Dodgers web musings: Court battle is where the entertainment is

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Are we having fun yet?

Nerves appear to become just a tad frayed as the Dodgers’ bankruptcy moves forwards. The big showdown doesn’t even start until Halloween, but already attorneys are sharpening their fangs.

Accusations have been flying the past two days. Turns out calling Major League Baseball’s proposed loan a ‘deal with the devil’ may have must been a mere warmup.

On Tuesday it was MLB again threatening to kick the Dodgers out of the league, Fox threatening not to air their games the final two years of their existing contract and Frank McCourt’s attorney accusing the MLB of choking off McCourt’s money supply in a dastardly scheme to oust him as owner.

By Wednesday it was a Fox attorney accusing McCourt of holding their existing TV rights hostage, MLB accusing McCourt of not turning over documents involving an IRS investigation, McCourt’s attorney suggesting MLB and Fox were trying to put off a media rights auction to ‘chill the market’ and a dispute over a mysterious locked cabinet left behind by trustee Tom Schieffer in his former office at Dodger Stadium.

Just wait until Commissioner Bud Selig and McCourt take the witness stand.

Also on the web:

-- Howard Cole makes his case for how James Loney remains with the Dodgers at his blog at the Register.

-- MLB Trade Rumors takes a look at the arbitration cases looming for the Dodgers this winter, and estimates that if Clayton Kershaw wins the Cy Young he’ll earn a record $8.4 million for a first year of eligibility and that Matt Kemp could be looking at a much as a $16.3 million award.

-- The Times’ T.J. Simers finds it curious McCourt is fighting so hard in court to maintain ownership of the team when he’s been almost invisible as the team steward.

-- Josh Fisher at Dodger Divorce wonders exactly what McCourt is fighting for, because even if he should emerge victorious in bankruptcy court, his fan base has deserted him: ‘There’s nothing left to win.’

-- Since Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness doesn’t believe there’s any chance the Dodgers will actually acquire an impact bat, he argues the best way for them to improve is to simply quit giving playing time to lousy players.

-- Chad Moriyama, probably leader of the sabermetrics crowd that worships Matt Kemp, attempts to take an unbiased statistical look at his MVP candidacy and concludes –- are you ready? -– he is the deserving winner.

-- Bryan Stow, the paramedic beaten into a comma on opening day at Dodger Stadium, has left the hospital and been transfer to a rehabilitation facility. His family said in recent weeks he has shown marked improvement and become conversational.

-- D. Clay Best of the Smithfield (N.C.) Herald reports that Jerry Sands plans to wed his high school sweetheart, Morgan Pace, in November and play winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

-- And don’t say Sands isn’t game for a good time. Here’s a video of Sands the superstar in a Dodgers.com video:

-- Steve Dilbeck

Twitter.com/stevedilbeck