The cameras and microphones were gone. Frank McCourt and his wife, Jamie, sat in a Dodger Stadium luxury suite Thursday as twilight shrouded the diamond and darkness closed in on his first official day as the club's new owner.
"Indescribable," McCourt said of his emotions. "A kid's dream. All of this is going to take a while to set in."
In the last week of January, with the Dodgers scheduled to open spring training in about three weeks, McCourt knows he doesn't have a kid's luxury of time.
He repeatedly made that clear during a stadium news conference and a private interview later, saying the Dodgers needed to add the hitter they have failed to add through the first three months of the off-season.
"Things need to be done and will be done," he said. "The team lacks excitement, and I want to win this year."
Where that hitter is coming from this late in the winter isn't clear, but that's how it was as McCourt -- who reached an agreement in principle to buy the team from News Corp. on Oct. 10 -- finally braved the hornet's nest of community and media skepticism regarding his highly leveraged purchase, ability to operate the Dodgers at a competitive level and intentions for Dodger Stadium.
Accompanied by business associates and public relations assistants and saying it had been painful to hear and read some of the things that had been said and written while he was prevented from responding by baseball rules governing prospective owners, McCourt first delivered what equated to a 20-minute induction speech and ultimately made promises and pledges beyond the addition of a hitter.
Although vague at times and swaggeringly confident at others, he said the organization clearly needed to be "reenergized and refocused," that the 15 seasons since the last victory in a playoff game represented an "unacceptable drought," and that the "boldness and innovation" that had long characterized the Dodgers had to be restored.
"It really comes down to a sense of urgency," McCourt said. "It seems to me that the Dodgers have become complacent [on and off the field]. We have to regain that sense of urgency."
In the process, he said, there are "zero plans" to move out of Dodger Stadium, he is committed to keeping the Dodgers in the top quarter of the payroll rankings, he will begin regular meetings with season-ticket holders today and he considers himself to be the right man at the right time.
