Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting
Given that I just wrote about him gaining momentum among Los Angeles Dodgers fans, Josh Macciello gave a rather hilariously timed interview on Mason & Ireland today, admitting that he was not approved for the second round of ownership bidding, after which he then proceeded to go off on all types of tangents about why he’s getting screwed.
Obviously he’s not happy about being out, and despite his claims about being nothing but honest, if nothing else he has been disingenuous to fans about the nature of his involvement.
When the bidding first moved on to the second round, he insisted to everybody that he was part of the approved groups who were moving forward, which was the primary reason some ended up taking him seriously.
In retrospect, however, when I look back through his Twitter feed, it should have been a gigantic red flag to everybody when he accused Bill Shaikin (of all people) of journalism bias against him.
Gee, who are us Dodgers fans to believe?
Bill Shaikin or Josh Macciello?
The Mason & Ireland interview can be listened to here, and you can see that the entire interview basically consists of him accusing various people of a conspiracy against him. Macciello apparently decided that the best way to win over more fans was to go on rambling tangent after rambling tangent about why he’s still a serious player and about how he’s utterly confused as to why he’s not being taken seriously.
Additionally, he says he’s angry about how the whole affair has shaken out, so he’s going to reveal all his paperwork. Now while that’s great stuff for bloggers like me because it just adds entertainment value, why would he think insulting the people that are in control of the ownership bidding process is a good idea? Plus, I doubt coming off mad and emotional is probably the best course of action to get them to reconsider.
Either way, I think anybody rational who listened to the interview today came away with the sense that there’s probably a good reason his bid was not accepted, if he even made as big a bid as he says he did. Put it this way, at one point he seriously suggests that he’ll pay the winner of the auction $3 billion to give him the team, which just shows that he has either lost his mind or has no idea how MLB ownership works at all. Then, as if he needed to top that insanity, he guaranteed to everybody that because he’s now all hot and bothered, he will win the Dodgers at all costs.
Alrighty then.
—–
As I just wrote a few hours ago, he at least makes this ownership bidding process more entertaining for everybody involved, but as the amount of believers in him continues to grow, I can’t help but think they’re just going to be sorely disappointed in the end.
It would be a gigantic twist if he could prove all the doubters wrong, but after today, he’s ironically proven himself more of a joke than anything to be taken seriously.
Just wanted to expand on my tweet (https://twitter.com/#!/greghao/status/167455033317789696).
Ramona Shelbourne did a pretty fluff profile on him.
Mason & Ireland had him on the radio twice.
Jon Weisman (while a mouthpiece of ESPN/LA) did I think one or two quick hits on him.
And that’s honestly about it. Not to disrespect bloggers like you or Mike@MSTI but most casual fans aren’t reading blogs.
Meanwhile, Bill Shaikin’s dismissal of Macciello is well documented here. I think Dilbeck (strictly online) write about him once or twice. The other big sports talk station here in LA, Fox Sports, almost never talked about him. And most certainly never had Macciello on for an interview.
I’m not saying it’s some vast ESPN conspiracy but for me, it was clear that he was primarily promoted by ESPN.
Also, entirely off topic but could we go back to full RSS feeds please. :D
Highly doubt Jon would ever be a mouthpiece for anybody.
But yeah, I see what you’re saying about the ESPN trend.
My question is: what would be their angle if they were trying to prop him up? I can’t see a point.
I just think it’s a story people are interested in and that’s as far as it goes.
Mouthpiece was certainly meant to be read tongue in cheek. As for the ESPN angle, like you, I certainly don’t understand, just an observation. I can only speculate that ESPN is always trying to push their own agenda and sometimes create their own stories and because of their omnipresence in the sporting landscape, what would otherwise be a non-story gets extended play and ESPN gets to toss that EXCLUSIVE badge on there.
On the RSS thing, I can appreciate your perspective.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but besides basic hits generated by the story, I can’t imagine they would actually back him for any specific reason.
:o
Only reason I did that is because I didn’t realize you could read the entire post in Google Reader without visiting the site.
Now that I use Google Reader, I can see why one would want that.
:o
I don’t even make money doing this, but I’d like to make enough to not be in the red between hosting, themes, and domains, so I figure the least everybody could do was give me a click to read my stuff.
Josh Macciello is part of a very weird group of people – new yorkers who move to LA and feel like they have to be loud mouth, self promoting assholes. They always were that of course, but in NY there was at least some kind of leash on them. When they get to LA though, they feel like they have the freedom to just go bat shit crazy. It’s a very interesting phenomenon.
How does that relate to the ESPN thing?
