Baseball Wrap-Up: Pitchforks & Torches To Report Any Day Now

On the field:

Off the field:

Jamie McCourt wants nearly $1 million per month in temporary support from her estranged husband, an amount disclosed in a court filing in which her lawyers allege Frank McCourt has engaged in a "carefully calculated subterfuge designed to mislead the court" about his financial resources.

The filing, unsealed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, includes details of how Frank McCourt hopes to transform the Dodgers from a baseball team into the anchor of a sports business empire that could include cable television channels broadcast in English and Spanish; homes, shops and a football stadium within the Dodger Stadium parking lots; and the purchase of a soccer club in China and another in the English Premier League.

In filing for divorce in October, Jamie McCourt asked for $488,000 per month in temporary support. The revised request -- for $988,845 per month -- reflects property-tax bills as well as additional records that her lawyers claim can show the couple averaged $2.3 million per month in salaries, distributions and perks starting in 2004, when the McCourts bought the Dodgers.

Frank McCourt still would have $1.3 million per month to maintain his lifestyle, her lawyers wrote.

"Jamie fully recognizes that the . . . award which she will be seeking will be viewed by many people as being astronomical," according to the filing. "That may very well be the case. But Jamie's request also has been thoroughly documented . . . as being wholly consistent with the parties' marital lifestyle."

We suppose there's a clever remark to the effect that the money the McCourts spent (On what, exactly?*) could have gone toward a skilled pitcher, or someone to replace Manny "Post-Suspension Suck" Ramirez, possibly propelling the former Brooklyn Bums to a World Series appearance. But that's the least of the issues here.

*"In addition, according to the filing, Frank McCourt currently resides in a 'luxury hotel in Beverly Hills,' has spent $52,000 on clothes since November and keeps two of his sons on the Dodgers' payroll -- at a combined annual salary of $600,000 -- 'despite the fact that one is a graduate student at Stanford and the other works full-time for Goldman Sachs.' (One of those sons accompanied Frank McCourt to last month's meeting of baseball owners in Phoenix.)" Yes, Goldman Sachs.