

Ted Lilly (2-0, 0.90) vs. Joulys Chacin (0-2, 5.85)

Lineup: 

Gordon SS

Mark Ellis 2B

Kemp CF

Ethier RF

Loney 1B

Gwynn LF

Kennedy 3B

A.J. Ellis C

Lilly P

April has been nothing short of remarkable. The Dodgers, often forgotten amongst the “big names” in the Majors, finished the first month of the season with a 16-7 record. That was good for their most wins  for the team in April since 1984. They currently have a 3 1/2 game lead in the NL West. Last night’s game wasn’t the right way to end the fantastic month, but we are looking ahead at May with a run hungry appetite.

Ted Lilly will go for his third win on his quest to continue his unexpectedly impressive start to the season. In his 20 innings of work, the crafty left has only allowed two earned runs. Last season against the Rockies Lilly was undefeated. He was 3-0 with a 2.66 ERA in four starts against Colorado. His total career record against the Rockies is 8-2 with a 3.84 ERA. The main thorn in Lilly’s side has been CarGo, who is batting .400 with 4 homeruns against Ted. Todd Helton has also hit 2 homeruns against the Dodger southpaw.

Jhoulys Chacin has had a shaky start to the 2012 season for the Rockies. Last time out in a loss against the Padres, he allowed five earned runs on eight walks. In his career against the Dodgers, Chacin is 6-4 with a 2.39 ERA. Ethier is hitting .400 against Chacin, and Loney has hit him well in the past with 7 RBI against the right-hander. Matt Kemp has one homerun against him.

The game will start at 5:40 pm, and it will be televised on KCAL. Please come back for our postgame coverage. Let’s get a mile-high win!

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