An ESPN insider is speaking out against online theories that a reported federal probe into the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers indicate wrongdoing by the team.
Jeff Passan sounded off on X, formerly Twitter, regarding the investigation into Mark Walter, the majority owner of the Boys in Blue who recently agreed to sell his Lakers ownership.
As Passan noted, the federal probe is into Walter’s other businesses, and there’s nothing to connect the Dodgers except the common ownership by Walter and his companies, Guggenheim Partners and TWG Global.
“I have no evidence — and no other media member has reported any — that the Dodgers did anything that ran afoul of the [collective bargaining agreement],” Passan responded to a user who critiqued his reporting. “Beyond that, the government is focused more on procedural questions — the mismarking of affiliated investments and the web of companies under Guggenheim’s umbrella — than anything specifically related to the Dodgers.”
Passan defends his reporting — and himself
That user took issue with what Passan called “the full story that helps separate fact from fiction” and suggested that the reporter “acknowledge your own naivete in declaring that the Dodgers ‘cracked the system.'”
“That was the phrase that had most of baseball twitter roasting you,” they wrote. “All you had to say was financial fraud does not equal cracking the system, but alas, your ego got in the way.”
Passan wasn’t having it.
“You are well within your rights to assume whatever you want to assume, and if you want to suggest there was some kind of fraud that specifically impacted on-field performance, you do you,” he wrote. “I’m not going to do that because I have no idea how the money they received from selling the debt on their TV network, for example, was used. I wasn’t being naive when I said the Dodgers cracked the system. They did.”
Passan detailed that the Dodgers “recognized that cash is a grand separator in terms of securing talent,” but that’s not all it takes to win.
“You know who else did? The Mets. And they stunk. Every billionaire has access to cash. Not as much as the Dodgers, certainly, but if they want to get more capital to invest in their team, they can. They choose not to,” Passan said. “And that is well within their rights, too, but to suggest that because Mark Walter is under investigation for one business’ tactics that it automatically ties into another’s — with zero hard evidence showing that’s the case — is simply a case of you fitting what you think you know to a conclusion you already made.”
One Response
Agree we are at from of a campaign made by Dodgers haters.