The Frank and Jamie McCourt divorce: as the Dodgers turn

November 11, 9:48 AMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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Jamie McCourt in Washington,DC in September, 2009     (AP)

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When we last left our heroine she had been fired from her job by her husband and branded an adulteress in court filings.

Jamie McCourt lost her bid to be reinstated to her chief executive job at a hearing tied to the divorce proceedings between Jamie and her husband Frank.

And now she is publicly seeking to correct the falsehoods, according to her, about her personal relationship with a former employee of the Dodgers among other things.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times sat down with Mrs. McCourt and allowed her to tell her side even as the ball club's ownership prospects are fodder for headlines that include Mark Cuban.

Simers' reputation as a smart ass is well deserved but the method to his madness has been to ask the questions we would if we met with sports stars and execs, just not in the most politically correct way.

He has nicknames for both McCourts. Her's is the "Screaming Meanie" and his is "The Parking Lot Attendant". I guess he found her public persona less than pleasant and of course Frank's money came, at least in part from real estate holdings that included parking lots.

So for him to get a sit-down with Mrs. McCourt when she and others used to do all they could to avoid speaking with him, is quite a coup. And I suggest you read his entire article of today, here. She addresses the claims of her husband that her role with the team was merely ceremonial as well as the ugly charges that she used the team's money to go on trips that were personal in nature.

But in the meantime, the business of the Dodgers continues in an off-season that could be significant for the future of the ball club. Besides the question of whether their manager, Joe Torre will be a lame duck in the final year of his contract there is that tiny issue of who will take the team to the next level in the post-season.

After back-to-back seasons of reaching the NLCS and losing in five games to the Phillies, it is clear they won't get over the hump without better pitching. And we all know the prime candidates in free agency aren't going to be cheap.

With the potential for the club's ownership changing and money being an issue as never before, the personal name calling and partisan use of the firing tool (Frank has fired more than a dozen people from the club who according to Jamie, were loyalists to her) are distractions and troubling ones at that.

Can someone assure Dodgers fans that their ownership won't torpedo the opportunity to sign or trade for John Lackey, Roy Halladay, or even the Tigers' Edwin Jackson as Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported this morning?

Sorry for injecting real business into the discussion of the owners' personal lives but someone has to do it.

UPDATE; Just posted by Bill Plaschke on latimes.com: proof that the divorce is cutting into operating expenses.

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