Much has been said about the business practices of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his battle against the efforts of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig to forcibly seize the team. But what does an insolvent Dodgers franchise say about the state of America in the 21st century?

Maybe it says nothing at all. Maybe it’s as simple as saying that Frank McCourt mismanaged the team. Yes it’s true that McCourt looks terribly incompetent and used the team as a personal ATM to live a lifestyle that would shame Caligula.

But that doesn’t explain the broader economic crisis in the sport. It doesn’t explain why the Texas Rangers in 2010, on the road to the World Series, had to be auctioned off at a bankruptcy sale. It doesn’t explain why the New York Mets, playing in the game’s biggest market, are flat broke after team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz thought Bernie Madoff would make a fine personal investment banker. It doesn’t explain why Selig, when he crows about baseball’s rosy financial picture, sounds like he’s living in the last days of disco.

But more than anything else, it doesn’t explain how – of all teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in this crucible of humiliation. The Dodgers are arguably the most culturally significant franchise in the history of American sports. It’s the team of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, and Hideo Nomo.

That’s more than just a tradition. That’s a Ken Burns epic.

It is perhaps a mark of the modern age that I feel like I need therapy to get over how bad things are for the Dodgers right now.

I envy those who can blithely separate what’s going on in the executive offices (and the courthouse) with what’s going on on the field, enjoying the latter while ignoring the former. In fact, as badly as the Dodgers are playing, I’m not even sure how the denial thing can function right now.

If the Dodgers were winning consistently, if their budget matched up with their media market, if if if…

Instead of if, here’s a fact: the Dodgers are in last place in the NL West. The NL West, for the love of Mike. Somebody will bring up how good the pitching is across the division. Pitching, smitching — we have some of the best pitchers in the game. This is a bad division that the Dodgers should be owning.

And speaking of owning, how about that Frank McCourt?

The seemingly endless muck and mire to which the McCourts (and, let’s face it, the Selig regime by dint of having given them the team) have subjected the Dodgers is just astounding. No matter what happens next, no matter who winds up owning the historic franchise, this has been a dark time, and it’s getting darker. It makes you want to stay away from Chavez Ravine, turn off the game, and find some quiet place in which you can meditate on the important things in life. You feel dirty just paying attention.

Yesterday, ESPN Los Angeles asked (via the Dodger Thoughts blog), “Dodger fans, tell us your stories.”

Fair readers …. we at ESPNLosAngeles.com would like to hear from you about the Dodgers, and not just in the short-form comments section below. We’re asking you to submit your real-deal stories of how you became Dodger fans, what the team means to you and how recent events (um, I think you know what we mean) have affected you and that fandom.

They will be sharing some of the submissions on the website in the near future. My first contribution in the comments was,

“For sale: Manny wig, never worn.” *

A real submission from me would have to hearken back to my “Back in the day…” story, which I wrote five(!) years ago. Dodger fandom came late for me, only since about 2002-03. As I put it,

Above and beyond proximity, the Dodgers are a team with a long, rich history stretching back to the 19th century and filled with underdog heroes battling evil Giants and villainous Yankees — I’m a sucker for that kind of story.

The Dodgers and Jackie Robinson were also responsible for breaking the color barrier in the majors, and while there have been mistakes or controversy over the years (e.g. the Battle of Chavez Ravine), there have been numerous people and moments to be very proud of.

So, much in the same way a religious convert might be more fervent and motivated than someone who grew up in the church, I am once more living and dying with my (adopted) favorite team.

This was only a couple of years into the McCourt regime. If I only knew what was coming. Actually, that’s a good question: would I have changed allegiances? Would I have jumped on the 2002 Angels bandwagon? Would I have decided to skip baseball, and then with the 2004 NHL lockout have just given up again on watching sports?

Hard to say.

Thing is, it’s not just the Dodgers having issues right now. The other three major North American sports are flirting with labor disasters. Other sports I’ve followed, like pro cycling and soccer, are either tainted (literally!) or take an effort to follow outside mainstream media outlets. This is not an easy time to be a thinking, feeling sports fan. As the Great Recession continues, and world news is just bad news, what should be a welcome respite is just another depressing brouhaha.

A while back, a friend commented that she didn’t like sports and would rather be doing something than watching somebody else do them. There’s a certain truth to that, and indeed it’s usually better to be outdoors moving around and breathing than not doing those things while indoors in front of the television. Sometimes, though, you want to watch ostensibly high-skilled people perform to the best of their abilities.

So no, I don’t think I’ll give up my sports watching just yet. This is not because of some sort of “Dodgers for Life” uber-fandom, by the way. It’s just a practical thing. I have a hard enough time staying happy and productive in my real life — why should I subject myself to daily emotional beatings Just Because I’m a Fan?

Thanks, no. If that makes me not a “real fan,” then so be it. I’ve also never been a real fan of institutional flagellation either, and I’m okay with that.

This isn’t rats fleeing a sinking ship, it’s a paying passenger thinking that, since the ship appears to be sinking, it might be a good idea to double-check where the lifeboats are.

So instead of queuing up for the whipping, I think I’ll try the Safe Distance approach. Keep an eye on things, keep up on the news from the periphery. Maybe even watch a game every now and again if there’s an intriguing pitching matchup.

