Chapter 9: 2004, enter the McCourts
The Dodgers got new owners in 2004. They won the division. Then it got complicated.
The Fox ownership years of the Dodgers were not great ones. The team was never able to make a serious run at a division title despite having luminiaries like Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown. The team was just not as deep as teams like the Diamondbacks (who won the World Series in 2001) or Giants, who won the division three times and made the World Series in 2002.
When Fox sold the team to a Boston businessman named Frank McCourt, who planned to run the team alongside his wife Jamie, fans didn’t know what to make of the situation. Some thought that being owned a wealthy Irish family was a good sign1. But other people were wary of McCourt’s financing.
One of the first moves McCourt made was to fire the acting general manager, Dan Evans, who was a highly respected person in baseball circles, and to replace him with one of the early proponents of new style of management called either sabermetrics or baseball analytics, Oakland assistant to the GM Paul DePodesta.
DePodesta was just 31 years old when taking over the job and the Los Angeles baseball media corps was a bit skeptical if DePodesta had the ability to run one of baseball’s most high profile franchises. He wasted no time in reshaping the team.
An unhappy Kevin Brown (sort of his default setting) was traded to the Yankees for some minor leaguers, with Yhency Brazoban being the one who paid off a bit. Jeff Weaver came along in the trade also and became the Dodgers nominal ace.
Right before the season started, the Dodgers picked up center fielder Milton Bradley from Cleveland for a minor leaguer. Bradley had a lot of baggage and was frequently injured, but in 2004, he managed to keep everything together more or less.
25-year old third baseman Adrian Beltre turned in the best season of his very lengthy and distinguished career and one of the best seasons ever by a Dodgers third baseman. He cracked 48 home runs, had 200 hits, and batted .332 with an OPS of 1.017.
The Dodgers were leading the division as the trade deadline approached with the Padres and Giants not too far back. DePodesta wanted to strengthen the starting rotation. So he pulled off a big trade with the Marlins, acquiring pitcher Brad Penny and first baseman Hee-Seop Choi (and a minor leaguer) in exchange for the Dodgers starting catcher (and fan favorite) Paul Lo Duca, reliever Guillermo Mota, and outfielder Juan Encarnacion.
DePodesta also acquired outfielder Steve Finley and catcher Brent Mayne from Arizona. Popular Dodger outfielder Dave Roberts was shipped off to Boston, never to be heard from again. The reaction to the deals was mostly negative, especially because it was portrayed as a “Paul Lo Duca for Hee-Seop Choi” trade when the primary player the Dodgers wanted to acquire was Brad Penny. Penny got hurt during his first Dodgers start and would not contribute much down the stretch. Also, Dodgers manager Jim Tracy did not seem to care too much for the new players.
The Dodgers lost to the Padres 3-2 on July 31, the first day that one of the new arrivals, Choi, got a start. The next day, the Dodgers won a taut 2-1 game in 12 innings with relief ace Eric Gagne pitching three innings. Darren Dreifort, frequently hurt as well as frequently maligned, got the save.
With three days left in the season, the Dodgers lead the Giants by three games with the two teams facing off against each other for a three-game series at Dodger Stadium. The Giants won the first game 4-2.
The next day, the Giants led 3-0 going to the ninth. Dodgers fans were preparinng themselves for a one game playoff on Monday in San Francisco as the Giants had their ace, Jason Schmidt, lined up to start.
But the Giants still needed to win Saturday. The Giants brought in their closer Dustin Hermanson, to try to get his second straight save. But Hermanson was not sharp. The Dodgers went single, walk, strikeout, walk, walk and were within 3-1 with just one out and the bases loaded.
In came lefty Jason Christensen to pitch to Dodgers shortstop Cesar Izturis. Izturis hit what could have been a game-ending double play to his Giants counterpart Cody Ransom. Except Ransom booted it and a run scored and it was now 3-2 Giants with the bases still loaded.
In came former Dodger Matt Herges to pitch to Jayson Werth. Werth singled to right to score one run and keep the bases loaded. The game was now tied. Dodger Stadium was getting very loud.
Giants manager Felipe Alou decided to try yet another pitcher. He brought in lefty Wayne Franklin to pitch to Steve Finley. Franklin got strike one against Finley. The next pitch Finley clobbered into the right field pavilion. The Dodgers won the division on a walk off grand slam.
The Dodgers were big underdogs in their division series against the Cardinals. The Cardinals had won 105 games compared to the Dodgers 93. The first two games in St. Louis were no contests, both of them 8-3 wins for the Cardinals.
Coming back to Los Angeles, the Dodgers had no rested pitchers to turn except for journeyman Jose Lima, who had managed a 13-5 record despite a 4.07 ERA.
Lima pitched the game of his life, shutting out the Cardinals and limiting them to five hits. Shawn Green hit two homers to supply the offense in a 4-0 win. It was the Dodgers first postseason win since the 1988 World Series, ending an eight-game losing streak in the postseason.
But that was all the magic. The Cardinals won 5-2 in Game Four to take the series.
The Dodgers slid to 71-91 in 2005 and DePodesta was fired when the season ended, not just because of onfield performance, but also because DePodesta was not sociable enough by the McCourts’ standards. Ned Colletti would become the new GM. And Dodgers fans would soon learn a lot about the lives of Frank and Jamie McCourt.
The Dodgers would tie the Padres for the NL West in 2006, but lost the tiebreaker and were not division champs and instead went in as a wild card, where they were swept by the Mets. So there is no 2006 chapter, which would be really long.
Unlike the O’Malley family, the McCourts were Jewish as Frank converted after his marriage to Jamie. No doubt it was the key to their strong marriage.
Lima Time! I remember seeing Jose packing his suitcase after a baseball game. He had more electronics in it than I had in my home. Quite the character who died far too young.
From Wikipedia: "Lima had at least six children with at least six different mothers." I would assume no child had more than one mother.