Tuesday, June 28th - The Dodgers are bankrupt.

The plight of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It's a sad day for baseball, I think, to see this mess with the Dodgers having gone so far as to the team declaring for bankruptcy.  Remember that is one of baseball's most storied franchises - and it's been brought to its knees.

Sports ownership is an interesting concept.  Owning a team and competently overseeing the running of one are, essentially, full-time, year-round jobs.  Not all owners are sports fans.  But every owner (almost) is a businessman, usually a successful one.  They purchase a sports team for various reasons - out of love for the area, for a sport, for memories, or for profit.  Sports franchises are notoriously profitable these days, after all.  Owners foot the bill for the team out of revenue and their own pockets.  Some owners stick around for more than that, like Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys.  Some hand the reins to another person - a general manager, typically - and return to their other avenue of business, such as the Ford family of the Detroit Lions.  That's not to say the latter owner isn't emotionally connected or involved; but they're not at every game, even though the team is their property.

I wonder what that feels like?  To make a ton of money in some sort of business - oil, investments, cars, etc - and then have the opportunity to purchase another business entity that's basically self-sustaining, but has the potential to earn you more money without much oversight from you, and at the same time, make you an odd sort of rock star, if you like (see: Mark Cuban).  Fans know who the owners are.  They know the buck stops there.  Owners are heralded in good times and spat upon at bad.

When a team goes bankrupt, it falls on the owner, whose sole responsibility, in truth, is to manage the team's finances and make sure the bankroll stays in the black.  To be honest, I'm not sure how a sports team goes bankrupt.  It's hard to tell, often, when the team ends and the owner begins.  Frank McCourt, owner of the Dodgers, said himself earlier this year that the Dodgers are profitable.  If that's the case, Frank, then how are they bankrupt?  Much of the blame being passed around is landing squarely on McCourt's shoulders and perhaps that's correct, for the reasons I stated above.  I'm sure if he were to sell the team, there would be buyers.  In fact, his proposed FOX television deal for the team (which commissioner Bud Selig vetoed) and subsequent Chapter 11 filing primarily serve to keep the team under his control.  To that end, I wonder what Selig's motivation for nixing the TV deal was - was it to help eject an owner whose lost respect, admiration and the goodwill of his fans, or was it truly to maximize the brand value in a TV bidding war when the Dodgers TV rights expire in 2012?  Tough to call.

In the end, this will fade.  It'll be rectified and the franchise and the sport will move on.  But, for right now, it's a smear on a storied franchise and a blemish on baseball.  And it's what happens when you have an owner who looks at the team he owns as a business before he looks at it as a sports team, a symbol that means so much to so many.  People mock guys like Jerry Jones and Al Davis for their extravagance and their outspokenness - but one thing that I've always thought was true is that both men understand what their teams are to their fans; that both men are fans themselves, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.  But they understand what it is to own a team in a way that I doubt Frank McCourt ever could.

Around the MLB -

Cincinnati 5, Tampa Bay 0 - Reds starter Mike Leake throws six innings to help shutout the Rays.
LA Dodgers 15, Minnesota 0 - 25 hits allowed by Twins pitching is an MLB season-high.
Cleveland 5, Arizona 4 - The Tribe wins on Orlando Cabrera's ninth-inning solo HR.
LA Angels 4, Washington 3 - Angels get 16 hits, the 16th being a bases-loaded RBI single by Maicer Izturis to end the game in the 10th.
San Diego 4, Kansas City 3 - Solid relief pitching helps the Padres hold onto the win at home.
Atlanta 3, Seattle 1 - All four runs scored off HRs; Braves rookie Brandon Beachy strikes out 9 in a strong six-inning performance.
Detroit 4, Toronto 2 - Red-hot Jhonny Peralta's RBI triple wins it in the eighth for the Tigers.
Chi. Cubs 7, Colorado 3 - Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena both homer twice to lead the Cubs to the win.