I was on a plane to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with my family when I read Dylan Hernandez's report in the LAT that has caused so much controversy, in which Dodgers President Jamie McCourt implied that, especially in tough times, fans might have to choose between a competitive team and the good that the community service arms of the Dodgers perform around Southern California.  In the world of sports, where things are often wrongly framed in life-or-death terms, it takes a fair amount to get my Righteous Indignation Meter to redline.  But Jamie McCourt's comments managed to do it:

"If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?" Jamie McCourt asked in an interview at the Evergreen Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. "That's what we're trying to figure out. We're really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We're really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?"

That's the decision L.A.'s long-suffering baseball fans are facing?  The same group of people that have filled Chavez Ravine to the gills year in and year out, whether the team deserved it or not?  Sure, we can get you a competitive team, but children might suffer as a result? 

She continued:

"I think, oddly enough, maybe if things weren't guaranteed, then we could pay for it," she said. "If people can't play anymore, it's like, 'Oh well, see ya.' Different story. Whatever money they are guaranteed could be money that we could otherwise have given to community."

It pays to be able to read the Spanish-language papers.  According to a report in Monday morning's El Caribe, Rafael Furcal could be ready to sign a deal with the A's for four years and approximately $48 million.  Susan Slusser at the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the reported numbers could be a little off but that Oakland definitely has interest. 

$48 million, she says, might be a little high, but not necessarily by all that much.  Either way, it's unlikely the Dodgers will go four years with Furcal, so if another team will, he's likely gone. 

UPDATE: Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports writes that Furcal's agent, Paul Kinzer, says there's no contract offer on the table from Oakland.  That could mean anything, including "There's no offer," "There's no offer literally right this second, though I haven't checked my fax machine in the last 17 seconds" or "There's an offer, I'm just not telling you."  The important thing Brown notes is that Kinzer confirms Oakland's interest, as well as that of the Gigantes. 

BK

UPDATE: Here's Ken Gurnick's story on the injury.

Just got word from Dodgers PR that righty Chad Billingsley slipped down some stairs outside his home in Pennsylvania, suffering a spiral fracture of his left fibula.  He had surgery today to put a plate in and repair the fracture.  Bills will be in a cast for a couple weeks.  Ask nicely and he might let you sign it.  The good news is that the injury isn't expected to impact Billingsley's ability to start spring training on time. 

It must have been a mighty fall to penetrate that guy's lower half.

In other news, it looks like Joe Beimel will be pitching somewhere else next year.  Both Beimel's agent and Ned Colletti have indicated that the Dodgers won't be pursuing the lefty FA, reports the LAT's Dylan Hernandez.  Can't say I'm shocked.  Beimel wasn't as effective this season as last, and for whatever reason, Joe Torre never seemed to warm up to him as anything more than a situational reliever.  If that was his future in L.A., it probably won't kill them to let Beimel go.  Of course, the pigeonholing of Beimel in a one-batter role was probably the biggest mistake Torre made in handling his bullpen during the 2008 season.  If there's a third choice -- bring him back and use him with more flexibility -- that's the one I'd vote for, though economics surely play a factor here.

I'll be sorry to see him go.  Beimel is a solid guy, with a great and unique personality. 

BK

Few people realize that was the original chorus of Gwen Stefani's mega-hit.  But poor test results during some early listening parties led the No Doubt songstress back into the studio, where she made a little tweak involving "holla" and the rest is history.  But the Dodgers are hoping to have better luck with the "Camelback" name, as it's part of the moniker for the new spring training facility in Arizona.   

Who will actually be swinging revamped maple bats for the Dodgers come spring time?  Well, that's still something of an undecided matter.  But considering the bad national economy may not be reflected in the free-agency deals coming down the pike, should the Dodgers want to act upon Joe Torre's interest in keeping Raffy Furcal around, it could involve a pretty penny.  And a long-term commitment.  Despite a bum back that kept Furcal on the shelf for most of 2008, his agent insists there are bidders in the pipeline, one of whom will inevitably give his client a few years worth of loyalty in exchange for services.   

Programming note: On today's "Purple, Gold and Blue," we'll be joined by Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, who will talk Hot Stove and the recent MVP vote in the National League.  Click here to go straight to the show window, or feel free to watch on the side of the page!  11 a.m. Be there!

