In the ongoing sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday brought a soft deadline for interested parties to submit opening bids. It was a soft deadline instead of a hard deadline because the deadline can be waived should other suitors emerge, but a number of bids rolled in anyway. How many bids? According to Bill Shaikin, "more than ten." That's actually according to Bill Shaikin's source, and not according to Bill Shaikin himself. Important distinction, kind of.

Mark Cuban submitted a bid. Steven Cohen submitted a bid. Peter O'Malley submitted a bid. The group including Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten submitted a bid. The group including Joe Torre and Rick Caruso submitted a bid. The group including Stanley Gold submitted a bid. The group including Dennis Gilbert, Jason Reese and Randy Wooster submitted a bid. And so on. Bids were submitted. Lots of 'em.

What happens now? More bids might come in. Some of the bidding parties might choose to consolidate. The bids will be evaluated by the bankers in charge of this process, and some of the parties will continue along while some of the parties might be eliminated.

When it's all said and done, Frank McCourt's looking for the Dodgers to fetch at least $1.5 billion. Good money, if you can get it.