He wanted to!
Frank McCourt is a Boston guy and he wanted to buy the Sox from the John Harrington and the Yawkey family.
Instead John Henry and company took over in 2002 and won two more World Series titles in the first 7 years of his ownership than the Yawkeys did in nearly 70 years.
Meanwhile McCourt took over the Dodgers... and now they need to be taken over by baseball. Not loaned money like the spend crazy Diamondbacks. Not bailed out like the Madoff sucker Mets.
Nope. TAKEN OVER! It's Bud Selig saying "We are taking your toys away."
When has this happened before? Well, kind of once when nobody wanted to buy the Expos and Bud Selig wanted to make sure John Henry moved from the Marlins to the marquee franchise Red Sox and Jeffrey Loria could take over the Marlins.
The Expos were part of baseball and run in a disgraceful manner, yet still managed to put winning products on the field in 2002 and 2003.
That was a different scenario. The Expos were devastated financially after the strike and couldn't draw small crowds to Stade Olympique. They had no TV deal and desperately needed to move. Everyone knew they had to move to Washington DC (the only place that had a big league ready park) but they also needed to appease Peter Angelos and the Orioles. So while that was being hashed out, MLB owned the Expos and destroyed a once wonderfully quirky franchise.
This new situation is different. This isn't an expansion team gone wrong. This isn't a team that needs to be relocated.
This is the FREAKING LOS ANGELES DODGERS!
If there is any team in baseball that should be a big spending colossus like the Yankees it should be the Dodgers! The play in Los Angeles! They have a terrific stadium... a steady fan base... money... tradition... stars want to play in L.A.
It can be argued that Frank McCourt is the worst owner in the history of American sports.
In 2004 he bought the Dodgers... one of the glamor franchises in baseball. And in 8 years it was transformed into such a catastrophe that the league had to pull and Expos.
IMAGINE this with the Red Sox!
Imagine there is no 2004... no 2007... the Curse is alive... this obscene divorce hanging over the team... the experience of going to the ballpark is WORSE... and it is so bad that baseball needed to take over.
It could have happened. And Bud Selig made sure the Sox were sold to John Henry.
It's not often I say this, but MAN am I thankful for Bud Selig's decision.
So now baseball owns the Dodgers, which means there will be a new owner soon.
Why not me?
How could I be worse?
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