The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse

by Molly Knight

  A. J. Ellis squatted behind home plate, and Clayton Kershaw walked to the mound to thunderous applause. It had been a busy off-season for the Dodgers’ ace. In addition to winning the Cy Young Award after the 2014 season ended, Kershaw had also been named the National League’s Most Valuable Player. It marked the first time a pitcher had won the NL MVP since Bob Gibson in 1968. Kershaw accepted both awards at a banquet in New York the day after he became a father. The final acknowledgment in his MVP acceptance speech went to the St. Louis Cardinals. “Thank you for reminding me that you’re never as good as you think you are,” he said.

  It didn’t matter how many personal awards would fit into that glass case in his office back in Dallas. If he did not add a World Series ring to his list of accomplishments as a big leaguer, he would consider his career a disappointment. If the Dodgers made the playoffs again in 2015, as expected, he would get another shot at conquering those demons. But that wouldn’t happen for six long months. First he had to face the Padres.

  The last time Matt Kemp stepped into the batter’s box at Dodger Stadium, he hit a home run to seal the Dodgers’ only playoff victory in 2014. Now he was playing for the other side. Kemp had walked into the visiting locker room before the game with a Padres hoodie pulled tight over his head and a full beard on his chin. As he sat in the first-base dugout to talk to media before the game, he smiled and shook his head. “Man, it’s weird being a visitor here,” he said. “I thought I would be a Dodger forever.” But if Kemp was battling mixed emotions, he hid it well. The outfielder seemed happier and more relaxed than he had been in years, and at peace with his time in blue. “I played my heart and soul out for the Dodgers,” he said. “At least, I think I did.”

  In San Diego, Kemp got a chance to be the leader of an exciting team that the club’s new general manager, A. J. Preller, was putting together. He also got to start over without any of the tension that had tainted his final years in Los Angeles. Kemp walked up to the plate to face Kershaw in the first inning, for the first time in his career. While they might not have realized it, the two men had much in common. Both had grown up as lonely only children raised by single mothers in bordering states in cowboy country. In all the years they were teammates, they had formed no real relationship. But that didn’t stop Kershaw from stepping off the mound to give the crowd a chance to acknowledge Kemp. Dodger fans responded with a standing ovation.

  Kershaw had hit the Padres’ leadoff batter, Wil Myers, with an 0-2 pitch, and Myers had stolen second. During spring training, the new front office told Mattingly and his coaching staff that it wanted the Dodgers’ defense to employ shifts more often, according to where each batter hit the ball. Since the data showed that Kemp was an extreme ground-ball pull hitter, Kendrick positioned himself behind second base when the new Padre came up to bat. Kemp responded by hitting the ball right to where a second baseman normally stands, and drove in the game’s first run. While the new brainpower in the Dodgers front office gave the club a boost, it was not possible to outsmart the game in every at-bat. Friedman and Zaidi looked brilliant seven innings later, however. With the game tied 3–3 in the eighth, Rollins clubbed a three-run home run to give the Dodgers the lead for good.

  • • •

  But April didn’t matter; October was all that did. The Dodgers had shattered their own record by taking the field on opening day with a payroll of $270 million. Though they had never made the playoffs three years in a row in franchise history, a third straight NL West title would not be enough to make them baseball’s new superpower. The Dodgers would have to capture their first World Series title since 1988 even to start that conversation.

  No matter how much money they spent or how good they looked to stat heads or how well they got along in the clubhouse, winning a championship would not be easy.

  It never was.

  Frank and Jamie McCourt at the press conference introducing them as the new Dodgers’ owners in 2004. Five years later, the two began bitter divorce proceedings that drove the franchise into bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

  From left to right: Peter Guber, Stan Kasten, Guggenheim Partners’ CEO Mark Walter, and Magic Johnson walk up to the press conference introducing them as the new Dodgers’ owners on May 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

  Mark Walter talks with Don Mattingly during batting practice at Dodger Stadium before a game versus the Giants on October 2, 2012. Even when Mattingly was rumored to be on the hot seat, he enjoyed Walter’s support. (Larry Goren/Four Seam Images via AP Images)

  The Dodgers’ starting lineup remove their caps for the national anthem on opening day, April 1, 2013. (Louis Lopez/Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

