“If the Dodgers have an opportunity to hire future Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre, as several sources indicated Monday, they must do it,” writes the LA Times’ Bill Plaschke. “But why couldn’t they have done it 13 days ago when Torre initially walked away from the New York Yankees?” Because they wanted to make certain Joe Girardi was unavailable first? Wally Backman? Tony Perez?

Maybe hiding out for two weeks works in the governmental world from which McCourt’s top advisors hail. But in the more transparent world of sports, silence cracks foundations and creates doubt.

For two weeks, General Manager Ned Colletti (above, left) has been telephoned with questions about the Dodgers’ managerial situation. For two weeks, he has refused to even return the calls, effectively ending Grady Little’s career here while once again exposing his club’s philosophies as so much hot air.

During the lockdown, one recalled a recent interview with McCourt in which he talked about the Dodgers foundation.

“It’s built on hard work, trust, integrity, respect, and it’s built on unselfishness, teamwork and so forth,” he said.

By my calculations, in their treatment of Little, their values batting average is .167.

Amazing, isn’t it? All those paragraphs and not one negative reference to Paul De Podesta.