Former Los Angeles Dodgers’ greats team up to save team - MLB News
Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers day-to-day affairs on April 20 and since then team has been on a roller-coaster ride.
Owner Frank McCourt could barely make ends meet as he made the payments to his team as he took advance cash from the sponsors and in case he fails to do that on June 15, Selig will be legally allowed to take control of the team and sell it.
Almost all Dodger fans were more than glad to see Selig take control and cannot wait for McCourt to get as far away from the historical franchise as he possibly can. McCourt has been termed as a fraud that along with his wife has done a terrible job in maintaining
the franchise and has led it to bankruptcy.
Although the Dodgers aren’t formally on sale currently, all that would take for it to happen is if McCourt fails to make the June 15
payments to his players. Many new entrepreneurs have risen and shown interest in taking control of the tainted franchise. Among those prospects are ex-Dodger greats Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser.
Even though they have earned their fair share of money when playing for the Dodgers, the pair still doesn’t have the finances to buy the franchise when the inevitable happens and the Dodgers are up for sale. Thus, Garvey and Hershiser are forming an exploratory
ownership group to look into the buying of their former team. They have proceeded to launch the Garvey-Hershiser Group along with other investors.
The idea originally struck Garvey when he heard Hershiser, who is an analyst for a popular sports media company, over the radio talking about his golden days with the once great team. He acted upon his thoughts and later approached Hershiser about forming
the group.
Hershiser believes that the Dodgers who are playing now aren’t doing justice to the fans who have stood by the franchise since generations. He commented, "The fan base, they deserve better, the Los Angeles Dodgers are part of the fabric of Los Angeles. Their
pride and their heart have been hurt by what's gone on and what's happening. It will take a large effort to restore that and I'm pulling for McCourt and MLB."
Both former players did more than their part when playing for the Men in Blue. Hershiser spent 13-years with the franchise in which he won the Cy Young Award in 1998 and finished off his career with an ERA of 3.48 and a 204-150 record. Garvey on the other
hand is a famed 10-time All Star baseman who gave away more than 19-years of his life to the Dodgers and won the National League Most Valued Player in 1974. Garvey was also part of the team that won the 1981 World Series. A World Series win is what the fans
need more than ever now.
Both greats are aware of the problems they’d have to face if they end up buying the franchise. Garvey commented, "Once you buy it, it's not over."
It will be interesting to see how Hershiser and Garvey can organise investors if the Dodgers are put up for sale. Everything depends on June 15 as only time will tell.
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