Dodger fans have a reason to feel extra blue.
Battered by an acrimonious divorce between owners Frank and Cindy McCourt, the baseball team filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
The embattled owner also said that he had secured $150 million in debtor-in-possession financing to help him keep creditors at bay.
Also read: Baseball Commish Rejects Frank McCourt's Dodgers Deal With Fox
After Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a $385 million television deal between the Dodgers and Fox, the team has struggled to make its payroll. Among the bold faced names that McCourt is scrambling to pay are Manny Ramirez, who is owed $21 million, and Andruw Jones, who is owed $11 million.
In a statement, Frank McCourt defended his stewardship of the team, noting that the Dodgers had made the playoffs four times in seven years and said that he had improved the ball club's finances.
He placed blame for the Chapter 11 filing squarely at Selig's feet.
“We’ve had excellent on-field performance, including playoff appearances four times in seven years," Frank McCourt said in a statement. "And we brought the Commissioner a media rights deal that would have solved the cash flow challenge I presented to him a year ago, when his leadership team called us a ‘model franchise.’ Yet he’s turned his back on the Dodgers, treated us differently, and forced us to the point we find ourselves in today.”