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How many baseball fans know the derivation of the name "Los Angeles Dodgers" by which the Los Angeles franchise is known? Answer later. When I was a kid in New Haven and beginning to follow baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers stood for excellence even if their crazy fans and odd shaped ball park required some tolerant understanding.
To their eternal credit this was the pioneer team that brought Jackie Robinson (1947) and many other black ball players to the big leagues. Other teams were laggards --the Yankees’ first black player was Elston Howard in 1955 and the Red Sox did not embrace diversity with Pumpsie Green until 1959. But things have certainly changed and the turmoil afflicting the migrated Los Angeles Dodger franchise these days is stunningly ugly. The appellation "dodgers" was used to describe the fans who adroitly "dodged" around trolley cars as they made their way to the ball yards in the early days of baseball in Brooklyn. These days the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig and the owner of the Dodgers, Frank McCourt are dodging each other’s allegations after the commissioner acted to assume control of the franchise. The facts of the dispute are largely hidden but there are some aspects one can discern even through the fog of competing insults.
Three things are clear: 1.(wealthmass) After a messy divorce the owner is in a financial bind and seems to want to use money from the baseball business to help meet his personal and divorce financial needs. 2. The commissioner has serious concerns about the financial and business stability of the Dodgers.