Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt needs to choose a winning bidder for the team by April 1, and he needs to sell the team by April 30. Before he can do that, though, he has to whittle down the pool of suitors with the help of the other owners in Major League Baseball, who need to approve the new owners and teach them the secret fist bump. According to Forbes, the parties involved have done just that:
A person familiar with the meetings held today between the seven groups remaining in the bidding for Frank McCourt’s Dodgers and Major League Baseball said the league’s owners were impressed with offers from the following parties: billionaire hedge fund titan Steve Cohen and agent Art Tellem; Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten; billionaire St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke; Memphis Grizzlies billionaire owner Michael Heisley and investor Tony Ressler and Stanley Gold, chief executive officer of Shamrock Holdings, the investment company of the family of the late Roy Disney.
If McCourt is interested in the highest bid, it's with Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, who have reportedly bid $1.6 billion. But Forbes seems to think that Steve Cohen is in tight with Allan H. (Bud) Selig, which might be worth more than the $200 million difference between his bid and the Magic/Kasten bid. We'll know in a couple of weeks who will be the group with ultimate veto power over any James Loney extension talks.