Chad I disagree with you COMPLETELY and so do a great deal of fans. I did not hear Josh confirming once that he was out. Maybe you turned off the interview too quickly also check out his partners. They have a great deal of equity/cash to close this deal. Please do your homework before you commend. What I hear in his voice is not anything less than a guy who speaks with passion!! I trust Mason & Ireland would not waste their time or their fans time putting a “troll” on the air. He certainly has my vote and apparently, if you look him up, the vote of thousands of fans. GO JOSH your conviction is what this team needs!!
I know he has the support of thousands of fans, which is why I’m writing this.
I never said he thinks he’s out, I said he’s not in the second round of bidding, which means he is out as far as the people who are handling the bidding are concerned.
If he gets back in somehow, then I’ll be glad to cover it, but until then, I did do my research.
You are guys are truly entertaining to me and at the same time have trouble listening to people when they speak. I said yesterday that i was under the impression that i was still in because reports came out that Blackstone called folks and told them they were not in the bidding process. I NEVER HEARD FROM THEM AGAIN! Which is why i went on air and exposed my bid and proof of funds. If you listen to what people say you may not misquote anybody in the future.
So you claim you were not lying because nobody contacted you to officially tell you that you’re out?
You continued to tell fans for days afterwards that you were still in it, so did you not think that somebody would have contacted you at some point to let you know you advanced when everybody else’s names were leaking?
If you weren’t lying, then you were being a bit delusional, no?
I’m truly disappointed in you Chad. Dont jump back on the band wagaon when i come back and win this thing. Just kidding you can jump back on. LOL Have faith in people my man. You never know what will happen. I might just be a mad genius who just might win this whole thing
Alrighty.
Not delusional buddy. Everybody in the media said they were contacted by Blackstone. i was never contacted and was still meeting with different indivisuals that i was essembling for my team to move forward. I truly believed I was still on the hunt until we realized we our MLB background docs have not been sent to us and our money for that background was still in the bank. Hence the radio show yesterday.
good luck josh. i’m rooting for you. if you end up winning you gotta hire chad as special consultant. the guy has crazy baseball knowledge.
lol
Thanks.
That’s what I mean though, you knew everybody else was being contacted and you still thought you were in it?
Genuinely?
Chad, i have never bought a sports team before. My attorney’s were told by other attorney’s in this deal that the first round second round bidding is all BS. That all parties not moving forward didnt have their money in order. WE DID and were never notified we were out. Not Fair at all. All of a sudden new bidders coming out of everywhere. Then we realized we were no longer being contacted or taken seriously.Honestly buddy. believe what you want but thats the truth.
have you tried setting up a meeting with McCourt through his lawyers? i can’t find the article, but before the auctioning of the team, FOX asked Frank how much it would cost to buy the team from him. McCourt said $2 Billion. if you got an audience with Frank maybe you can convince him to skip the auction cuz his asking price should still be close to that, and your bid is higher. and seriously, Chad like baseball’s ‘Rainman.’ he can break down a pitcher or batter like no one else.
I highly doubt Frank McCourt is in the dark about all of this. It’s money related, so you can be sure he’s monitoring it. I would be floored if he wasn’t kept in the loop.
Thanks again for your kind words.
:o
We’ll see how it shakes out then.
As you said though, if all they wanted was money, and yours didn’t check out, you have to be aware how that looks.
Working on that now guys. i am not leaving any stone unturned trust me. I cant believe people think i would waste my time and money on this. I am trying everything and i still feel like i will win this. Money talks and we all know who likes MONEY.
I don’t think you think you’re wasting anything, but I think based on how the process shakes out, it could end up that way.
Even if you get Blackstone and McCourt to agree with it, MLB still has to approve it, and I’m not sure creating a fuss is going to prove to them your point about not creating problems like Cuban.
Obviously, the instinct of a rational person is to ask why Josh gives a shit what the internet cares. A potential bidder/prospective owner has nothing to gain.
Why is Josh going to such lengths to prove he is for real? Pretty simple. He isn’t. It’s all bullshit to get whoever he is some attention. Why else would he try to hard to sway the naysayers? All he has are the gullible few that bought into this before he is 100% irrelevant again, instead of the 99% he is today.
I commend Josh for reaching out to ALL his fans..that’s why he has the popular vote because he is accessible to all. Keep it up Josh the good, the bad and the ugly all want to hear from you makes you more believeable and tangible. We as a people are tired of walking the cattle walk and truly admire you for opening yourself to us and hearing all comments…and that my friend is what MOST of the fans want to be privy too. Go Josh!!
Sock puppet?
