Spending Other People's Money

Sports fans love to spend other people's money. Whenever the team they root for is doing bad the answer is always that the organization needs to go out and spend whatever it takes to get some other player that will be the savior, salary be damned.

Such is the case with the Dodgers these days. To catch you up, the Dodgers won the NL west division last year. This offseason they decided not to resign Adrian Beltre who signed with the mariners for 5 years and $64 million. Coupled with the Paul Lo Duca trade last year and the botched three-team mega-deal this winter and a lot of people are speculating that the Dodgers are trying to cut payroll and save some money.

Fans are screaming bloody murder. They want Frank McCourt, the Dodgers owner, to spend whatever it takes to win, kind of like George Steinbrenner of the Yankess does.

Sports fans are funny. They speculate and speculate during the offseason and don't let anything play itself out. Am I estatic that the Dodgers didn't sign Beltre, of course not. But I also understand what they did. Beltre had one good year. He had seven bad years before that and you want to reward the guy with a $65 million dollar contract? Don't people remember Darren Dreifort? Reports are that the Dodgers offered about $55 million or so and the fans are upset that the Dodgers didn't go the extra $2 million a year to keep Beltre. I mean its only $2 million per year right? How many of you have $2 million a year to just throw away on something you don't think is worth it?

Frank McCourt bought the team. Its his team. He can run it anyway he wants. You as a fan have a simple recourse. Don't support the Dodgers. Don't go to the games. Don't buy merchandise. Heck you can even still root for them and watch them on TV but so long as you voice your displeasure with your dollar sooner or later McCourt will get the idea that he will lose money if he doesn't put a winning team on the field.