We can all be thankful the Sox sale didn’t end up differently than it did. If memory serves, I think McCourt wanted to build a new waterfront park as part of his bid for the team back in the day.
Indeed. Henry and Co. were the only bidders pushing to preserve Fenway. McCourt was never seriously in the bidding though. He didn’t have the financing.
Moment of truth:
Not knowing much about the facts behind the sale of the Red Sox, I railed that Selig had back-doored Henry & Co. into Red Sox ownership and was angry that Boston guy Frank McCourt got screwed out of it.
Boy, was I wrong.
Thank God that McCourt didn’t buy the team.
How does MLB let this happen to one of it’s marquee franchises? Unreal.
Are the Mets next, Bud?
Couple of side notes:
Ryan Kalish left this afternoon’s PawSox game with an apparent wrist injury after diving for a fly ball. No update yet.
Check out Pete Abraham’s notebook/blog item on Danny Bard. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/04/21/bards_work_is_crucial_in_sox_win/
Bard cites Fangraphs.com, and talks about a stat they use called Shutdowns and Meltdowns. “People should Google it, it’s interesting,” he said. “It’s just another way to look at things.”
“…Thank God that McCourt didn’t buy the team….”
amen…even i wouldn’t wish that on you guys
A lot of misinformation went around about how Henry got the Sox, spread principally by Will McDonough, Dan Shaughnessy and others who were openly rooting for the local guys.
The fact is at the end of the day John Henry was the only guy left standing who met the asking price AND had the financial standing to take over the team without an insane amount of debt. Everyone else, including the winners of the first round of biding who then broke the rules by negotiating the terms of minority ownership through the press and forced a second round of bids, dropped out.
I learned all of that in the years that followed, Paul.
I’ve also learns that Shanks can spin a nice tale, but his reporting often is suspect.
Seth Mnookin’s book is really indispensable for unwinding the lies and myths that were told about the Red Sox from 2002-05, from the purchase of the team to the Josh Beckett trade and the front-office turmoil surrounding it.
What happened to Seth Mnookin?
Answering my own question, looks like Mnookin has just finished a highly regarded book about vaccination.
The question I have is how did a guy who didn’t have the financing to buy the Sox end up with the small-market Dodgers?
Mnookin is hardly an impartial journalist in that Sox book. He’s a diehard SF who was given unprecedented access by the team. Kid gloves is an understatement. Heck, in a recent profile of Jeter he spends half of it talking about how he had to bend over backwards to give Jeter a fair shake and still takes pot shots at him. Saying a biased journalist/fan unwinds lies and myths is like saying Fox News does the same for the GOP.
Steve Soboroff (whom I have no knowledge of but sounds like a Rocky/Bullwinkle villain.. and is a greatquote):
“I don’t drink. I don’t use drugs. I don’t use steroids. I have one wife. I have five kids. I’m bald, I got stitches in my nose. I’m not doing this for any reason than to help LA,” he said. “And I’d love to show the commissioner what’s going on here.”
That is a good line. I don’t really get what is going on, but something smells really bad about this whole thing regarding the takeover of the Dodgers by MLB.
anybody see the irony here?…this commissioner telling an owner he doesn’t know what he’s doing…hahaha
14 replies on “Lost Angeles”
We can all be thankful the Sox sale didn’t end up differently than it did. If memory serves, I think McCourt wanted to build a new waterfront park as part of his bid for the team back in the day.
Indeed. Henry and Co. were the only bidders pushing to preserve Fenway. McCourt was never seriously in the bidding though. He didn’t have the financing.
Moment of truth:
Not knowing much about the facts behind the sale of the Red Sox, I railed that Selig had back-doored Henry & Co. into Red Sox ownership and was angry that Boston guy Frank McCourt got screwed out of it.
Boy, was I wrong.
Thank God that McCourt didn’t buy the team.
How does MLB let this happen to one of it’s marquee franchises? Unreal.
Are the Mets next, Bud?
Couple of side notes:
Ryan Kalish left this afternoon’s PawSox game with an apparent wrist injury after diving for a fly ball. No update yet.
Check out Pete Abraham’s notebook/blog item on Danny Bard.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/04/21/bards_work_is_crucial_in_sox_win/
Bard cites Fangraphs.com, and talks about a stat they use called Shutdowns and Meltdowns. “People should Google it, it’s interesting,” he said. “It’s just another way to look at things.”
“…Thank God that McCourt didn’t buy the team….”
amen…even i wouldn’t wish that on you guys
A lot of misinformation went around about how Henry got the Sox, spread principally by Will McDonough, Dan Shaughnessy and others who were openly rooting for the local guys.
The fact is at the end of the day John Henry was the only guy left standing who met the asking price AND had the financial standing to take over the team without an insane amount of debt. Everyone else, including the winners of the first round of biding who then broke the rules by negotiating the terms of minority ownership through the press and forced a second round of bids, dropped out.
I learned all of that in the years that followed, Paul.
I’ve also learns that Shanks can spin a nice tale, but his reporting often is suspect.
Seth Mnookin’s book is really indispensable for unwinding the lies and myths that were told about the Red Sox from 2002-05, from the purchase of the team to the Josh Beckett trade and the front-office turmoil surrounding it.
What happened to Seth Mnookin?
Answering my own question, looks like Mnookin has just finished a highly regarded book about vaccination.
The question I have is how did a guy who didn’t have the financing to buy the Sox end up with the small-market Dodgers?
Mnookin is hardly an impartial journalist in that Sox book. He’s a diehard SF who was given unprecedented access by the team. Kid gloves is an understatement. Heck, in a recent profile of Jeter he spends half of it talking about how he had to bend over backwards to give Jeter a fair shake and still takes pot shots at him. Saying a biased journalist/fan unwinds lies and myths is like saying Fox News does the same for the GOP.
Steve Soboroff (whom I have no knowledge of but sounds like a Rocky/Bullwinkle villain.. and is a great quote):
That is a good line. I don’t really get what is going on, but something smells really bad about this whole thing regarding the takeover of the Dodgers by MLB.
anybody see the irony here?…this commissioner telling an owner he doesn’t know what he’s doing…hahaha