Rookie of the Year

Wins Help McCourt Sway Fans

By DAVID GREENBERG

Staff Reporter

When Boston real estate developer Frank McCourt took ownership of the Dodgers in February, just days before the start of spring training, he vowed to bring the World Series back to L.A.

Dodger fans were skeptical. The team had not won a postseason game since 1988, the new owner was leveraged to the hilt, and his first move was to fire some well-regarded faces in the front office.

But to the surprise of many, the team last week was poised to win its first division crown since 1996 (though the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers’ perennial nemesis, continue to threaten). Attendance is up, and many say morale within the organization has improved. Fans appreciate McCourt’s enthusiasm, and employees credit him and his wife, Vice Chairwoman Jamie McCourt, for their approachability.

On nearly every scorecard, McCourt’s first year has been a success.

“The core fan base is here but they really wanted to be energized again,” McCourt said last week. “Hopefully, we’ve done a little to bring that back.”

To be sure, McCourt is no Svengali. He is new to major league baseball, new to the West Coast and knows there is much to learn about a team so steeped in tradition.

His first moves reinforced suspicions that he was an amateur, especially his dismissal of team President Bob Graziano, a longtime Dodger presence who was highly regarded around the league. Also let go were General Manager Dan Evans and Executive Vice President of Business Operations Kris Rone. McCourt tried and failed to prevent Derrick Hall, senior vice president of communications, from leaving.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Angels’ new owner, Arte Moreno, appeared smooth as silk, even threatening to steal loyal Dodger fans with a billboard campaign in L.A. neighborhoods.

“Early in his ownership, there were quite a few awkward moves, especially the significant changes in the front office,” said David Carter, chief executive of Redondo Beach-based Sports Business Group. “If you look at the way the media covered it and the fans perceived it, Frank McCourt was a bull in a China shop.”

But McCourt settled down quickly. And he has turned out to be pretty good at hiring.

He brought in three key executives: 31-year-old General Manager Paul DePodesta, Chief Operating Officer Martin Greenspun and Director of Marketing Lon Rosen. They were charged, respectively, with building a winning team, returning the team to profitability, and restoring the brand to the glory days through the 1980s when the Dodgers won six World Series titles.

McCourt gave his front-office team room to operate, offering input during meetings but allowing them to make decisions (he signs off on financial decisions). Greenspun said McCourt created an atmosphere where no one feels they need to take full credit for anything.

“He’s very focused, he’s very encouraging, upbeat all the time and he’s a great communicator,” said Greenspun. “He likes to roll up his sleeves and get involved. We all check our egos at the door.”

Winning glow

And a funny thing happened as the season unfolded: Players began to relax. The team began to win, and the almost daily media barbs ground to a halt.

“It’s hard to tell whose transformation has been more awesome the Dodgers on the field or Frank McCourt in his first year as owner of the team,” Carter said. “Winning casts a very positive shadow over the rest of the organization.”

There were other hurdles to overcome, most critically McCourt’s credibility with the players. The off-season auction brought months of uncertainty to the ball club. Evans spent the winter months handcuffed, as major hitters like Vladimir Guerrero (who went to the Angels) got away.

It wasn’t clear whether McCourt could afford News Corp.’s $430 million asking price, and then it became abundantly clear that he couldn’t.

McCourt couldn’t find any partners to invest in a team that lost a reported $30 million to $40 million annually during the Rupert Murdoch regime, so News Corp. had to loan him more than $200 million to push the sale through.

When the deal finally closed, there were serious questions about whether he had enough left over to maintain operations and invest in additional players.

“It’s always exciting when there is change but there’s always a lot of cautiousness when you want to feel things out,” said first baseman Shawn Green.

McCourt promised to land a front-line hitter by Opening Day.

But DePodesta, while working diligently, kept L.A. waiting until a day before the season opener, trading for outfielder Milton Bradley a solid hitter but not a top-of-the-line slugger Dodgers fans were hoping for.

