[Hotblack Desiato]

I will no longer be a Dodger fan as long as Frank McCourt is this team's owner, nor will I spend a single cent to help him pay off his loans.

Today's hiring of Coletti was the final straw. For two years now I have resisted the nagging notion that he is a bumbling idiot with no plan, no knowledge of baseball and no ability to understand life on the west coast. The hiring of Paul Depodesta filled me with hope, that if nothing else, McCourt knew that he could put certain people in place that would work in the best interest of the team and he would not need to involve himself in the baseball side of his business, and instead occupy his time raising ticket prices, selling ad space, cutting foul ground and exploring redevelopment options in Chavez Ravine.

Instead, he has only proved himself to be the left side's version of George Steinbrenner, but without the open pocketbook. It is now clear to me that he hired Depodesta not because he had the best philosophy on winning, but that a Moneyball approach would be most likely to turn a profit, because that after all was the great news his wife (who doubles as club President) had for us, the silver lining on a dreary season decimated by injuries -- in spite of these hard times, they turned a profit! I cannot express how overjoyed Dodgers fans everywhere were to hear this news. After all, our main concern is that the team's owners can pay their bills. I went into default on my credit card once, so I totally know how it feels.

In firing Depodesta, he left this team directionless. He had no contingency plan. This was not part of a greater vision, but panicked and spontaneous. There was nobody in line to take the job and a month later we wind up with one of the two people who would actually consider working for this shambolic front office. Of those two people, one was the assistant to the team's last two general managers -- both fired by McCourt, mind you -- who knew this club inside and out and, oh, just happened to be a woman.

The other was a Giant.

What was all this talk of restoring the Dodger way? When I think of the Dodger way, I think of Branch Rickey, who was not only a social pioneer but also invented the farm system, revolutionised training, and was perhaps the game's first Moneyball-style statistical analyst.

So he restores the Dodger way by firing THE statistical analyst IN Moneyball and then passing on the opportunity to break down a huge social barrier. Oh, and he also cut our Dominican training facilities to save money, and any day now our farm system will be ravaged for old and overrated Major Leaguers in the name of instant and marginal success, and by a former Giant at that.

Well, that pretty much takes care of everything Mr. Rickey established. Way to take us back to the glory days, Frank.

Take THAT, customer service representative!