On the day the Los Angeles Dodgers said goodbye to a former superstar slugger known for wearing a baggy uniform and dreadlocks and swinging a big stick, the superstars working to decide the team's future Monday wore slick business suits and hearing aids and comfortably slung around words with many syllables.
A divorce trial between Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and wife Jamie could determine the ownership future of the team.
Goodbye Manny Ramirez, claimed by the Chicago White Sox off waivers.
Hello lawyers, slugging it out in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles all day a few tape-measure home runs away from Dodger Stadium.
It was Day One of the divorce saga/ownership tussle between Frank and Jamie McCourt. At stake: the future of the Dodgers and the division of perhaps more than $1 billion in assets.
The McCourts remained silent and expressionless for most of the day in Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon's courtroom, listening to the big-name legal talent that, when all is argued and done, is expected to cost nearly $20 million.
Making the opening argument for Frank: Steve Susman, the Texas attorney who in May donated $5 million to the University of Texas law school and is now trying to save Frank's ownership stake in the Dodgers.
Susman painted Jamie as not having a legal leg to stand on as she seeks to acquire part-ownership of the Dodgers despite signing a marital property agreement in 2004 awarding her sole ownership of the McCourts' seven houses and awarding Frank sole ownership of the Dodgers and the 276 acres of Los Angeles real estate known as Chavez Ravine.
Susman pointed out how accomplished Jamie was -- lawyer, owner of a master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former CEO of the Dodgers -- and said it was unbelievable that she would assert she didn't understand the agreement she signed and didn't read it.
"I'm from Texas, and in Texas a deal is a deal," Susman said. "A person's word is their bond. She signed this agreement.
"The agreement says what everyone thought it said. The houses are Jamie's property. The Dodgers are Frank's property."
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SOURCE: USA Today
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