DODGER BUMS

An Open Letter to Frank McCourt, the current owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team

Game 3 of NLDS series Mets 9, Dodgers 5. Mets win series 3 games to 0. 18 years and counting since the Dodgers won a single playoff series. Only the Rangers, Royals, Expos-Nationals, Brewers and Pirates have gone longer since advancing in the postseason. The Dodgers are 1-12 in playoff games since winning their last World Series in 1988.

like a longtime Brooklyn fan, I can speak to the same kind of frustration, if not degree about my Beloved Los Angeles Dodgers.

So I will begin by saying something blasphemous. I wanted them to lose.

I wanted them to lose because I wanted you to get the message loud and clear that the Dodgers are not your team, but our team, my team. He is simply the presiding trustee out to make a buck. Fine. I don't begrudge him that. But I hope he's learned his lesson since taking over in 2004, and presiding over the disastrous break-up of a good team since then.

Liquidating your assets in Boston to cover the purchase price to buy the Dodgers does not inspire confidence in fans that you have the resources to field a winner.

Hiring a rookie General Manager who thinks Microsoft Excel spreadsheets produce winning teams with mediocre payrolls may work in small market Oakland and Toronto but not here.

Not LA.

This is the second largest media market in the country and the most competitive entertainment market in the world. Sorry NY, you don't have year round good weather that affords the plethora of options for the almighty entertainment dollar. Gawking tourists at Times Square doesn't compete with half-naked bodies in bikinis

But you got the message and canned Paul (Microsoft Office boy) De Podesta as GM and hired an old-school, hard-nosed baseball kind of guy in Ned Colletti. I like him even if he did come from the hated San Francisco Giants. He signed Nomar and Furcal, traded problem child Miton Bradley for Andre Ethier, and single handedly saved the Dodger season by trading for Greg Maddux at the July 31 tradig deadline. Considering the mess he inherited and that this year was supposed to be a rebuilding year, he did a fine job and should win the NL Executive of the Year award. Points for you for hiring him.

But they still were just a mediocre team. I understand that mediocre in the National League is good enough to get into the postseason, but I hope you have higher expectations than the Division series. Bad teams don't win 16 out of 17 games like you did, but good teams don't lose 13 of 14 either. Win 6 in a row. Lose 4 in a row. Win 7 in a row to finish the season strong. Go 3 and out in October.

Again.

Inconsistency is the word I would apply to the Dodgers this year. And while games are all about trying to achieve consistency over the course of a long season and every team is going to have their ups and downs, inconsistency when it comes to management and ownership is not acceptable.

Take a look at the St. Louis Cardinals over the last 7 years or the Atlanta Braves the prior 13 and you'll know what I mean. Or you can look at Mike Scioscia's Angels for the last 5. I know that's asking a lot of you, but the Angels did win 89 games this year to your 85, in the much tougher American League.

They play the game the way the Dodgers used to, the way Dodger fans like me were raised to watch baseball. They defeated your hated rivals in the 2002 World Series, the Giants, remember them Frank?

You took the names off the backs of the Dodgers jerseys and repainted the stadium to rekindle 1962. I hear the names are going back on next year, is it so much to ask that you paint every seat in the house and the outfield wall Dodger blue?

Those are just two examples of where you messed around with something that didn't need to be messed with. And that's what gets me about you. You seem to make a decision and then second guess yourself upon making it, confirming for me your lack of confidence in your own ability to lead this team. It's like you are bending over backwards to show us fans you're one of us. Sorry Frank, it's not hard to see the Red Sox fan inside you. You hired their ex-manager and half their 2003 team that lost in 7 to the Yankees. I don't know what irks you more, seeing replays of Barry Bonds hitting homerun ..500, ..71, ..72, and ..73 against us or Aaron Boone's walkoff in the 11th inning against Tim Wakefield. I'll be kind, don't answer that one Frank.

Since you can't change the past, or where your loyalties really lie, or your precarious financial situation I recommend the following to improve your team if you want to win a playoff series before the Angels win their next World Series.

Copy them.

Stock up on young pitching and keep hard-nosed guys who add character and intangibles to a team that don't show up in statistics. Those are for fantasy geeks anyway. You can't bring back Paul Lo Duca or Shawn Green or Guillermo Mota but admit that the guys you traded them for were a mistake. I suspect that Ned Colletti noticed all the ex-Dodgers who helped the Mets beat you just as much as you did and wants to remake this team in his image.

Let him.

Encourage him. Start by; trading hot-headed and not very well liked Brad Penny to anybody who will take him and his 8 million dollar contract (undoing DePodesta error ..1). The Yankees have money and need pitching.

With that savings, sign soon to be ex-A, and USC alum Barry Zito.

Resign Nomar.

Offer Greg Maddux a one-year deal at this year's price. If he wants more money or two years, let him go.

Trade a few of your youngsters to the Florida Marlins for young pitcher Dontrelle Willis and young outfielder Miguel Cabrera. The Marlins started their firesale last year. These two are next to go.

Resign Nomar.

Trade J.D. Drew, and his lackluster attitude and injury prone body to anybody that will take him and his remaining 33 million dollars too (undoing DePodesta error ..2) Try to the Orioles and Peter Angelos knack for trading for overpriced talent. Or to the Colorado Rockies for 1B Todd Helton.

This will cost you some money but will provide you with more thump in your lineup and more innings from your starting pitchers.

Resign Nomar.

Offer Eric Gagne, the last remaining Dodger from the good old days, a one year deal with a two year option laced with incentives if he makes enough appearances, pitches enough innings, and keeps enough fans in their seats in the eighth and ninth innings to buy peanuts and cracker jacks. Ask any Dodger fan, he doesn't need to prove anything, you still do.

If not, I won't divide my time between Dodger Stadium and the Big A next year. I look better in red anyway.