Beat L.A.

One of the ongoing conundrums in sports is whether it’s about the team or the individual?  Back in the early days of the NFL,  Pete Rozelle believed passionately, that in a game played only once a week, the team was the key to marketing.  In Basketball, former Commissioner David Stern saw the value of individual stars as the draw for fans.For Baseball it’s been a mixed bag.  Even for iconic teams like the Dodgers or the Giants, the question of team vs. the individual is hotly debated.For the Dodgers, at least the current team and its current ownership group, the answer is clear.  With players like Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford, stars outshine the team. The individual player is king, second only to the dollars that are being paid.Looking at this team, a team that was in bankruptcy just three years ago, as a result of a a messy divorce, is my guest sports journalist and former ESPN reporter Molly Knight. She takes a hard look at this team in her new book The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball PowerhouseMy conversation with Molly Knight: Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe