As mentioned this morning, Frank McCourt flew to New York today to meet with MLB officials -- Bud Selig not included -- to plead his case for control of the team. A few minutes ago he held a press conference about it, in which he said that his “hard-earned money and my family’s blood, sweat and tears” had gone into the Dodgers and that baseball’s takeover was “just not right.”
McCourt was defiant, saying “Nobody handed the Dodgers to me and nobody’s going to take it away.” He added, in what can only be viewed as a threat, that he was going to “protect [his] rights, obviously” and was “committed to [his] position.” He said “I’m not going anywhere.” He also went into the proposed television rights deal with FOX, saying that it will provide “complete stability for the Los Angeles Dodgers for the next two decades,” and decrying what he called Bud Selig’s “veto” of the deal.
Approximately 15 minutes ago, Major League Baseball issued the following statement in response:“It is unfortunate that Mr. McCourt felt it necessary to publicize the content of a private meeting. It is even more unfortunate that Mr. McCourt’s public recitation was not accurate. Most fundamental, Commissioner Selig did not ‘veto’ a proposed transaction. Rather, Mr. McCourt was clearly told that the Commissioner would make no decision on any transaction until after his investigation into the Club and its finances is complete so that he can properly evaluate all of the facts and circumstances.
“Equally important, there has been no seizure of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mr. Scheiffer has been appointed as a monitor, and a multi-page written directive from the Commissioner describing his role has been provided to Mr. McCourt. In our meeting, no one from the Dodgers asked a single, specific question about the terms of the document setting forth the monitor’s role. “Finally, Mr. McCourt is well aware of the basis of Baseball’s investigation and has been provided an eight-page document describing the issues of concern to Major League Baseball.”
This is not going to end well. McCourt clearly does not see Tom Schieffer’s role with the club as legitimate. Meanwhile, the more McCourt talks about his deal with FOX, the less likely it is that anyone at MLB is going to give it the time of day, if they ever were going to in the first place.
If this ends without McCourt suing baseball I’d be shocked.