GARBAGE – Between every inning at Dodger stadium what does the jumbotron feed us – fan face-shot after fan face-shot.

McCourt’s brilliance is the death by a thousand cuts of slowly raising prices on EVERYTHING while actually delivering LESS over each season, knowing fans simply have visions of being on that big screen themselves if they just “give it time.”

1) chasing out of town TWO qualified GMs (Dan Evans and Paul DePodesta), both of whom had significant contributions to getting the team into the postseason.
2) Installed a general manager who is PR-first and talent acuity second. Jason Schmidt, Andruw Jones, Nomar Garciaparra, and Rafael Furcal are all presently on the DL; that’s $42.5M worth of deadweight. Now, Furcal is liable to come back and be productive, it’s true, but future contributions of the others are far more in doubt:

* Schmidt had significant injury history coming to the Dodgers, and big dropoffs in his velocity the last year with the Giants
* Garciaparra’s contributions continued to tail off; why was he re-upped?
* Jones had massive and continuous declines in his line drive rate from year to year over the last three prior to his signing, plus a huge drop in his batting average last year.

And that doesn’t even take into consideration Juan Pierre and his ridiculous five-year deal for the emptiest .300 batting average in the game today. A leadoff hitter who can’t hit for power and has no arm is now playing in left field, a traditional place to hide a power bat with iffy defense? Oh, sign me up! (Not.)

So, where in the world do you get off telling others that McCourt shouldn’t be criticized because of Colletti’s idiotic signings? Colletti is in the front office precisely because the McCourts are thin-skinned and PR-conscious; proof enough of that came when they fired Paul DePodesta essentially for making the right but unpopular moves, unloading popular catcher Paul Lo Duca and reliable eighth-inning man Guillermo Mota for starter Brad Penny; Penny’s had a bad 2008 for the Dodgers, but DePo’s analysis of what he would bring in other years has been right on the money. Meantime, Colletti gave out ridiculous contracts to the washed-up or nearly washed-up. What’s more, these that these contracts would turn out badly was *completely predictable*.

As for the comment above about J.D. Drew, he gave the Dodgers performances that were about in line with his career numbers, save for the fact that his 2005 was injury plagued; this was a known risk with him, but for those criticizing the signing, riddle me this: he hit 20 home runs in his last full season with the Dodgers in 2006. Who on this team is going to do that? Jones? Are you kidding me?

Anybody can spend money foolishly. That’s exactly what the McCourts are doing by proxy, and principally to salve their own egos. That won’t work much longer, as even T.J. Simers caught on to the rationale for Colletti’s signing: keeping the press at bay:

http://tinyurl.com/5q8eno

As a 5-year season ticket holder, I have seen my ticket (and parking!) prices skyrocket under the McCourt administration, while the quality of play on the field has not improved.

So, no. I will not stop blaming Mr. McCourt. To the contrary, kind sir, I do not think Mr. McCourt has been blamed enough.

Spending money does not make a team great, it’s a connection with the fans and the history of the team, neither of which McCourt has. That is why he takes so much heat from the press and the fans. He sees the stadium as a project/investment with no regard to the fan base that makes the Dodger’s great. If you want to be seen instead of see a game go to SF or Anaheim where the game is secondary to the social aspect of being at the stadium.

When I met McCourt shortly after the JD Drew signing I told him it was a waste of money and he said “Give him time” as if he were in the minors and still developing and not a veteran player with a history of injury and a bad attitude. NO clue whatsoever! And as for DePodesta, McCourt’s only mistake was that he hired him in the first place!

Frank McCourt is a bad owner for running Paul DePodesta (a great GM) out of town and then signing off on the ill-advised signings of Juan Pierre, Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones.

It isn’t about spending money. It’s about spending it well.

Also, the buffet in foul territory is trashy. as are the new colors.