The stunning news that Major League Baseball was taking over financial control of the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but it is a drastic move that MLB hopes will preserve one of baseball’s oldest franchises. As everyone attempts to sort out the exact implications of the move, here are some of the initial impressions from people around the game.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Financial Takeover: Reactions
Buster Olney first noted the implications of the move, suggesting that this was far from over…
Lest there be any doubt: MLB’s takeover of the Dodgers is a two-handed shove out the door. We await Frank McCourt’s legal shoves back.
…before waxing poetic with an appropriate analogy:
The McCourt debt/financial issues were like snow piling on a flat roof: The cave-in for a storied franchise like LAD convinced MLB to move.
The first to draw parallels between the Dodgers and how MLB handled the Montreal Expos was Joe Sheehan, who tweeted:
Well, any time you can re-create the management magic of the 2003-2005 Expos/Nationals, you have to do it.
Ken Rosenthal provided some back story on the MLB/Expos connection here, a story in which he also described the situation with Bud Selig and the Dodgers as “an intervention.”
And the esteemed Peter Gammons summed it up as succinctly as possible:
Selig to McCourt: It’s over.
With McCourt leveraging the franchise more and more under financial pressure — especially considering the ownership of the team was in dispute — it seems like MLB couldn’t afford to take a wait-and-see approach.
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