Dodger Fans

It had to be the saddest Siete de Mayo in Chavez Ravine in many a year. Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers have been placed on the 50-day disgusted list. They will be eligible to come off it in July. Man-of-many-surprises Manny Ramirez has been given the heave-ho. He just got busted by baseball's version of a narc.

My cousin Jimmy didn't use his Dodgers season tickets all last year. He's an L.A. kid, runs the Mar Vista hardware store my Uncle Dick founded, and he loves the Dodgers so much that he has two sun-faded Dodger Stadium seats bolted to the floor of his living room. These face the television, which is not what anybody would call small. Jimmy has watched his Dodger games on that TV ever since the McCourt money scandals broke. He refuses to set foot in the stadium until it's safely out of Bostonian hands.

Carlos Perez says "people are going to be scared" when they see him pitch. He's right. As a Dodger fan, nothing could scare me more than to see him headed to the mound. DAVE PARKER Venice

Here is what I see, and I can't believe it. Two ushers are stopping fans from lining up for autographs almost two hours before Tuesday night's Dodgers game. The ushers tell the fans they must move to the right and sit down. The fans do so, thinking they will still have the opportunity to get autographs. But the ushers are telling me the fans probably won't get that opportunity because they haven't been given clearance to allow the fans to enter the expensive seats and line up for autographs.

What do Fred Claire and Ross Perot have in common? Neither one can answer a direct question. SUSAN CECILE, Long Beach

$50-million stadium renovation adds three new field box sections, plus luxury suites and other great amenities. Upscale fans get great seats. Team gets more revenue.

While exiting Dodger Stadium [recently], we were directed to the north or south direction of the Harbor Freeway while passing though the vehicle turnstiles going out of the parking lot. Proceeding down the hill, the directional signs were unlit and impossible to see until we were so close as to make a lane change unsafe. Is Rupert Murdoch trying to save on electricity? I have a better suggestion: How about cutting out some of the horrible music and light show? This would accomplish two goals: cutting down on his utility bill and bringing back a little dignity to this American institution.

Keep wondering. Ever tried a Google  search on this guy? You'd find more info on the local winner of the fifth-grade science fair. Mark Walter, apparently, is the main man behind Guggenheim Baseball Management's purchase of the Dodgers. It would be nice to feel good about Walter after the harrowing experience of Frank McCourt as owner, but Walter is apparently so private it's hard not to be nervous. He's an ex-lawyer, which automatically makes most nervous. He lives in Chicago.

Please stop saying Magic and Co. when referring to the Dodgers' new owners. If anything, it's COMPANY & magic. I'll have more to do with running the club than he will. Larry Frank Sherman Oaks :: The new owners of the Dodgers must really think that Los Angeles fans are brain dead. ... After seeing the article (April 17) and map breakdown of the new Dodger Stadium deal I saw the McCourt name tied to most of the deal ... and to think that using Magic as their decoy would satisfy us. Shame on the whole thing!

SAN DIEGO - I thought it was the start to a new Dodgers era: The Dodgers winning and everyone happy. Or the Dodgers losing, Magic smiling and everyone still feeling better. But if the Dodgers are poised to get off to a fresh start, why is Magic sitting beside Frank McCourt for the team's opener at Petco Park? Why would the best thing that has happened to the Dodgers in recent years allow himself to be photographed sitting next to the worst thing that has happened to the Dodgers?

PHOENIX — If the jeers at the Dodgers' spring-training home Friday were any indication, Ryan Braun will be lustily booed when the Milwaukee Brewers visit Dodger Stadium in late May. But Braun said the thought hasn't crossed his mind. "No, not really, to be honest with you," Braun said. "It's one of my favorite places to play, growing up in L.A. and being a Dodger fan. I don't even know when we go back to Dodger Stadium. " Braun, who attended Granada Hills High, tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone during the playoffs last year.

The $2.15-billion sale of the Dodgers baseball franchise to a group led by former Lakers star Magic Johnson was a cash deal that will not add to the team's debt load but could lead to a payoff of as much as $1 billion for previous owner Frank McCourt, according to people familiar with the deal. The price tag is a record for a professional sports team, and now fans will be watching to see if the Johnson group has any money left over to upgrade the roster and renovate aging Dodger Stadium.

At dawn, Jeff Lynn sat cradling a cup of coffee at Philippe's, a downtown restaurant drenched in dusky light and Los Angeles memories. He considered the changes afoot less than a mile away at Dodger Stadium, hallowed ground for generations of Angelenos. Like many people across the city Wednesday, he was happy - very happy - with the news that the Dodgers were being sold to a group headed by Magic Johnson, and was more than ready to say goodby to seller Frank McCourt. "There's no greater son of Los Angeles than Magic Johnson.

Former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley, who made an unsuccessful bid to buy back the franchise his family ran for nearly half a century, said Wednesday he was delighted that a group fronted by Lakers legend Magic Johnson would become the new owner of the Dodgers. "I've always said I want it in the right hands," O'Malley said. "It doesn't have to be my hands. " O'Malley had publicly faulted outgoing owner Frank McCourt for tarnishing the Dodgers' name in the community. "What I really like about Magic's involvement is that Magic is so popular here in Los Angeles," O'Malley said.

For now, we can dream. We can look at the incoming Dodgers ownership group that will be fronted by Magic Johnson, run by Stan Kasten and principally funded by billionaire investment manager Mark Walter as a blank canvas to project our hopes for the team that used to be the single common thread running through a sprawling and diverse city. Yes, we once thought of Frank McCourt's purchase of the Dodgers that way, figuring nothing could be worse than the stingy, tone-deaf reign of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.