If this is accurate, then McCourt has officially become George Steinbrenner West.

I always laughed at those Yankees soap operas: "Not my team," I said. "My Dodgers would never be that stupid."

1 Except without the World Series.

You were well prepared for that Jon. I hope everyone who wanted Grady gone doesn't expect anything to change.

Reposted and redited from previous thread, now closed:

So much for the hot stove taking awhile to heat up.

So, the McCourts have owned the team for four seasons, and in that time, have had three general managers and it looks like three managers. The average tenure is not even two seasons. As 1. mentioned, this is becoming like the Steinbrenner Yankees of the 1970s and 1980s, except that I don't see Frank McCourt becoming a TV character, ala Steinbrenner on Seinfeld.

BTW--Seinfeld Trivia Question (this is probably an easy one)--who did the voice of Steinbrenner on Seinfeld?

The answer is simple: CYE's own Larry David

Hopefully someone (preferably a Yankees fan) can add to this:

Joe Torre Pro's: Able to handle several conflicting egos in the dugout.

Cons: Irrational alliances on bad players (Luis Sojo, Miguel Cairo, Andy Phillips, I'm sure there are others)

Bullpen management so inept he needs well publicized orders from the front office to not ruin a promising young player.

http://tinyurl.com/ynsdcs

According to this link, this was all between Colletti and Little.

5. You are correct--and your prize ...you are the new Dodger manager! Count to three-1,2,3-I am sorry, you have been fired as the new Dodger manager.

I believe they call this a dysfunctional relationship.

I believe it's called Stockholm Syndrome.

Okay, Joe Torre. Cool. Fine. Whatever.

Now sign good baseball players and stop overspending for bad baseball players. Redefine your priorities in player evaluation, and build around your young hitters. Shore up the starting rotation.

Sheesh.

Maybe Colletti was testing Grittle when he signed Hillenbrand. Like asking your girlfriend if she'd be up for a threesome, and then dumping her if she says yes.

I wonder if McCourt knew this was coming when he said they'd both be back for 2008. This would seem to strengthen Flanders, since it's evidence that not even a stay of execution from the guy at the top of the pyramid can save anybody who runs afoul of him. But was that the plan, or something McCourt was surprised to learn?

6 Will the fact that he actually has a pretty good bullpen at his disposal erase the bullpen management con? In the first half of last year he had Rivera and Proctor who were even semi-reliable. Vizcaino and Farnsworth were laughable and no one else in the bullpen was even expected to be average.

Bill Plaschke is on ESPN, displaying his usual ignorance of park factors.

You can hit homers at Dodger Stadium you dolt.

7
A season-ending disagreement between Little and general manager Ned Colletti resulted in three weeks of uneasy silence between the two

Colletti met with Little and his coaching staff in the manager's office on Sept. 30...Colletti opened the meeting by blaming himself for personnel decisions that might have left the team thin in the starting rotation and everyday lineup, then put equal responsibility for the 82-80 record on Little and his staff. Little, according to the source, "didn't take it well."

7 Tony Jackson also reporting it as a resignation:
http://blogs.dailynews.com/dodgers/

Correction: Grady is RESIGNING, not being fired

Just got a call from Camille Johnston setting me straight on that. Should make for an interesting conference call, especially given that Grady will actually be on it.

6 It's been my understanding that Torre finds one or two guys in the pen that he likes and runs them into the ground. If this isn't true, it would make me really happy to hear otherwise.

11 Wait, you're supposed to dump her at that point?

Once upon a time I was a big fan of Joe Torre. After watching him manage in this century I can't for the life of me remember why. Like Grady's he's a good man so he has that going for him.

I don't feel sorry for Grady, he made his bed, I have no problem with him being fired.
While enjoying Frank McCourts money during 2008 he can wonder if things would have been different if he'd played the 8 best players on this team every night instead of pandering to contracts and whatnot. In the end it got him nothing by toeing the line.

Thinking that Joe Torre is the answer is the problem

I feel rather uneasy.

Torre is a good PR move for a PR GM and a PR owner. If only they weren't also running a baseball team.