  Zack Greinke pitches to a batter at Miller Park in Milwaukee on May 21, 2013. As the first big free-agent signing of the Guggenheim regime, Greinke became the Dodgers’ second ace, behind Clayton Kershaw, and a key to their championship hopes. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

  Carlos Quentin (center) tackles Zack Greinke after being hit by a pitch, as A. J. Ellis (number 17) tries to stop him. Greinke would miss four weeks with a broken collarbone. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

  Yasiel Puig flips his bat into the air to celebrate a hit. Puig’s bat flips would soon cause a lot of resentment among Dodgers’ opponents. (Dominic DiSaia)

  Clayton Kershaw stares off into space while preparing for Game 4 of the 2013 NLDS versus the Braves. (Dominic DiSaia)

  Juan Uribe celebrates after hitting an eighth-inning two-run home run in Game 4 of the 2013 NLDS to help the Dodgers advance to the National League Championship Series. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

  Hanley Ramirez is hit by a pitch in the first inning of Game 1 of the 2013 NLCS. Ramirez, the Dodgers’ best hitter, suffered a broken rib on the play, all but ending the club’s World Series hopes. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

  Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez pose with posters that Cardinal fans created to make fun of them before Game 6 of the 2013 NLCS at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Dodgers would lose 9–0 and be eliminated hours later. (Molly Knight)

  Ned Colletti (left) and Don Mattingly address the media after the Dodgers were eliminated two wins shy of the World Series in 2013. After the club failed to mention that his option for 2014 had vested a week earlier, a frustrated Mattingly told reporters he did not want to manage a team where he was not wanted. (AP Photo: Nick Ut)

  Clayton Kershaw celebrates his first career no-hitter against the Rockies on June 18, 2014. He struck out fifteen and walked none, missing a perfect game only because of an error. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

  Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp celebrate after Kemp hit an RBI single to beat the Braves on July 30, 2014. The all-star outfielders had a tumultuous relationship in their two seasons as teammates. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

  Clayton Kershaw (left) and A. J. Ellis celebrate the Dodgers’ clinching the NL West for the second straight season after beating the Giants on September 24, 2014. San Francisco would enter the playoffs as a wild card and go on to win the World Series. (Molly Knight)

  Clayton Kershaw reacts to giving up a three-run home run to Matt Adams in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the 2014 NLDS. The Cardinals would win the game 3–2, and eliminate the Dodgers. It was the second time in two years St. Louis beat Kershaw to end the Dodgers’ season. (Jeff Curry, USA Today Sports)

  Andrew Friedman (right) speaks with ESPN reporter Mark Saxon in the Dodgers’ dugout before a game versus the Padres in San Diego on April 24, 2015. (Molly Knight)

  Acknowledgments

  This book was a labor of love. My family has been in Los Angeles for five generations, and I grew up in the Top Deck at Dodger Stadium. I’d like to thank my parents for taking me to a zillion baseball games when I was little, and for allowing me to stay after my own Little League games to keep score at my friends’ games, even though it was impossibly dorky and time-consuming. I’d also like to acknowledge my sister, Sarah, who came along to most of these outings and grew to love baseball as well.

  As I sit here try
ing to come up with my list of people to thank I am overwhelmed. So many humans have helped me professionally, spiritually, and emotionally that I feel like I could write another book just to acknowledge them all. But here goes.

  To my family: Toni Heyler, Beverly LeVato, Mary, Mike and Gini Frauenthal, Bryce Stowell, Lisa and Stephen Patton, Kathy and John Hollister, Christian and Locke Luhnow, Carolyn Knight, Janice Knight, Ginny Knight, Margaret Scott, the Kellys, the Blakemores, the Farias, Albert, Janiece, and Andrew Phillip, Gary, Sheri, Camden, Whitney, and Chandler Richards, and my grandfathers David Heyler, Joe LeVato, and Vick Knight . . . Thank you for raising me and for keeping me in check.

