Torre Quits MLB to Pursue Dodgers at BetLM

Torre Quits MLB to Pursue Dodgers

NEW YORK

Joe Torre resigned Wednes­day as Major League Baseball’s exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent for base­ball oper­a­tions to join a group try­ing to buy the Los Ange­les Dodgers.

Torre man­aged the Dodgers from 2008-10, then retired and joined MLB last Feb­ru­ary as a top aide to Com­mis­sioner Bud Selig. He is join­ing a group headed by real estate devel­oper Rick Caruso.

“I have made this deci­sion because of a unique chance to join a group that plans to bid for the Dodgers,” Torre said in a state­ment. “After leav­ing the field, this job was an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence, one that I enjoyed very much.”

The Dodgers were put up for sale by owner Frank McCourt in Novem­ber, five months after the team filed for bank­ruptcy. Fol­low­ing months of bick­er­ing and accu­sa­tions of mis­man­age­ment, an agree­ment between McCourt and MLB said the team is to be sold by April 30, which coin­cides with the dead­line for McCourt to pay for­mer wife Jamie a $ 131 mil­lion divorce settlement.

Ini­tial bids for the team are due by Jan. 23 with the Black­stone Group, Frank McCourt’s invest­ment banker. The price likely will break the record for a base­ball fran­chise, top­ping the $ 845 mil­lion paid by the Rick­etts fam­ily for the Chicago Cubs in 2009.

“Joe has a proven track record of field­ing win­ning teams and I am look­ing for­ward to our group ben­e­fit­ing from his unique expe­ri­ence,” Caruso said in a state­ment. “I am a life­long Ange­leno; I love this city and have ded­i­cated my career to cre­at­ing world-class des­ti­na­tions that sup­port this com­mu­nity and fos­ter great cus­tomer expe­ri­ences. Joe and I believe in the Dodgers and Dodger fans and know that together we will fos­ter a win­ning culture.”

Torre, the 1971 National League MVP, was a nine-time All-Star dur­ing a play­ing career from 1960–77, then man­aged the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Car­di­nals. After work­ing as a broad­caster for the Angels, he man­aged the New York Yan­kees from 1996-07 and led them to four World Series titles.

With MLB, the 71-year-old Torre del­e­gated much of the day-to-day work to three senior vice pres­i­dents he appointed in March: for­mer Ari­zona GM Joe Gara­gi­ola Jr., for­mer Dodgers assis­tant GM Kim Ng and for­mer Ari­zona assis­tant GM Peter Woodfork.

“Joe has been an invalu­able resource for me and all of us at Major League Base­ball this year,” Selig said in a state­ment. “I under­stand his desire to pur­sue an oppor­tu­nity in Los Ange­les. Joe has been a life­long friend and I know that will con­tinue in the future.”

Other poten­tial bid­ders for the team include:

• Steven Cohen of the hedge fund SAC Cap­i­tal Advisors.

• a group that includes for­mer Los Ange­les Lak­ers star Magic John­son, for­mer Atlanta Braves and Wash­ing­ton Nation­als pres­i­dent Stan Kas­ten and Guggen­heim Part­ners chief exec­u­tive offi­cer Mark Walter.

• a group that includes for­mer agent and cur­rent Chicago White Sox spe­cial assis­tant Den­nis Gilbert, talk show host Larry King and Jason Reese of Impe­r­ial Capital.

• a group that includes for­mer Dodgers gen­eral man­ager Fred Claire, for­mer Oak­land Ath­let­ics pres­i­dent Andy Dolich and for­mer Dodgers bat­boy Ben Hwang, who brought in the finan­cial backers

• for­mer Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley.

• a group that includes for­mer Dodgers stars Orel Her­shiser and Steve Gar­vey, and Joey Her­rick of Nat­ural Bal­ance Pet Foods.

• Dal­las Mav­er­icks owner Mark Cuban.

Win­ners of six World Series titles but none since 1988, the Dodgers have been in tur­moil since Octo­ber 2009, when the McCourts sep­a­rated and Frank fired Jamie as the team’s chief exec­u­tive officer.

Selig installed for­mer Texas Rangers pres­i­dent Tom Schi­ef­fer as the Dodgers’ finan­cial mon­i­tor in April, rul­ing he must approve any expense of $ 5,000 or more.

The Dodgers fin­ished third in the NL West at 82–79, had just three sell­outs and fell short of 3 mil­lion in home atten­dance in a full sea­son for the first time since 1992.

BetLM's sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more MLB base­ball news see: Torre quits MLB to pur­sue Dodgers.

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