On April 20, Major League Baseball took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team whose overleveraged owner is going through a humiliating public divorce and steering the franchise towards bankruptcy. The Dodgers’ financial situation had been so dire that last week Frank McCourt, who is fighting for ownership of the team with his estranged wife, Jamie, needed a $30 million loan from Fox, the team’s television partner, to make payroll. That’s right, the Dodgers, one of baseball’s signature franchises, the team that gave us Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey and Tommy Lasorda, need a corporate babysitter. .
As for the city’s NFL team . . .wait, Los Angeles doesn’t have a pro football team, and in fact, has not had one since the 1994 season, after which the Los Angeles Rams and Raiders both left town. How can the country’s most popular sport enjoy no presence in America’s second-biggest market? Public antipathy towards a new football team, combined with an inability for the city to build a more modern stadium, have kept the NFL grounded in LA. Granted, the college team that most Angelinos pull for, the USC Trojans, feels like a pro franchise, but that isn’t always a good thing. Last year the NCAA concluded that former star running back Reggie Bush had taken money from marketing agents while he played at USC in 2004 and 2005; in response Bush gave up his Heisman trophy. The Trojans are now on probation, and can’t play in a bowl game this upcoming season.
