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“WEEKEND TO REMEMBER”
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The Dodgers, pioneers, front runners, trend setters….winners.

There are no other words to describe Dodgers baseball, then in Brooklyn, now in Los Angeles, and in the future, globally.

The Dodgers won the bidding war to sign Angels star Shohei Ohtani, the (10Y-700M) deal far outdistancing the Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers and others.

The franchise that broke the color barriers with Jackie Robinson, delivered us Mexican legend Fernando Valenzuala, and brought many stars from the Pacific Rim, Hideo Nomo, Kenta Maeda, Hyung Jin-Ryu, plus all the Caribbean stars of the past, are more than America’s team, but have become a Global brand.

In an era with Luxury Tax thresholds and significant penalties, the Dodgers maneuvered with creative financing to defer upwards of 500M of the salary, getting discount benefits under the tex rules.  Instead of a tax figure of 70M per year, they will be charged 40M a year under bookkeeping rules, allowing the Dodgers to stay active in the free agent market to go get pitching.

Remarkable that Ohtani and his CAA-agents are the ones who proposed deferred payments, without interest, so that the Dodgers could continue to roster-build.

But that’s not strange, because Ohtani has always done business differently, from demanding autonomy to train as a DH and a pitcher at the same time. Demand he be allowed to rehab with his own medical people outside the circle of Angels physicians.  Be allowed to participate in the WBC on his terms.

He is also the one who left Japan early to come to the Angels eventhough he could not sign a lucrative free agent contract, being underpaid 5-straight seasons before he became a mega free agent after his final 30M-deal his final year expired at Angels Stadium.

And now he agrees to a creatively packaged record transaction to move to Dodgers Stadium.

Here are all types of reaction from what we saw in the Dodgers version of a Great Sports Weekend:

DODGERS…Add a 44-home run bat to an order that already has Mookie Betts-Freddie Freeman-Wil Smith and many others, wow.  The fact the Dodgers have a history of helping rehab pitchers coming off elbow surgeries, can you imagine a rotation a year from now that includes Ohtani-Beuhler-May plus the myriad of younger arms like Bobby Miller and possibly Clayton Kershaw?  Wow-wow.

PADRES..In the aftermath of the Juan Soto-Yankees trade, I ask if San Diego got the right players in the deal?  The Yankees top group of young players includes P-Clark Schmidt..2B-Gleyber Torres..CF-Jason Domingues..and top young minor leaguers Oswaldo Peraza and Ev Periero, and none of them were included in the haul the Padres got.  Yes, P-Michael King and future prospect Drew Thorpe came to San Diego, for an MVP player like Soto, but the Padres needed to get other proven young players.  They did not.  And now you don’t have Soto and the Dodgers have Ohtani.

ANGELS..Just don’t understand Arte Moreno’s mode of operation.  His GM-Perry Manazian has not accomplished much in 3-years.  The roster is thread- bare of talent.  Aside from the oft-injured Mike Trout, it looks like a Class AAA-roster in the Pacific Coast League.  And now Ohtani has departed.  Leaving with him all the star studded stats, pitching, hitting and the awards.  How awful this must be on Halos fans to see this.  Yes, they have 70M-budget space to use, but what star players will want to come to Anaheim, and how do you replace the player, the personality, the fans favorite?  And I understand why President John Carpino said ‘no comment’ about the Angels attempt to keep Ohtani.  I guess I wouldn’t have much to say if I were Carpino, who has overseen the demise of this once popular franchise.

So Showtime moves to Dodgers Stadium.
Tell me the Padres season isn’t over before it even started.
Angels fans should boycott the team till Moreno-Carpino sells the franchise.

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