There is no question the purchase of the Dodgers by Magic Johnson's group is Awesome (with a purposeful capital "A") for L.A. sports. Especially when the announcement comes on the heals of L.A.'s (former?) beloved team potentially approaching basketball Armageddon after Lakers head coach Mike Brown benched his two best players in consecutive games.
There is nothing more that I or anyone else can say about Magic's achievements and attractions. If I believed that God is our creator, the (God-given?) character of the Magic Man would be reason number one.
What makes this purchase even more magical, is how much Dodgers fans love him versus how much they loathe his predecessor. The extremes are astounding. In fact, Magic Johnson succeeding Frank McCourt is a lot like President Obama succeeding President Bush. Which is exactly why we should be skeptical about how much weight we put on this purchase.
When President Obama won the 2008 election, many Americans regarded him as the savior the U.S. painstakingly needed after eight tumultuous years of President Bush's regime running the country (into the ground). Almost four years later, many of President Obama's promises -- while they may have been made with the utmost authenticity -- have proven to be short-lived, at least in part because of the catastrophic mess he inherited.
The same can be said about Magic's inheritance. Just as President Obama has struggled to transcend a second-rate country back into a world leader, Magic will presumably have his fair share of strife as he attempts to deliver the Dodgers' first World Series ring since 1988. Like President Obama's arduous tasks of reviving the U.S. from its economic and real estate heart attacks, Magic will have to dig the Dodgers out a two-decade long hole before he can begin to build a championship-calibur team that is -- to pull a quote from President Obama -- "built to last."
What's more, while Magic's mere association with the Dodgers immediately replenishes the organization with a certain level of respect, ultimately he is the Dodgers' figurehead, limited in his influence and subject to the demands of his (financial) backers. The same applies to President Obama -- his administration has restored some good, but at day's end he is constrained by the balance of powers and by his (political) backers.
If Obama's tenure as POTUS lends us any foresight, don't expect Magic to hit a homerun with one swing of the bat.
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