McCourt said that until major league owners approved the sale, there was nothing he could do but absorb the abuse. “I didn’t have the authority to make decisions and I didn’t have the authority to speak out,” said McCourt. “We knew the pain would pass and it has.”

Personal touch

In their own way, the McCourts have been able to resurrect a hint of the user-friendly, family-oriented ambiance of the O’Malley days. It’s something Manager Jim Tracy had been preaching since he took the helm four years ago. But it was hard to get the message across when his boss was an Australian media mogul who rarely attended a Dodgers game.

“It’s (now) a lot of more personal for the players, our families and the fans as well,” said Green. “It’s nice to know who is in charge rather than just have a name. If something comes up, you can talk to Frank and Jamie and they will address the issues. They are willing to make everyone as comfortable as possible.”

McCourt’s enthusiasm is palpable from the seat behind home plate where he watches games, shakes hands with ticketholders and has been known to pass out Dodgers caps to fans wearing the other teams’ colors.

“He is like a father to everybody,” said Dodgers pitcher Jose Lima. “It’s an inspiration because you see him over there and he’s cheering for his players. An owner always sits up there in his box, watching the game from up there. But (McCourt) is the only one sitting back here, just enjoying the game. At least he cares.”

The building blocks of the team that has been in first place since July 7 were largely put in place before McCourt’s arrival.

The team boasts a pitching staff that tied for the league’s third-lowest earned run average last week, baseball’s best closer in Eric Gagne, solid defense and third baseman Adrian Beltre’s MVP-caliber year. Other players, such as infielders Alex Cora and Cesar Izturis have also improved at the plate.

Outfielder Steve Finley, acquired just before the July 31 trading deadline, has belied his 39-year-old body with his hitting. He won the National League Player of the Week honor for the week of Sept. 6-12.

“We have guys that come out and do their best every day,” said Beltre. “We’re playing better baseball.”

Tracy credits the improved hitting to Tim Wallach, the batting coach he hired during the off-season. But he also expresses gratitude toward McCourt for giving him and DePodesta autonomy to run the team.

“He allows me to do my job, as does Paul DePodesta,” Tracy said. “They’ve given me the resources to work with. How can you not feel good not coming to work knowing that those are the circumstances that you are working under each and every day you show up?”

Keeping prices low

McCourt also has vowed to keep ticket prices lower than many clubs: $6 for a bleacher or top deck seat, increasing to $60 for an inner field box ticket. That will win him kudos with the fans but make it more difficult to become profitable.

But he has learned the lesson of recently successful teams that kept their payrolls manageable by shunning high-priced free agents in favor of developing their minor league system.

(The team’s payroll this year is around $100 million, still one of the highest in the league. Dodgers officials said they would focus on winning and revenue growth, rather than cost cutting, to restore profitability.)

Not all of the moves have been popular. The trades of catcher and clubhouse leader Paul Lo Duca, reliever Guillermo Mota and right fielder Juan Encarnacion were shocking for a first-place team. But they exemplified McCourt’s willingness to do what it takes to improve the club.

So far, the fans seem pleased with the approach.

The Dodgers are on track to draw 3.4 million to 3.5 million fans, which would be their highest total since 1982, the year after a World Series championship over the Yankees. Jamie McCourt has let it be known the Dodgers can and should be drawing 4 million fans annually.

But like most other teams, the Dodgers sell more tickets when they’re winning.

It’s a lesson not lost on McCourt, a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan who has become so immersed in his new team he said that he wouldn’t root for the Red Sox if they got to the World Series, even if the Dodgers didn’t make it.

“Probably I’d end up rooting for the National League team,” he said. “I need to make it crystal clear. It’s all Dodgers, all the time for me and my family now.”

CORRECTION:

The Sept. 20 story “Rookie of the Year” mischaracterized the circumstances of the departure of the Dodgers’ former executive vice president of business operations, Kris Rone. In fact, Rone resigned in March. Also, the title of Dodgers executive Lon Rosen was misstated. He is executive vice president and chief marketing officer.