Peter Gammons reports...

That he feels John Hart, Orel Hershiser and Bobby Valentine are the frontrunners for the GM, apprentice and managerial job (Insert Gammons accuracy joke here). He speculates that Epstein wants nothing to do with the job, even if it comes w/ a piece of ownership. How much of this is purely Gammons hoping Epstein comes back to Boston is tough to gauge.

After my phone call from McCourt, which came following sending an email expressing my support, he (and his secretary) sent my newborn daughter a package of gifts that included a blanket , an outfit, a bib, and a stuffed animal. Some have asked me if I returned the items in the wake of the Depodesta decision.

First off, the blanket has a huge mustard stain on it, courtesy of an errant Dodger Dog. However, everything else is still in tact. Secondly, this isn't a "personal" issue with McCourt. I think he genuinely wants to do well, but by not bringing in a baseball-centered support group in buying this franchise, he fell prey to the mystique of the Bitgod. Now, Tommy's advice has left him high and dry and prone to take a bigger PR hit than whatever cheap PR pop he got out of canning Depo.

Like I said when I started this blog, I was with McCourt up until the Depo firing. I was never one of those who cared if he built condos on the Chavez Ravine lot or (God forbid) actually turned a profit off of the franchise. I didn't care about the irrelevant benchmark of a $100 million payroll. I liked the idea of a family run Dodger team.

And McCourt could turn it around, but to take the huge step backward in firing Depodesta for the sake of a quick rub dampens whatever enthusiasm I had and whatever good will he generated from me during his first 2 years. Hopefully he learns that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. As I said before, he's the high school girl who sleeps with every guy hoping one will love her and then wonders why they never call her back.