Column: A melancholy blue: Fall of the Dodgers

Rarely, at the start of baseball season, does any event of particular intrigue come to light. Typically the commencement of every team’s 162-game march begins with some disappointing performances, other surprising ones and the realization that current standings likely have no bearing on the playoff outcomes in September.

This year, however, a new year of hardball has brought much controversy: Barry Bonds’ perjury trial and the Mets’ alarming financial woes among them. Yet recently a development more controversial than either of those situations arose when Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, decided to take control over the Los Angeles Dodgers due to financial concerns.

Some may ask how the situations of the Mets and Dodgers differ. Mets chairman and owner Fred Wilpon, a significant investor in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, is currently being sued by victims of the Madoff scandal for up to $1 billion in damages (Wilpon, initially reported to have lost money from the scandal, was named in a report that stated he profited $300 million from the scheme). Wilpon, a close friend of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, was lent $25 million from MLB in November, and Selig continues to let Wilpon operate the team as he attempts to find an investor willing to purchase up to a 49 percent stake in the Mets.

The case of the Dodgers, however, is slightly different. The current owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Frank McCourt, a Boston-based real estate developer prior to his purchase of the team, purchased the Dodgers from Fox in 2004 with a $430 million bid. The deal was reported to be highly leveraged — that is, McCourt borrowed a lot of money to finance the takeover. In 2009, Frank McCourt fired his wife, Jamie, from her chief executive position on the allegations of poor performance and adultery; the couple filed for divorce in October of that year and has been mired in an ugly, public, and vocal battle.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Dodgers, needing to fulfill payroll obligations, had arranged for a $30 million loan from Fox, the former owner of the Dodgers and the team’s television partner. Selig then decided this Wednesday that two divorcing partners could no longer handle the financial woes of the Dodgers and that it was time for MLB to take over the team.

The last time MLB took control of a team was in 2002 (though MLB has monitored the safety of several financially unhealthy clubs since then, such as the Texas Rangers in 2009 and 2010), when the team in woe was the Montreal Expos (who have since become the Washington Nationals). The Expos, a middling team with little history to speak of, were drawing the lowest attendance totals of any team in the majors and had never won a World Series title. Few people in Montreal, a city whose passion in sports is wholly distributed to the storied Montreal Canadiens, mourned the loss of the Expos.

In contrast, the Dodgers have long been one of MLB’s greatest franchises. Winners of six World Series titles and 21 National League pennants, the Dodgers have been synonymous with success almost since baseball’s inception. The Dodgers even survived a move: The team was formerly situated in Brooklyn — during New York’s golden age of baseball, when the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants all played in New York City — where it won several pennants and its first World Series in 1955. After the relocation, the Dodgers came back to win three more World Series titles in their first eight years in Los Angeles, demonstrating the strength of Walter O’Malley’s ownership.

Recently, though, the team has started to disappoint, perhaps taking the McCourts’ divorce as a cue to slide. After reaching the National League Championship Series for two years in a row, the Dodgers shockingly finished fourth in their division in 2010. The team has not started out promisingly this year (9-10, third in the division).

Perhaps Selig, nearing the end of his tenure as MLB’s commissioner, could not bear to see one of baseball’s great franchises be run so dismally. One thing is for certain though: It’s sad to see a storied team fall to such a pitiful state.