Stan Kasten’s hand kept waving, so menacingly, toward the chin of a bearded reporter. This is how people who run sports franchises try to intimidate the media when, under a blue sky at Dodger Stadium, Kasten should not have been speaking on the field Friday. Where was Mark Walter?
He is under federal investigation for tax fraud. Every day brings another story that suggests he’ll either sell the Dodgers or will be forced to abandon the champions by commissioner Rob Manfred and baseball’s other owners. Kasten is the president and CEO of the team. What he says now could shrivel up in a few hours, as we saw last weekend when Walter sold the Lakers for $12.5 billion.
We must hear from Walter. He sent an underling. His try failed miserably, though Kasten said often that the Dodgers aren’t being sold. The bully’s barking didn’t play well. Where is the target?
Already, multi-billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has told the newspaper he owns, the Los Angeles Times, that he will lead an investment group if Walter sells the team. He and his partners could spend $13 billion for the Dodgers, which would provide Walter with more fat money to pay off loans through his insurance companies and keep the feds from ruining him. “We respect Mr. Walter, and we want to make it clear we have not spoken with him,” said Chuck Kenworthy, Soon-Shiong’s family attorney. “If at some point he would like to discuss the Dodgers, we would be very open to talking.”
Instead, Kasten’s hand almost yanked a bushy beard.
“The Dodgers are not being sold,” he said. “They’re not going to be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell. Period. ... I just wanted this to be clear because this question keeps coming up. I understand the questions; I do. The Lakers thing was what we call sui generis, one of those one-of-a-kind things. Really has nothing to do with what’s happening with (the Dodgers).
“I wanted you to hear it definitively: We are not selling the Dodgers. We are continuing with our plans going forward, like we always have had them. This comes from Mark. He’s gung-ho about continuing to try to win, again, including next year, subject to whatever next year’s climate looks like.”
So Kasten says Walter says he’s not selling. They do not think Manfred and the owners will impede the grand plan of a team that is “very stable, well-managed, and (with) very solid ownership,’’ as Kasten said. He continued, oddly: “I know nothing involving the Dodgers is part of the investigation. I’m promising you, when it’s over, you’re going to realize (things) are being mischaracterized. You don’t have to trust me, but I’m telling you.”
We don’t have to trust him? Kasten is the one doing the talking. If we don’t trust him, why would we trust Walter? Isn’t he selling his stake with a Premier League team, Chelsea? Didn’t he request the rest of an $8.35 billion cable deal with Charter Communications? There is no reason to trust the entire jumble.
“Those things don’t go together for a bunch of reasons I’m not going to get into today,” said Kasten, who should have been getting into everything.
What about the insurance companies that Walter is paying back? “I’m not in that part of the investigation,” Kasten said. “Things are going on behind the scenes, obviously, in connection with that. I’m not privy to all of them, don’t need to know, don’t want to know. But one thing we are all certain about: the sports portfolio is going to remain intact.
“I can tell you from the guy running the team, knowing how the business runs and what it can support in terms of revenues and expenses — the Dodgers aren’t going anywhere. I feel that very strongly, and Mark feels even stronger than I do. I’m 74. I don’t know how long I’m going to be running it, but Mark, I think, is going to be running it a lot longer.”
Wait. Didn’t Walter have a stroke during the 2024 World Series? Hasn’t his defense team mentioned his health to the feds? “I think Mark has done an extraordinary job as an owner, and all he’s ever cared about is providing the best experience in order to make us more money, to make this project successful,” Kasten said. “I think so far it has been; I expect that to continue far into the future.”
It’s stunning to think Soon-Shiong could produce $13 billion after Josh Kushner and Bob Iger bought the Lakers for $12.5 billion. More than 25 billion smackers for two sports franchises in the same month? Fourteen years ago, when Frank McCourt was forced to sell the Dodgers amid a bankruptcy, Soon-Shiong tried to buy them with Steve Cohen for $1.6 billion. Walter outbid him at $2.15 billion. Of course, when Kasten was asked about Walter in relation to McCourt’s ouster, he fired back.
“That’s a wild, inappropriate comparison,” he said.
Only the man’s waving hand was wild and inappropriate. Next time, the city of Los Angeles and a shocked nation would like to see Mark Walter, front and center.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host.
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