And doesn’t remember it fondly. Jonah Keri (via FanGraphs):
Not again. Good Lord, not again.
It’s impossible to see Bud Selig’s announcement that Major League Baseball will assume operating control of the Los Angeles Dodgers and not remember the last time MLB made this move.
On Valentine’s Day 2002, the league did the same with the teetering Montreal Expos. By the end of the 2004 season, MLB had presided over a trade that set the Expos’ successors back several years, helped short-circuit a last-gasp playoff run, ended baseball for good in Montreal, and reminded us why a sports franchise in league hands is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
And Keri proceeds with the grisly details. Yes, he’s still bitter. No, you can’t blame him.