But I have to say, I don’t think I’ll be watching the All-Star Game this year. If the Dodgers keep losing, I won’t have to worry about watching the playoffs, either. And the World Series? Unless there’s some compelling storyline, I can’t imagine even that mainstay of mine will be watched.

What about you? Are you wallowing in the muck, reading every story, commenting willy nilly across the Web? Are you giving up on the whole thing? Or are you taking a wait-and-see approach?

Who knew sports could be so damn complicated?

Former MLB manager and new Executive VP of Baseball Operations Joe Torre talks about the Dodgers financial situation, Derek Jeter heading for 3,000 and what baseball should do about protecting catchers.

Although [Tom] Schieffer was sent here by Selig to get to the bottom of this complex financial labyrinth, he is a baseball man at heart. As a former Texas Rangers team president who also owned a limited partnership in the club at the time, he gets what all of this is supposed to be about. When Schieffer walked into the press box before a recent game to pick up a scorecard and a game-notes packet, a media colleague of mine thought it was noteworthy enough to tweet about it, the colleague pointing out that he had never, ever seen McCourt do such a thing.

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) are joining together to contribute $200,000 toward relief efforts for tornado victims in the Midwest and the Southeast. The funds are being donated to Heart to Heart International, a Kansas City-based humanitarian organization that has been providing technical assistance, volunteer support and necessary resources, including their Mobile Health Clinic, in disaster areas in the Midwest and Southeast. Please join us in helping.

Donate…

“Nobody handed the Dodgers to me,” said McCourt, who purchased the Dodgers from News Corp., which owns Fox, in 2005 and has since been involved in divorce proceedings with his now-former wife Jamie about whether she owns 50 percent of the franchise. “Nobody is going to take them away.” [1]

Perhaps someday McCourt will realize who is responsible for his losing the Dodgers. Here’s an analogy that might help: if you’re doing 105 MPH on the freeway, it isn’t the cop’s fault when he pulls you over and impounds your car.

Options are dwindling quickly.

Rob Manfred, a Selig deputy who is an executive vice president of Major League Baseball, gave voice to the deep skepticism about McCourt.

“There is no owner,” he said, “who, during the period 2004 to 2011, that we’ve spent more time with on his business problems, his business issues and his desire to be treated differently under applicable rules, than Frank McCourt.” [2]

And,

Meanwhile, McCourt by all appearances is on an island by himself, with support that is either minute or nonexistent. He also has decreasing cash reserves that are believed likely to run out by June — if not this month — without intervention of a new loan. His only plan is for more borrowing, which Selig seems unlikely to approve. Fellow owners described a scene on Wednesday where McCourt sat alone, seemingly forlorn, without an answer that will fly with baseball’s powers. [3]

McCourt flys out weakly to left field. A room-service fly ball, as Vin Scully might say, that settles easily into the fielder’s glove. Ninth inning. Three outs.

Game over.

[1] MLB.com: “Selig, McCourt meet briefly to discuss Dodgers”

[2] NYTimes.com: “The Dodgers, the Mets and the Commissioner”

[3] SI.com: “McCourt running out of cash, may soon be out of time with Dodgers”

There’s a natural disconnect in baseball between the front office and the locker room, and depending on the team this can be a pretty wide gulf. In the case of the 2011 Dodgers, it’s as if two different movies are playing. One up in the Dodger executive offices, and one on the field. And while they’re out of sync, they’re each having an effect on the other.

Reports came out earlier today (in the midst of yet another media blitz by Frank McCourt, this time on local radio) that the Dodgers are not able to meet payroll for May. Another report says the team will be insolvent by July. If Major League Baseball hadn’t already taken over team operations, they surely would now.

Meanwhile, there’s a baseball game being played tonight. As I write this, a struggling Jonathan Broxton has just undone Chad Billingsley’s hard-fought 1-1 pitcher’s duel versus Ryan Dempster. Earlier, Andre Ethier blooped a hit to up his streak to 29 games. Jay Gibbons put together a stellar 10-pitch first at bat back.

The juxtaposition between a desperate Frank McCourt PRing all over himself on the radio today and the Dodger team fighting for a win was striking for me. An ESPN columnist last week pointed out how McCourt never mentioned the team’s performance, Andre Ethier’s streak, the fans, or anything that didn’t have to do with how MLB was supposedly stealing the team from him.

The continuing fan boycott (as evidenced by the great swaths of empty seats at Dodger Stadium), whether organized or spontaneous, shows what people believe about that.

I feel most sorry for Vin Scully, soldiering on in the press box as controversy swirls in the news media.

It’s time for a change. It’s time for truth and transparency.

It’s time for Dodger baseball. On the field, and in the executive offices.

“Major League Baseball sets strict financial guidelines which all 30 teams must follow. The Dodgers are in compliance with these guidelines. On this basis, it is hard to understand the Commissioner’s action today.”

This does not bode well.

“MLB statement regarding the Dodgers”

The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future.

More background: “Selig to appoint rep to oversee Dodgers”

The new “realistic” MLB.com Gameday makes me want to find a game controller. :)

There is a link to the “Classic” version.

No?

Ah.