I feel pretty unexcited right now for the Dodgers. I felt this way once. That day was in 1998 when I was watching the local news and saw that Mike Piazza had been traded for Gary Sheffield. This just seems classless to me.

11 Recent events suggest that there never has been a plan.

20
I wept for the loss of Todd Zeile at that time.

I wanted to be edgy.

This is only the beginning... I can't wait to see how many placeholders, middle nothings, whatever you'd like to call them, get signed to block our under 26 youngsters.

I'll grant you, it's good entertainment value, just for the wrong reasons.

Now sign good baseball players and stop overspending for bad baseball players. Redefine your priorities in player evaluation, and build around your young hitters. Shore up the starting rotation.

Here's what I don't get. How can things be so patently obvious to this crowd, yet people who get paid millions of dollars to run a team don't understand simple truths?

24 Because we live in our Mom's basements/garages and don't understand how baseball really works.

16 I'm pretty sure that's a typo and he meant "dump her if she says no."

11 Dumping her if she says yes...

Wait, what?

This post, which I was trying to write amid many interruptions, got shut out of the last thread, but it still seems relevant. It was in response to D4P saying Little deserved less blame than Colletti for 2007.

248 Yes, but Colletti can improve. He can adjust. He can start listening to the right people. He seems to have the other skills of a GM, he just isn't a great player evaluator. He is, however, surrounded by excellent player evaluators. And, if he took a crash course from some of the people on DT, he could become a better GM in a matter of weeks. His job involves a lot of things, but one of them is dealing with an intellectual framework and a body of knowledge. Like any professional, he can expand his intellectual horizons.

In Little's case, it is going to be difficult to change his essential nature. It is more important that he be a leader of men and a good in-game decision-maker. He can't learn to be a different person than he is. I think he's a B- decision maker and a D+ leader. On a team like the Dodgers, a mix of a-hole veterans like Kent and Lowe and "entitled" prospects (scare quotes to indicate ironic detachment from this media-created image), we do need a stronger, more decisive leader.

I like Little. I don't like it that he's being made to look bad during this process. I don't think it's his "fault" exactly; he's not a stubborn idiot like Jim Tracy. But a change could help the Dodgers.

14 Interesting that Colletti would fall on his own sword like that, although I notice he never said anything like that in public.

I'm still not 100% convinced that McCourt's fingerprints aren't all over this. I'm not gonna weep for Grady, but just like Dan Evans and Paul DePodesta before him, he got righteously hosed.

14 The most interesting thing to me is the question what exactly it was that Colletti was blaming Little for. That must be the key question, because it would show what Colletti's true beliefs are.

I am very afraid, because I think Colletti is more entrenched for the McCourts than we think. I am also afraid that Colletti thinks that we played the kids too much, and God that just makes my stomach turn. I really am starting to think this offseason will be a blood bath for DT readers. I hope I am wrong.

I actually did live in my moms garage for a about 6 months when I was 20. It was cool, like me and my friends could drink beer and not be bothered. Great time in my life. Nothing wrong with it.

24
That was killer garbage by Gammons. No one and I mean NO ONE was a bigger backer of Pedroia then BP. I guess the stroke killed a few to many braincells.

The thing is, I don't think being a GM is easy. I would be a terrible one, for example. If we had the team I wanted coming into this season, you would all hate me.

However, almost every move Ned makes makes me think I can do better. Does this mean he's one of the worst GMs in baseball, that he's one of the few that doesn't understand how runs are created. I hope not.

30
The "obvious" answer would appear to be that Ned blames Grittle for the clubhouse falling apart and all the animosity between old and young players, with this stuff being to blame for the disappointing record.

Rather than the other way around, of course.

Gammons didn't have a stroke. He had a cerebral aneurysm that ruptured.

It's an entirely different all together.

Ned: "Grady, you just did not get enough at bats for Juan Pierre."

What was the exact disagreement between Ned and Grady that resulted in 3 weeks of silence? Anyone have the scoop?

Only way to get this franchise back on the right track is to get a proven winner. Torre is the answer. Not sure Colletti is the GM answer, maybe Brian Cashman in a year or maybe Logan White our farm director. Bad decisions tend to stop you in your tracks. Questionable moves on MLB Baseball to agree to award the franchise too the McCourts. Now us fans are just stuck picking up the pieces and see what the PR people can come up with next. Bye Graddy have a good rest, as you were all season with your boy Ned. Losing 14 out of the last 15 was a little league thing to do. Both of them should have been fired. If I didn't work for 14 out of 15 days on my job, I would have been fired......