  To my friends who stood by me, encouraged me to write this book, and/or handed me writing jobs or whiskey: Anne Hubert, Allie Ganz, Jessica Kumai Scott, Danielle Evans, Ali Calamari, Rahael Seifu, Tammy and Mark Murray, and everyone else in the Nerd Herd. Casey Newton, Dan Murtaugh, Tom, John, and Margaret Allen; Jordan Brenner, Shags, Karolyn Gehrig, Nicole Horton, Elyse Pasquale, Bill Magee, Gloria Hawa, Nikki Brien, Pete Olshansky, Jackie Sindrich, Angel Amitrano, Joy Hamabe, Worthy Havens, Rick Albano, Tanya Guzman, Natalie Montoya, Matthew Tolnick, Ethan Schiffres, Justin Givens, Ani Raymond, Ryan Ridings, Jorge Arangure, Matt Gelb, Chris Jones, Seth Wickersham, Alison Overholt, Matt Meyers, Gary Belsky, Hugo Lindgren, Jon Kelly, J. B. Morris, Jon Scher, Ed McGregor, Otto Strong, Scott Burton, Chad Millman, Jenn Holmes, Neil Fine, Ryan Hockensmith, Sue Hovey, Gary Hoenig, Anna Katherine Clemmons, Stacey Pressman, Mark Giles, Troy Cox, Liz Padilla, Erik Malinowski, Bruce Arthur, Old Hoss Radbourn, Jeff Passan, Jay Jaffe, Wendy Thurm, Jerry Crasnick, Joe Lemire, Jayson Stark, Jonah Keri, Michael Boor, Rachel, Ben, Marjie, Caryn Rose, Amanda Rykoff, Alyson Footer, Ken Rosenthal, Jon Heyman, Bob Nightengale, Michelle Beadle, Chris Tunno, Jeff Luhnow, Lana Berry, Lauren Bush, Phil Crandall, Neil Janowitz, Tim Kavanagh, Chris Diedrich, Ramsey Ezaki, Hiro Iwanaga, Jaison Robinson, Naveen Kabir, Patty Compton, Rachel Moore, Srinivas Panguluri, Vamsi Adusumilli, Brooke Sloane, Lindsay Sloane, Suzanne Wrubel, Alyssa Roenigk, Lindsay Berra, Jon Wank, Lee Berman, Dan Reilly, Adrian Perry, and everyone from the Welcome Back Jim Thome and OMG Girls Leagues.

  Thank you to Bev, Mary, and Mike for always being my home away from home. To Lisa for teaching me about crosswords, and to Toni and Dave Heyler for the gift of a great education.

  I drew from the work of many other reporters in writing this book, and you can find their cited works in my notes section. But this book would not have been possible without the hard work of those on the Dodgers beat, including: Ken Gurnick, Bill Shaikin, Mark Saxon, Tim Brown, Dylan Hernandez, Bill Plaschke, Eric Stephen, Pedro Moura, J. P. Hoornstra, Mike Petriello, Chad Moriyama, Ramona Shelburne, Jill Painter Lopez, Bill Plunkett, Jon Weisman, Tony Jackson, Josh Suchon, Beto Duran, Roberto Baly, Arash Markazi, Diamond Leung, Steve Dilbeck, Dustin Nosler, Josh Fisher, Steve Mason, and John Ireland.

  I also drew from the exceptional work of Derrick Goold and Jenifer Langosch in writing about the Cardinals, and Gordon Edes for my Red Sox musings.

  Thank you to Marjie Blevins and Robin Oliver for looking out for me in high school, and for encouraging me to find my voice.

  Thank you to Perry Passaro, Tara Brach, and Neda Shafaghi for keeping me happy and healthy.

  Thank you to every journalist who has ever asked a good question. You know who you are.

  Bill Francis at the Hall of Fame fact-checked this book. He is a true American hero.

  Special thanks to Mason, Jori, Dan, and everyone from the Norton School of the Occasionally Employed for allowing me to sit on your porch to write the first four chapters of this book.

  To all the Dodger players, family members, and staff who helped in my reporting of this book, and in everything I have written about the club over the years, including (in alphabetical order): Nancy Bea, Steve Brener, Yvonne Carrasco, Jon Chapper, Carl Crawford, A. J. Ellis, Cindy Ellis, Mark Ellis, Andre Ethier, Tim Federowicz, Adrian Gonzalez, Dee Gordon, Zack Greinke, Jerry Hairston, Orel Hershiser, Trey Hillman, Rick Honeycutt, J. P. Howell, Kenley Jansen, Jaime Jarrin, Stan Kasten, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, Davey Lopes, Don Mattingly, Preston Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Rick Monday, Mitch Poole, Nick Punto, Yasiel Puig, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Rawitch, Paco Rodriguez, Lon Rosen, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Skip Schumaker, Vin Scully, Charley Steiner, Josh Tucker, Juan Uribe, Tim Wallach, Mark Walter, Logan White, and Pepe Yniguez. Many more people helped with the reporting of this book who insisted on remaining anonymous. I can’t name them, but I extend my deepest gratitude.