Saw this nugget today from Buster Olney at ESPN.com:

Heard this: The Dodgers are preparing to make their offer to CC Sabathia -- and logic tells you that it will be a very large offer because the gauntlet has been thrown down. The Brewers have a five-year, $100 million on the table and might be willing to take their offer beyond that. The Yankees threw out $140 million over six years and definitely have more to offer. So if the Dodgers jump into this thing, you'd have to assume that, at the very least, they'll be in the $110 million range -- and if it is at that level, there would be the built-in hope that CC would give the Dodgers a home-state discount. Anything less than $100 million probably would not be competitive.

He then asks/answers the big Manny vs. CC question on the minds of many fans:

Hey, folks.  So the Facebook page for the blog is ready to go.  Click here to find it.  If that doesn't work, do a search on Facebook for Kamenetzky Brothers, and go from there.  The goal is to help those of you in our incredibly vibrant blog community to communicate better with each other, swap e-mails, build friendships, etc.  We'll try to post blog news there, as well as any other cool stuff we find.  Given that there is probably going to be a lot of overlap between the Lakers and Dodgers blogs, we thought it would streamline the process to have one page.

Now get on there and make us seem popular!

BK

(P.S.: As a courtesy to us -- and at the risk of being presumptuous -- if you could hold off on friend requests to our personal pages, we'd appreciate it.  Not that we don't like you, but the hope is our page centering around the blogs could get pretty big, and as some Facebookers have their personal pages set to notify them of changes with anyone in their friend network, Andy and I don't want to bog down our non-blog friends with info from people they've never heard of.  Thanks.  BK)

Hopefully, the Blue Notes readership feels the same way.  One thing we don't do particularly well, however?  Recognize that baseball features a long offseason, often with very little beyond rumors to write about, so it's wise to stretch out any original material as long as possible. 

But unlike your resident, moronic hosts, who dusted through a crowd fave back in October (and what's with only offering the bare minimum of two categories?), the great Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness blog was genius enough to continue slow-rolling report cards through mid-November.  The semi-starting pitchers (Maddux to Park to Loaiza) recently received their marks and today saw the relief staff either decorate individual fridges or forge parental signatures.  As usual, they offer some fine insight over at MTSI.

Make sure to read the latter post all the way through to Ramon Troncoso.  I chuckled.

AK

According to the Red Sox, who were apparently on the verge of suspending him for insubordination (a fair way to phrase "refusing to play," if you believe Team Saux's POV).  A formal letter was shown to Ramirez on a Saturday after consecutive games he asked out of, and the punishment would theoretically have gone into effect the next day.  Ramirez eventually agreed to play in the Saturday game, which put the problem off for the time being.  He ended up being traded to L.A. a few days later. 

What's interesting to me isn't so much that the Sox would have suspended Manny.  Yes, he was their biggest star, but the relationship clearly wasn't getting salvaged, so along those lines, what difference does it make?  What I find curious is how the information is coming out right as Manny is seeking a new deal.  Coincidence or a disgruntled boss trying to stick it to a disgruntled former employee?  I just think it's odd how these measures would be kept quiet to the point where Bill Simmons practically wrote a novel in mind-boggled reaction, but happen to surface as Scott Boras -- speculated by most as the puppet master -- has officially declared it "Make Manny Rich" season.   

You tell me.

AK

Negotiations aren't off, the Dodgers haven't walked away from the table ... but that two-year, $45-million deal extended by the Blue to Manny Ramirez (and by extension, Scott Boras) is no more, withdrawn by L.A., writes MLB.com's Ken Gurnick:

"We still have an interest in him," general manager Ned Colletti said. "This doesn't mean we won't continue discussions. They just can't accept that offer flat-out. It's like any other free-agent negotiation now. We'll have conversations and sometimes you're able to sign the player and sometimes you're not.

"Our exclusivity ended yesterday and now they'll have a chance to hear what other clubs are willing to pay and for how long."

Scott Boras, Ramirez's agent, said Colletti was "very upfront" with the decision to withdraw the offer but declined to comment on specifics of Ramirez's free agency.

Colletti said this sort of development is neither unusual nor problematic, but given the high-profile nature of the FA in question and the challenges inherent in negotiations with his agent, all news seems important.

BK

Gentlemen, start your checkbooks. It's officially free-agency season!   

Perusing the Top 50 list of ESPN.com's Keith Law, I have to admit being intrigued by one particularly tall, unusually old left-handed pitcher listed at #17.   Glad to see I wasn't the only one (and Jon's a smart guy, so clearly I'm not crazy). 

BK