Los Angeles Dodgers Management has me a bit upset
Here's a letter I sent to Frank McCourt, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers recently:
April 3, 2005
Mr. Frank McCourt
Owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers
1000 Elysian Park Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Re: Attending Dodgers Games and Dodgers Sponsors
Dear Mr. McCourt:
I am a lifelong Dodgers fan and will continue to be one no matter who owns and operates the team. However, after witnessing what you have done to the Dodgers in the off-season following their first post-season victory since 1988, I wanted you to know the following:
1. For the first time since 1962 (with the exception of those years I was out of the country in the U.S. military), I will not attend a single Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium. Not one. I will not consume a single Dodger Dog, I will not spend a single dime on merchandise of any kind that would result in any profit of any kind for you.
2. I intend to actively boycott every single sponsor of Dodger radio and television broadcasts and will be writing to these sponsors to let them know of this boycott. I will include a copy of this letter to those sponsors so that they will understand why I am no longer using their services and/or purchasing their products.
3. Since a single person boycott will have a very limited effect, it is my intention to establish a website of some sort, calling on other loyal Dodgers fans who feel as I do to join in my boycott and hopefully bring about a change in how the Dodgers are being operated, so that the sinking ship currently in residence at Chavez Ravine can be righted before it plummets to the bottom of the Western Division standings.
Why do I feel this way? Because you and your management team have made gaffe after gaffe after gaffe since the season ended. If Adrian Beltre is to be believed (and he has no reason to lie, whereas you and Mr. DePodesta do), the Dodgers made absolutely no effort to retain him. Letting him go is a mistake that borders on the magnitude of selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in order to raise funds to produce a musical. The perfidy of one of baseball’s finest coaches, Joey Amalfitano wearing a Giant uniform this year turns my stomach just in writing about it. The departure of Mr. Statistic, Ross Porter from the broadcast booth was not only handled wrong, it was just plain wrong. Worst of all, allowing a fool like T.J. Simers to take cheap shots at your spouse by her own failure to return his call for weeks on end takes foolishness to the edge of stupidity.
I could go on, there are other errors I could and should list, but I think the point is driven home with sufficient emphasis. What you need to do to right the ship is simple. You need to hire someone like Derrick Hall to handle your communications, so that when gaffes occur, they can be smoothed over easily. You need to lean over at the dinner table and tell your wife that while you love her very much, you need to hire someone who knows more about baseball to take over operational control of the Dodgers while giving her a position more suited to her natural abilities. I don’t know what they are, but then again, anyone who isn’t smart enough to know you can’t win a pissing contest with a newspaper certainly isn’t ready to be a COO.
Then you need to reach into whatever funds are left in your wallet and take out a full page ad in the L.A. Times sports section and in big bold letters say “I’m Sorry” to the Dodgers fans of L.A. and tell them that you sincerely mean it. That you blew it when you let Beltre and Amalfitano leave, and that you’re going to stop trying to run the Dodgers like a parking lot structure and start running it like a baseball team. You might want to call Peter O’Malley for advice. He knew what he was doing.
In Tiananmen Square, one single, solitary man stopped a column of tanks solely armed with a sense of purpose. I only hope that I, one singly, solitary Dodgers fan, armed with a sense of purpose can stop you from ruining this team.
Sincerely,
April 3, 2005
Mr. Frank McCourt
Owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers
1000 Elysian Park Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Re: Attending Dodgers Games and Dodgers Sponsors
Dear Mr. McCourt:
I am a lifelong Dodgers fan and will continue to be one no matter who owns and operates the team. However, after witnessing what you have done to the Dodgers in the off-season following their first post-season victory since 1988, I wanted you to know the following:
1. For the first time since 1962 (with the exception of those years I was out of the country in the U.S. military), I will not attend a single Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium. Not one. I will not consume a single Dodger Dog, I will not spend a single dime on merchandise of any kind that would result in any profit of any kind for you.
2. I intend to actively boycott every single sponsor of Dodger radio and television broadcasts and will be writing to these sponsors to let them know of this boycott. I will include a copy of this letter to those sponsors so that they will understand why I am no longer using their services and/or purchasing their products.
3. Since a single person boycott will have a very limited effect, it is my intention to establish a website of some sort, calling on other loyal Dodgers fans who feel as I do to join in my boycott and hopefully bring about a change in how the Dodgers are being operated, so that the sinking ship currently in residence at Chavez Ravine can be righted before it plummets to the bottom of the Western Division standings.
Why do I feel this way? Because you and your management team have made gaffe after gaffe after gaffe since the season ended. If Adrian Beltre is to be believed (and he has no reason to lie, whereas you and Mr. DePodesta do), the Dodgers made absolutely no effort to retain him. Letting him go is a mistake that borders on the magnitude of selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in order to raise funds to produce a musical. The perfidy of one of baseball’s finest coaches, Joey Amalfitano wearing a Giant uniform this year turns my stomach just in writing about it. The departure of Mr. Statistic, Ross Porter from the broadcast booth was not only handled wrong, it was just plain wrong. Worst of all, allowing a fool like T.J. Simers to take cheap shots at your spouse by her own failure to return his call for weeks on end takes foolishness to the edge of stupidity.
I could go on, there are other errors I could and should list, but I think the point is driven home with sufficient emphasis. What you need to do to right the ship is simple. You need to hire someone like Derrick Hall to handle your communications, so that when gaffes occur, they can be smoothed over easily. You need to lean over at the dinner table and tell your wife that while you love her very much, you need to hire someone who knows more about baseball to take over operational control of the Dodgers while giving her a position more suited to her natural abilities. I don’t know what they are, but then again, anyone who isn’t smart enough to know you can’t win a pissing contest with a newspaper certainly isn’t ready to be a COO.
Then you need to reach into whatever funds are left in your wallet and take out a full page ad in the L.A. Times sports section and in big bold letters say “I’m Sorry” to the Dodgers fans of L.A. and tell them that you sincerely mean it. That you blew it when you let Beltre and Amalfitano leave, and that you’re going to stop trying to run the Dodgers like a parking lot structure and start running it like a baseball team. You might want to call Peter O’Malley for advice. He knew what he was doing.
In Tiananmen Square, one single, solitary man stopped a column of tanks solely armed with a sense of purpose. I only hope that I, one singly, solitary Dodgers fan, armed with a sense of purpose can stop you from ruining this team.
Sincerely,
posted by me at 2:40 PM
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