Tag Archives: Vin Scully

Feb 21

So, you were wondering about the Dodgers’ 2018 payroll?

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Bill Shaikin of the Times has another batch of revelations from last week’s Jamie McCourt legal filings indicating that, while player payroll has remained steady through last year, the Dodgers planned on keeping it below 2009 levels for most of the next decade despite projected increases in revenue.

For my part, I don’t happen to think the Dodgers are capable of predicting what their team payroll will be eight years from now, as the documents suggest. As Vin Scully might say, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your 2018 budget.”

Furthermore, as Shaikin writes, the projected payroll (relative to projected revenue) in these documents is so low that even MLB commissioner Bud Selig (or, in all probability, his successor) would object.

… The Dodgers spent 46% of revenue on player compensation in 2007 and 42% in 2008, according to the documents. The projections call for that percentage to fall to 25% by 2013 and remain at about 25% through 2018.

Commissioner Bud Selig encourages teams to spend about one-half their revenue on player compensation, according to two high-ranking major league executives contacted by The Times.

“That’s Bud’s rule of thumb,” one of the sources said. …

In other words, while this seems juicy, I wouldn’t overreact. The documents, Shaikin writes, were “prepared by the McCourt management team in May to solicit Chinese investors for a partnership that could have included the Dodgers, a soccer club in Beijing and another in the English Premier League.”  They’re designed to make the Dodgers’ profiteering, if you will, look as glowing as possible. It doesn’t seem to me that the scenario they describe is any more realistic than one that suggests the Dodgers have cheap ticket prices and top-of-the-line payroll. The truth is somewhere in between.

There’s something about having this article come out while I was watching the latest episode of the chaos that is the fourth season of HBO’s “Big Love” that somehow seems all too appropriate. These families have all these ambitions, but the domestic conflicts threaten to destroy them all.

Feb 11

Greatness x 2: Ernie Harwell wins Vin Scully Lifetime Award

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Ernie Harwell, whose departure from the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast team paved the way for Vin Scully’s arrival, will be honored with the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting.

Harwell, acquired by Dodger chief Branch Rickey in an actual trade for catcher Cliff Dapper in 1948, is 92 and suffering from inoperable cancer. He then joined the Giants in 1950 and was replaced by Scully. He gave a memorable farewell speech to his Detroit Tigers fans last September.

* * *

  • The career of former Dodger draft pick Luke Hochevar gets a lengthy stats-and-observation-based analysis from John Sickels of Minor League Ball. Sickels also has a comparison of the Dodgers’ Scott Elbert with Colorado’s Franklin Morales.
  • Steve Dilbeck of Dodgers Blog catches up with Tommy Davis, who remains disappointed that he ended up playing with 11 teams over a 10-year period.
  • Rob Neyer of ESPN.com and Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk discuss how Major League Baseball itself appears to be taking over the Giants’ position against Tim Lincecum in their salary arbitration hearing.
  • Tom Glavine has officially retired and taken a front office job of the special assistant variety with Atlanta.
  • My Variety colleagues and I wrapped up the fourth season of Friday Night Lights in an online chat at Variety’s On the Air blog. For those who don’t have DirecTV, the fourth season premieres on NBC on April 30.
  • Finally, I’m loving this: Hannah Mitchell, the 8-year-old daughter of Times staffer Houston Mitchell, is blogging the Olympics from Vancouver for the Times.


    • Hi! My name is Hannah Mitchell and I am 8 years old. My dad works for The Times, and he asked me to write a blog sometimes on the fun I am having in Vancouver for my first Olympics. If this is boring to you, blame him. And I want to say hi to all my classmates at Sonrise Christian in Mrs. Doolittle’s class. Yes, Mrs. Doolittle, I am doing my homework. And hi to Mrs. K, Mrs. Free and Mrs. Ambrose.

    On my first day in Vancouver, I already have had two really fun things happen: I was interviewed by a TV station and I saw the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. …