38 year old Dodger Fan,
born with Blue Blood,
Tommy we miss you

33 Oh, I'd be a lousy GM too. But I would think the easy part would be at least starting from correct foundational principles.

28 "I like Little. I don't like it that he's being made to look bad during this process. I don't think it's his "fault" exactly; he's not a stubborn idiot like Jim Tracy. But a change could help the Dodgers."

I like Little too, and you hit nail on Tracy. Just hope you're right. I'm trying to see the positive.

So, if the Dodgers miss the playoffs next year, Colletti gets canned, right? That would be an unprecedented two years of no postseason in a row for the McCourt Regime.

You realize that the Torre deal hasn't been finalized yet.

This could lead to an unintentional managerial search should the Dodgers fail to come to an agreement with Torre.

The Tim Brown/Yahoo! piece is required reading. http://tinyurl.com/ynsdcs

It's amazing and rather impressive PR-craft how little of this surfaced in the media until the last few days. I guess it helps a team when the local media is staffed by opinionated clowns rather than actual reporters. That guy in Westchester County, NY, ran rings around the LA Times in covering LA's team.

It sounds like a lot of bad timing hit Grady Little.

It also explains what was a mystery. How come the Dodgers seemed to get interested in Girardi only after Torre got sacked, when he's been available for a year. Answer: They didn't just get interested in him, they were interested in him since September. They just managed to keep it quiet and/or were playing Bud's "don't disrupt the post-season" dictat.

Dylan Hernandez is now reporting that the Dodgers have reached an agreement with Torre.

They're working out the deals of the coaching staff, which would include Mattingly.

38 - you mean, proven winners like Shea Hillenbrand, Jason Schmidt, Nomar Garciaparra, and Randy Wolf?

http://tinyurl.com/2lo86c

Sources said that the Dodgers and the former Yankees manager have agreed to the terms of his contract, and what remains to be done is to agree on issues about the coaching staff and his input on player personnel moves. Torre wants to choose his own coaches, among them Don Mattingly, and is negotiating the amount of money to be spent on them. The deal could be completed in the next day.

I thought Ned was pretty complimentary in public about how this season wasn't easy and how good a job Grady has done.

Possibly, Grady has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to any criticism from the top, he certainly had his issues in Boston.

If we are to believe Tim Brown's story, it seems that Grady made the mistake of taking things personally and then lack of communication and enthusiam with Ned led to the break up.

LA Sports scene a disaster in Actober
1. Dodgers hire fired 67 year old manager
2. Kobe/Lakers soon to be parting ways after Phil Jackson takes pot shots at Kobe's lack of desire
3. USC Rose Bowl hopes get drowned by the Ducks
4. UCLA gets clobbered in Spokane
5. Clippers picked dead last in the Pacific Division by most pundits

Can we get this month over with already?

35
Either way it was a lousy comment from someone I used to like quite a bit.

If this is accurate, then McCourt has officially become George Steinbrenner West.

Yup, that's exactly what I was thinking. But to be fair it was probably NedCo who is pulling these odd strings no?

I'm sorry for this but were can we hear this!!?

6. Galaxy miss the playoffs.

51 ESPN 710 either on the radio or the internet.

51- http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/player?station=la

48 Thank God there's only one October.

Or so I hear.

I think before firing him, Darth Flanders should have first learned that any mistakes Grady made are fairly insignificant compared to the mistakes he made.

50 Well, if McCourt is George Steinbrenner West, then considering the owner, the Dodgers have hired the perfect manager.

It's easy to find fault with Torre for tactical details like his bullpen management, but his handling/manipulation of both his meddlesome upper management and the muckraking press around him for the last 12 years has been absolutely masterful.

Terrific people skills on our GM, getting into an intractable fracas with the manager over who should bear how much blame for a crummy year.

There is only one word to describe this conference call...

AWKWARD.

Can you provide updates and commentary?

