Los Angeles Dodgers are sold

The agreement also includes the sale of the rights of the team in the media to "maximize the value of the Dodgers and his owner, Frank McCourt," according to a joint statement.

Blackstone Group LP will handle the sales process.

The agreement ends a tumultuous year for the Dodgers and the permanence of McCourt.

The April, the board of the majors took the extraordinary step of taking control of the Dodgers, a team increasingly paralyzed by McCourt bitter divorce from his wife, Jamie, who served as executive director of the team until he dismissed in 2009.

The Dodgers in June welcomed the protection of a bankruptcy court as provided for in Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act, after McCourt said the rejection of commissioner Bud Selig for a rights agreement on what the media left him without the resources to meet the team's payroll.

McCourt and Selig had an appointment to testify in court this week, but the court adjourned to allow the process to continue the talks.

The new owner would be the third since Peter O'Malley sold the team to News Corp. in 1998. The Dodgers had remained in the family since Walter O'Malley.

O'Malley moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.

Dodgers files for bankruptcy

The economic problems that cross the Los Angeles Dodgers had today, Monday, the official outcome of the presentation qualify for bankruptcy to try to overcome the difficult situation in a historical teams of Major League Baseball.

In addition to its current owner Frank McCourt directly accused the baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, have been the "guilty" of allowing this situation to reach not to authorize the television contract that the team had agreed with the Fox News Sunday

The Dodgers had all the legal documentation to qualify for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court, while McCourt said that if he had given situation without interference "negative" and "intentional" Selig.

According to the statement provided by the Lakers who play in the National League for Chapter 11 bankruptcy law will allow them to use 150 million dollars in its daily operations and gain time to reach an agreement with television.

"No interruptions in day to day business of the whole organization, the equipment itself or the fans," said the statement.

The bankruptcy protection will allow the Dodgers to obtain sufficient funding to ensure the economic stability of the long-term franchise, said the team plays in the National League.

Meanwhile, McCourt said the Dodgers have tried for over a year multimillion Selig approves the transaction with the Fox network, without success.

The agreement would give the Dodgers owner $ 385 million to resolve the legal dispute he has with his wife and partner Jamie McCourt about his divorce and ownership of the team.

Selig's refusal to approve the contract McCourt has placed in danger of failing to pay payroll of June 30 and hence it was decided to invoke bankruptcy.

Dodgers Snyder Died at 84

Duke Snider, the Hall of Fame center fielder for the charmed "Boys of Summer" who helped the Dodgers bring their elusive and only World Series crown to Brooklyn, died early Sunday of what his family called natural causes. He was 84.

Snider died at the Valle Vista Convalescent Hospital in Escondido, Calif., according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which announced the death on behalf of the family.

"The Duke of Flatbush" hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the World Series six times and won two titles. But the eight-time All-Star was defined by much more than his stats — he was, after all, part of the love affair between the borough of Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in the local neighborhoods.

Snider wore No. 4 in Dodger blue, and was often regarded as the third-best center fielder in New York — behind Willie Mays of the Giants and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees — during what many fans considered the city's golden era of baseball.

Snider hit at least 40 home runs in five straight seasons and led the NL in total bases three times. He never won an MVP award, although a voting error may have cost him the prize in 1955. He lost to Campanella by a very narrow margin — it later turned out an ill voter left Snider off the ballot, supposedly by mistake.

Snider hit .309 with 42 home runs and a career-high 136 RBIs in 1955. That October, he hit four homers, drove in seven runs and hit .320 as the Dodgers beat the Yankees in a seven-game World Series.

For a team that kept preaching "Wait till next year" after Series losses to the Yankees in 1953, 1952, 1949, 1947 and 1941, it had indeed become next year. A generation later, long after they'd all grown old, those Dodgers were lauded as the "Boys of Summer" in Roger Kahn's book.

A durable slugger with a strong arm, good instincts on the bases and a regal style, Snider hit the last home run at Ebbets Field in 1957.

Snider's swing gave the Dodgers a lefty presence on a team of mostly righties. He often launched shots over the short right-field wall at the Brooklyn bandbox, rewarding a waiting throng that gathered on Bedford Avenue.

"The Duke's up," fans in the upper deck would shout to those on the street.

A wild swinger, Snider was harnessed by Branch Rickey, who made him practice standing at home plate with a bat on his shoulder calling balls and strikes but forbidden to swing.

Snider stayed with the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and won another World Series ring the next year. Prematurely gray, "The Silver Fox" returned to New York with the bumbling Mets in 1963 and finished his career in 1964 with the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers' longtime rivals.

Snider was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980 on his 11th try. He was a broadcaster for the Montreal Expos for several seasons — he played in the city as a minor leaguer in the Brooklyn farm system — and later was an announcer with the Dodgers.

In 1995, Snider pleaded guilty to federal tax charges and was sentenced to two years' probation and fined $5,000. He admitted not reporting more than $97,000 in cash from autograph signings, card shows and memorabilia sales.

A native Californian, Snider became part of Brooklyn's fabric during his playing days.

"I was born in Los Angeles," he once said. "Baseball-wise, I was born in Brooklyn. We lived with Brooklyn. We died with Brooklyn."

The Duke, however, had some early problems with the boisterous Brooklyn fans.

Once, in the early 1950s, he was quoted as calling them the worst in the game. He came to the park after the quote was published and was greeted with a chorus of boos. But he enjoyed one of his better nights, and silenced the fans for good.

"The fans were something." Snider said. "They were so close to you. You got to know them, some of them by name."