  There are five people who midwifed me through this process and encouraged me when I thought all was lost. They are: Nick Piecoro, Keith Law, Tyler Kepner, Buster Olney, and Stephen Rodrick. My sanity would not have been possible without them, and this book certainly would not have been.

  I want to thank my mother, Mandy, and my sister, Sarah, for providing the support I needed to finish this book, including mountains of Bagel Bites. You gals are the best.

  I would like to thank my editor, Bob Bender, his assistant, Johanna Li, and my agents, Jared Levine and David McCormick. David: you encouraged me to start this crazy project, and then sold my collection of notes to Simon & Schuster. I cannot imagine a better fit for me. Bob: you held my hand through this process, and made this book infinitely better with your suggestions and judicious cuts. Your calmness rubbed off on me, which is no small task. I am forever in your debt for helping to make this dream come true. Any writer would be lucky to have you edit her. And to Jared: thank you for being my sounding board and my friend, as well as the captain of this ship. And thank you for loving the Dodgers.

  Last but not least, thank you to Simon & Schuster for publishing this book. That was pretty awesome of you guys.

  © ANDREW BICK

  MOLLY KNIGHT wrote about baseball for ESPN the Magazine for eight seasons. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Glamour, SELF, Baseball Prospectus, and Variety. A native of Los Angeles and lifelong Dodgers fan, she lives in L.A.

  Visit the author at www.mollyknight.com

  Follow Molly Knight on Twitter at: @molly_knight

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  Notes

  PROLOGUE

  I didn’t think Clayton Kershaw: Most of the information from the prologue comes from an interview I conducted with Clayton Kershaw at his Dallas home on January 15, 2014.

  Ellis, described Kershaw to me as: Interview with A. J. Ellis on April 1, 2013.

  seventy-five cents per heartbeat: Tweet from Buster Olney @Buster_ESPN, January 15, 2014.

  CHAPTER 1: THE BILLIONAIRE BOYS’ CLUB

  “It was just really, really weird”: Don Mattingly addressing media at the Dodgers’ spring training in Glendale, Arizona, on February 18, 2013.

  “I wanted to do all these things”: Interview with Stan Kasten on July 15, 2014.

  Some seventy-eight thousand fans: On April 18, 1958, the Dodgers played their first game in Los Angeles at the Coliseum in front of 78,672 fans. They beat the Giants 6–5. The previous record for the largest regular-season crowd was the 78,382 who saw the Chicago White Sox at Cleveland on August 20, 1948.

  For his efforts: O’Malley was on the April 28, 1958, cover of Time magazine.

  In 1950 the state’s population was just over ten million: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California had a population of 10,586,223 in 1950, and 29,760,021 by 1990 (www.census.gov).

  Jaime Jarrin: referenced Neruda after the Dodgers beat the Braves to win the NLDS on October 7, 2013. According to an article in the Los Angeles
Times written by Hector Becerra, Jarrin described Kershaw’s curveball to listeners as “aristocratic” that night, and when Juan Uribe stepped into the batter’s box just before hitting the series-clinching home run, the brilliant Jarrin said, “An interesting game is coming to an end, with two teams battling like dogs, faceup.”

  O’Malley’s son Peter was quoted: From a January 7, 1997, article in the New York Times written by Murray Chass. O’Malley said: “I think family ownership of sports today is probably a dying breed. If you look at all sports, it’s a high-risk business. Professional sports is as high risk as the oil business. You need a broader base than an individual family to carry you through the storms. Groups or corporations are probably the way of the future.”

  Fox never wanted: From many articles, including an August 18, 2002, piece in the Los Angeles Times by James Bates. “[Rupert] Murdoch realized the potential TV value of the Dodgers when he bought the team in 1998. Before he became owner, he never set foot inside Dodger Stadium. On his first opening day . . . he grilled executives on player contracts, expressing astonishment at baseball’s rules on guaranteed contracts.”

  But the idea of entering into a bidding war: From many articles, including an August 5, 2007, New York Times piece by Jim Schachter. “The purchase [of the Dodgers] was part of Fox’s rivalry with Disney, for dominance in sports broadcasting.”