Grady and Ned both say that this is totally Grady's call, and that if he wanted Grady would be allowed to continue coaching the Dodgers.

TJ is going hard after Ned and Ned won't answer anything. Just saying he has talked to people and that he will get into stuff at a later time.

Ned did say he talked to Girardi.

They both said Grady would have the job if he wanted it.

I just found it, it's on ESPN 710 Radio.

This entire exchange sounds very above board and honest.

Oppo.

Shut up Mason!

George Steinbrenner West? Hmm. I think McCourt's got a ways to go before he deserves that. Take a look sometime at the Yankees' managerial history from 1974-1996.

There is nothing very unique in this sport about a bad team changing management a lot. I think baseball managers live by the "it's better to be lucky than good" adage.

What teams haven't replaced their manager in the past three years at least once? The Braves, Rockies, Red Sox, White Sox and Twins come to mind. I think Bob Melvin is the longest-serving manager in the NL West -- three years, maybe four. The Bosox went through a bunch of managers before Francona.

Two seasons are enough to know if a manager isn't working out. GMs need a longer time frame.

Just think what stability can get you. Clint Hurdle, for one. Ozzie Guillen.

LOL, someone has a radio station on and the guys making fun of the Dodgers saying the Dodgers are gonna bring back Jose Lima and Luis Gonzalez.

And another radio station interferes! Hilarity.

That is so indicative of...something.

48 1. Last time a LA team hired a coach with championship credentials, it worked out okay; 2. Kobe will be wearing no. 24 for the Lakers at least until the trade deadline; 3. The end was coming sooner or later; 4. That end migh be happening sooner; 5. With all the injuries, lottery pick time.

Ned ain't biting with the questions.

I hope there'll be a podcast, somewhere, when it's over. This is ridiculous.

What kind of questions?

The Dodgers have no clue how to run a conference call. There were phones ringing the whole time and then a radio station feed got in.

73 So, conference calls are another thing the Dodgers don't know how to run?

Seemed more of a problem on 710's fault, not so much the dodgers conference call.

72

Mainly Joe Torre & Girardi questions.

73 Was there someone standing by the door?

74
Our franchise is such an embarrassment. Mason and Ireland are laughing so hard right now.

From personal experience, conference calls are unpredictable things especially when you have lots of people dialing in.

A professional organization, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyone know if this conference call will be archived online somewhere? I'd love to hear it.

Not just conference calls. Who remembers that annoying door that kept locking and unlocking during our McCourt session at DT Day?

77 Awesome. Inside jokes!

78 This is nothing, nothing compared to their takes on Karl Dorrell.

Not that makes you or me feel any better.

for my taste I would of preferred Girardi but I guess Joe Torre will be the new Dodger skipper.

"Office" rumors at Screen Jam.

75
I was watching it on ESPNews.

82 How can you blame them for motion detector, I think sometimes we tend to take out frustration on the silliest things.

The call got screwed up on ESPNNews TV coverage as well, so unless 4-letter Corporate screwed it up, I think it was our beloved Dodgers that messed up the call.

of course.

TJ asked the questions we all wanted to hear before the call got cutoff. I really wish KLAC would have left him & co. on instead of getting Dan Patrick. I listen to local programming in Rochester, NY now instead of LA radio.

Seanez, Sweeney, and Wells all file for free agency:

http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/baseball/dodgers/2007/10/free_agency.html

88

Dude, I'm joking. Drop the PR gloves for one day.

I must say, this offseason is off to a much faster start than I anticipated.

82 LOL. McCourt said that day that he would look into it. I wonder if it got fixed. I'm guessing no.

Headline on Fox Sports "Little resigns as Dodger Manager".
Next headline I expect to see: "Jimmy Hoffa committed suicide".

We are so clown shoes.

66 Oh, I remember those. I'm just thinking of the seeming inability of the Dodgers' ownership to give its managers time for their vision to prove itself (or not). First DePo, now Little.

95 The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight.

On any number of levels.

95 How much vision can a manager have? He doesn't control who is on his roster (except to a minor extent) he just manages what is given to him. I don't agree with canning Grady, but I don't think it has nearly as much effect on the Dodgers long term plans as Ned.