FOX OUT IN LA: With the Nets sold and moving to Brooklyn, that borough's previous major professional sports team, the Dodgers have been sold as well- and like the Nets' new coach, it's to a guy named Frank. Frank McCourt, the Boston-based real estate developer, had his purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers finalized this week, ridding baseball, some would say, of the foul stench of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Murdoch bought the Dodgers in 1998 to great fanfare, but the team played in exactly zero postseason games during his tenure as owner. McCourt, by the way, is not to be confused with the other Frank McCourt, the one who wrote "Angela's Ashes," and whose brother appeared as Father Meehan on "Oz."
The sale of the Dodgers also means that Sandy Koufax may return to the fold in some capacity; the Hall of Famer cut ties with the Dodgers, the only team for which he ever pitched, two years ago after the Murdoch-owned New York Post published an unsubstantiated rumor that he is gay.