A group of 20 L.A.-area ministers met with Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt earlier this month, and after that meeting wrote a letter to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig "urging him to give McCourt a second chance,” according to Abby Sewell of the L.A. TIMES. The ministers, "primarily from Baptist and Methodist churches," wrote in part, “We are deeply troubled by the rancor, media attacks and lack of equity that has been afforded the Los Angeles Dodgers and Frank McCourt as they seek to provide financial stability to one of baseball’s most notable franchises.” First African Methodist Episcopal Church of L.A. Senior Minister John Hunter Friday said that McCourt’s “'inner circle' had reached out to the pastors, who then heard his appeal at a breakfast meeting.” Hunter said that McCourt “did not make any promise to donate money to the churches, nor did he offer any personal benefit to the ministers.” Sewell noted in May, a group of “representatives of Latino organizations also wrote a letter to Selig advocating on McCourt's behalf” (L.A. TIMES, 6/11). Selig has said he acted in the "best interests of baseball" when MLB seized control of the Dodgers' day-to-day operations, but the L.A. TIMES' Michael Hiltzik wrote that is the "sort of slippery concept that always benefits those with the power to define it -- in this case, Bud Selig.” Frank McCourt and his ex-wife, Jamie, "are newcomers to baseball ownership and have always been treated by the league, the local community and the press as parvenus." Mets Owner Fred Wilpon also is suffering from financial issues, but Selig maintains the Dodgers and Mets situations are "far from the same." Hiltzik: "Selig and the other owners seem to consider Wilpon ‘one of us’ and Frank McCourt ‘one of them.’ If that’s the real difference between the Mets and Dodgers cases, that doesn’t sound as if it’s in the best interests of baseball” (L.A. TIMES, 6/11).
