It’s been a good six months since we’ve heard Mark Cuban say he wants to buy a Major League team. That’s gotta be some kind of record. The silence is over, however, as yesterday he said that, sure, he’d buy the Dodgers if they were up for sale. That’s a little premature inasmuch as the Dodgers aren’t for sale. At least not yet. We’re at least a year’s worth of McCourt ridiculousness away from that happening.
But as always, Cuban is an intriguing choice. He has cash, which is pretty helpful, and he’s shown that he’ll spend it in an effort to put a winner on the field or, in his case, the court (though his success in this department has faltered considerably in recent years). Baseball wants no part of him, however. Selig and his friends in ownership don’t like outspoken free thinkers around, and Cuban is definitely that. He’s well known for criticizing officiating and recently went on a “who cares about steroids” rant that, while pretty reasonable all things considered, isn’t the kind of thing baseball owners want to hear.
If the Dodgers did go up for sale, the owners would do whatever they could to thwart any attempt Cuban made to join their club. Probably with the help of Frank McCourt, who is a Selig-Reinsdorf guy and who would probably go out of his way to seek offers from people not named Mark Cuban if he was forced to sell the team.
But it’s fun to fantasize.