NEW YORK — With the Dodgers in danger of running out of cash in less than three weeks, commissioner Bud Selig wouldn’t set a timetable for approving a $3 billion television deal that would enable owner Frank McCourt to make payroll at the end of the month.
Selig gave McCourt the face-to-face meeting the Dodgers owner wanted but hasn’t loosened baseball’s grip on the storied franchise, hampered by the divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt. With the team’s finances failing, Selig installed former Rangers president Tom Schieffer as the Dodgers’ monitor April 25 and told the Dodgers that Schieffer must approve any expense of $5,000 or more.
Baseball officials believe the Dodgers don’t have enough cash to make their end-of-May payroll, which runs about $8.25 million. McCourt has said the television deal with Fox would give the club about $300 million up front.
“Nobody is using the Dean Smith four- corner offense. We’re trying to move as fast as possible,” Selig said Thursday.
If McCourt is unable to make payroll, MLB would step in and pay players.
• Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan has been approved by MLB as the controlling owner of the Rangers.
Chuck Greenberg and Ryan led the group that bought the team from Tom Hicks last August in a deal valued at $590 million. Greenberg became chief executive officer, then left March 11 and sold his ownership stake.
MLB looking into Colon surgery
NEW YORK — Last year’s stem-cell treatment that preceded Bartolo Colon’s pitching resurgence with the Yankees was nothing more sinister than “taking an inactive army and putting it where it’s needed,” according to the orthopedic surgeon who employed the pioneering procedure.
Dr. Joseph Purita, a member of a regenerative medicine clinic in Boca Raton, Fla., described how stem cells were extracted from the fat in Colon’s abdomen and bone marrow in his pelvis, run through a machine to concentrate the solution, then injected into Colon’s injured shoulder and elbow to promote healing.
“This is no different than doing Tommy John surgery,” Purita said. “Taking somebody’s own tissue to rehabilitate an injury. All you’re doing is transferring cells from one part of the body to another.”
Still, Major League Baseball and the Yankees want more details about Purita’s process, especially because he acknowledged using small amounts of human growth hormone in similar treatments involving nonathletes.
Purita insisted he never has used HGH, banned by baseball and other sports organizations, in treating any competitive athlete.
Footnotes.
The Mets put first baseman Ike Davis (ankle) on the 15-day disabled list and recalled outfielder Fernando Martinez from Triple-A Buffalo.
• Braves outfielder Jason Heyward (shoulder) was held out of the starting lineup for the second straight game.
Denver Post wire services