I will give Josh props for tapping into the vein of some of the best Dodgers blogs out there, but I don’t know that I see the value in an owner (or even potential owner for that matter) having direct access to the fans. What good can ultimately come out of it? It’s all going to be small sample size type feedback, of which, would you really want someone making decisions based off of that? Do we even know who Josh’s team would be to run the Dodgers if he were to win? I’ve seen names linked with other groups, but don’t recall reading any details about his group. I have not heard the interview yet though…just have not had the time to sit down and listen to it.
Right, for the most part, fans are dumb/emotional and I don’t want them making decisions even if that rules out intelligent fans.
I asked who will be in charge of the baseball stuff before.
Again, When you are really not supposed to be out and you can prove it then you always have the ability to get back in. Which I will do buddy. Don’t jump right to the hate song my man. That’s a huge problem in our country people do not believe anymore. Look where that got us as a nation. McCourt was one man. I’m my own man. Don’t crush me over another mans doing’s.
And for he record, I Love commenting to fans. If they can’t get that it’s not my fault. I’m not your traditional everyday owner type. I’m a lot younger and live on my IPhone for business which makes it easy to reply to chads bloggers and FB and Twitter. Funny thing is when I win this bid you guys will praise me for doing all this responding but now you are trying to bury me for it . Lol.
Right, because it’s all about you and not the team on the field. McCourt v2.
I responded in the other post, but it’s really not about you using social media.
Maybe it’s your phone, I don’t know…but it’s really confusing when you post because your responses are new threads and not posted as replies to whoever you’re trying to reply to on the site. Makes it kind of difficult to know who your comments are being directed to. Personally, I’m not crushing you, I’m not hating on you and to be honest, I don’t really know much about you. You have our attention now and can easily tell us who you are and what you’re about, so why not do that? I get that maybe you’re not the normal stuffy business man and are sensitive to criticism, but you’re dealing with a group of fans who are going to be even more sensitive about their team right now after everything they’ve had to go through of late. So rather than getting defensive, why not just tell us what you bring to the table for the team and why you think you’d be a good owner? You have our attention now…may as well use it to let everyone here know. I’d love to know more about who the baseball people are that you like and what types of ideas you have to improve the team, what your thoughts are on the farm system and international spending, etc.
Wil,
Man oh man. I respect you so much for making an honest statement. I try not to get defensive but instead answer the questions to the folks that are asking Them. I’m not Frank McCourt man. I have my own thoughts and values. I get what you are saying but i tell folks about me constantly. I am an open book. Thanks for talking like a normal human being. I appreciate it.
Ok, so you say you’re an open book but nothing you’ve written here talks about baseball. Are you staying away from that topic because you’re not allowed to talk about it while going through the bid process or are you like me who – initially when posting on this and other blogs – felt intimidated by the insane baseball knowledge that younger guys like Chad and Mike Petriello, etc. have or is it something else?
The reason I ask is because the responses you’ve given here are very similar to those of people who troll message boards in other places like dodgers.com, where a lot is typed but not much is really said…things are left extremely vague and have very little explanation to back them up. I’m not saying you’re trolling the site, since I don’t know why your responses are written in this manner, but they can easily be taken that way by people reading them…which could be why you’re getting the types of responses that you are.
By the way, on my point about my fear of posting here…I finally got over that by just resigning myself to the fact that I will never know as much as they do and I just gotta live with it and take their knowledge and use it as best I can…like I said in a previous post, you’ve definitely tapped into some of the best Dodgers blogs out there (this one especially). Now everyone probably wishes I would shut up sometimes…at least on the old game threads anyway, lol.
Will, I do not wish anyone to not speak there minds. I want to reach out to all fans because they are what this game is about!
I think your interaction with the fans and people is a key element to being a strong leader!!! Please continue to do that and listen to our needs. I followed you on every thread you have commented on and watched, listened and read every interview or article accordingly and feel you have answered every question and really exposed yourself to everyone and I thank you for that. Hopefully some of the people who are hesitant will do the same You truly answered all the questions. Hope you take the reins in a few weeks….looking forward to some serious change!!
WOW Mr. Moriyama I cannot believe you wrote “for the most part, fans are dumb/emotional and I don’t want them making decisions even if that rules out intelligent fans.” Shocking that you feel that way..not sure if you vote or not, but isn’t our country based on the same principals? In Novemeber can’t ANYBODY over 18 vote whether they know who they are voting for, and what that candidate stands for? Somebody thinks they are capable of electing our, I don’t know, next leader of the country, but yet you call our fans dumb/emotional and not worthy of having any say or thoughts on a future owner of a pastime that they help financially support!!! A little hypocritish to me!!
Yes, that’s why we end up with such shitty politicians.