Ex-Dodgers CEO responds in divorce battle

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:20 PM LOS ANGELES(AP) -- Fired Dodgers chief executive Jamie McCourt made a case for her job performance with the team, saying she was handling daily operations even before she was named to lead the franchise in February.

"I was handling everything from catsup dispenser to whether (manager) Joe Torre should be hired," McCourt, 55, told the Los Angeles Times in a column published Wednesday.

She also reiterated her intent to buy the storied franchise.

McCourt was fired last month by her husband and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Soon after, she filed for divorce after 30 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.

The couple are fighting over who is the team's rightful owner. A court commissioner has denied her bid to be reinstated as CEO.

Marshall Grossman, an attorney representing the Dodgers, said Frank McCourt declined comment.

Frank McCourt previously said his wife did a poor job after being promoted as the first female chief executive in Major League Baseball.

Jamie McCourt countered that her husband plotted to boot her from the team's front office as a way to humiliate and ostracize her. She eventually lodged a workplace harassment complaint with team attorneys.

Jamie McCourt also said she would like to assemble a coalition of Los Angeles investors from various demographics to acquire the team.

"When you have partners and you have equity, you have an opportunity and the wherewithal to have an expanded budget for player compensation," she said.

To her dismay, the messy breakup has played out in hundreds of pages of court documents filed in the divorce case. Frank McCourt said in the filings she was having an affair with her bodyguard-driver, a former Dodgers employee.

"Absolutely not," Jamie McCourt told the newspaper. "I have never been with another man until the marriage broke up. Ever. Ever."

Jamie McCourt has said in court documents the couple's worth is estimated at more than $1.2 billion, with the Dodgers accounting for about $800 million of that amount. She is seeking more than $300,000 a month in spousal support.

A hearing is set for Dec. 15.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com