My beloved Dodgers have been sold to Frank McCourt, who has been trying to buy a major-league baseball team for years. He finally succeeded with one of MLB's crown jewels, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium, which comes as part of the deal.

Frank McCourt, a Boston real estate developer who failed in two earlier attempts to buy major league teams, has reached an agreement to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers from News Corp., both parties said Friday.

McCourt will head an investment group that reportedly has offered more than $400 million for the team, Dodger Stadium and adjoining real estate, plus training facilities in Vero Beach, Fla., and the Dominican Republic.

Tommy Lasorda, the legendary Dodgers' manager for 20 years (and the winner of two World Series championships, four National League pennants, and I believe seven division titles), waxes optimistic about the sale:

"It's been an organization of great pride. An organization under the O'Malley regime that was very, very successful," said the 76-year-old Lasorda, who has been in the organization for 54 years. "We won many championships and lately we've struggled and now what we have to do is bring this organization back to where it once was."

When I was a kid, baseball was Dodger Stadium to me. My dad would take me to at least a couple of games every year (starting during the Walter Alston era), and we'd have those Dodger Dogs under the cool LA twilight and watch some of the best baseball in the world. I'm sure we saw Wes Parker playing first base, although I was too young to remember that, but I sure remember Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, the infield with the longest playing time in baseball history. When I didn't go to the games, I would hide my radio under my pillow at night so that my parents couldn't tell I was staying awake to listen to Vin Scully call the game. I remember in high school when the Dodgers went up against the Yankees in two consecutive World Series, and lost both of them to a buzzsaw named Reggie Jackson. In '81, Fernandomania swept through LA and the nation, and it swept the Dodgers to its first World Series championship in over 15 years. In '88, while I was struggling through unemployment, the lightly regarded Dodgers fought their way past the heavily favored Mets to face off against the even-more-heavily-favored Oakland A's in the World Series. The Dodgers stunned the A's in five, led by Orel Hershiser, Tommy Lasorda, and one fateful at-bat by Kirk Gibson which is still one of the most memorable moments of all time in sports.

Frank McCourt, whatever you do, you'd better honor the Dodger tradition. You've bought more than just a ball club and some great real estate. You've bought history.

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