Round one in the Los Angeles Dodgers, bankruptcy hearing has come to an end, and one thing remains pretty clear. The Judge is the one calling the shots now, and he apparently does not buy any of Frank McCourt’s baloney. The first ruling in this case is that Frank McCourt cannot use the very unfavorable loan he secured to make payroll, and that he and MLB must negotiate a loan with more favorable terms from the league. Since McCourt stood to lose 5.5 million dollars if this loan did not get approved the Judge felt his judgment in this matter had been compromised. On the plus side, McCourt lost another 5.5 million dollars.
This is a huge win for Bud Selig and the MLB, even though the Judge has also ruled that MLB cannot use this loan (once negotiated) as a basis for taking control of the Dodgers. The win really comes from the fact that it is now legal fact that McCourt puts his own interests in front of his team, and that little ruling will likely have profound effects on how all of this plays out.
Once again, as I have said over and over both here and on my radio show for mtrradio.com, it is time for McCourt to give up this fight. He is not going to win, and should start to negotiate a sale of this team to MLB who can then go out and find a far more suitable owner for this historic franchise. If this Judge remains consistent and rules that in each of the many McCourt sins against baseball and the Dodgers were made in the best interest of the owner and not the team, McCourt has already lost this case.
