Los Angeles Dodgers

Wes Covington, a powerful outfielder on the ill-fated 1964 Phillies team whose unorthodox batting stance was mimicked by a generation of young Philadelphians, died July 4 in Edmonton, Alberta, where he had made his home for decades. Mr. Covington, 79, who hit 131 home runs in 11 big-league seasons, succumbed to cancer, according to family members. A North Carolina native who was signed by the Boston Braves in 1952, Mr. Covington, at his first minor-league stop in Eau Claire, Wis., initially overshadowed his teammate, future Hall of Famer Hank Aaron.

In a move to bolster their rotation for the stretch run, the Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired veteran righthander Greg Maddux from the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Times reported last night. The newspaper cited an anonymous person close to the deal. It was not known who San Diego would receive in return. The 42-year-old Maddux is 6-9 with a 3.99 ERA this season. He is 353-223 in a 22-year big-league career, having won four consecutive Cy Young Awards from 1992 to 1995.

Baseball Notable Joe Girardi might be headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a report on ESPN.com said yesterday. A broadcaster with the Yankees, Girardi is one of the candidates to succeed Joe Torre in New York. The agent for Girardi, Steve Mandel , was asked whether Girardi had been approached by the Dodgers, and Mandel would not comment. Dodgers manager Grady Little is under contract for next season after the team picked up his option for 2008 on March 7. Little also has a club option for 2009.

Position: Centerfield Height, weight: 5-9, 160 Age: 28. Birthdate: Nov. 30, 1980 Hometown: Wailuku, Hawaii Years in the majors: 6 How acquired: Drafted by the Phillies from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2004 Rule 5 draft. Season: Victorino continued his maturation into one of the top all-around players in the game today as he hit .292 with 102 runs scored. He had 25 steals to go with 13 triples and his OBP reached a career-high .358, although both the Phillies and Victorino would love more progress in this area.

Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Best of seven TV: Fox29 Radio: WPHT (1210-AM), ESPN (950-AM) WUBA (1480-AM) Spanish Game 1, Thursday: Phillies 3, Dodgers 2 WP: Hamels (2-0) LP: Lowe (1-1) HR: Burrell, Utley Game 2, Friday: Phillies 8, Dodgers 5 WP: Myers (2-0) LP: Billingsley (1-1) HR: Ramirez Game 3, Sunday: Dodgers 7, Phillies 2 WP: Kuroda (2-0) LP: Moyer (0-2) HR: Furcal Game 4, last night: Phillies 7, Dodgers 5 WP: Madson (1-0)

Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson has joined a group bidding to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. The former Los Angeles Lakers superstar told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that he's partnering with former Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals president Stan Kasten and wealthy investor Mark Walter to join the auction for the Dodgers. Johnson's group joins an ever-widening list of parties interested in buying the team from Frank McCourt , including groups headed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban , former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley , former agent and current White Sox consultant Dennis Gilbert , and former Dodgers stars Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser . "I love baseball," Johnson told the Times.

FRANK McCOURT has been offered $1.2 billion for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a bid that would get funding from Chinese government-owned investment banks, according to the contents of a letter disclosed to the Los Angeles Times . The bid to buy the team out of bankruptcy was being headed by Los Angeles Marathon founder Bill Burke, the Times reported yesterday, citing two people familiar with the letter but not authorized to discuss it...

Jack Sanford, the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1957 as a member of the Phillies and a 100-game winner in a 12-year major league career, has died. He was 70. Sanford, who died Tuesday, was 137-101 with a 3.69 ERA for the Phillies, San Francisco, California and Kansas City. He also had 105 hits and three home runs. Sanford, a righthander, was 19-8 in 1957. After the 1958 season, when he went 10-13, the Phillies traded Sanford to the Giants for catcher Valmy Thomas and righthander Ruben Gomez.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are off to a sizzling start, and what do they do? They sign our old friend Bobby Abreu. Now, most Philadelphians would call that a bad idea, and then cheer that it was the Dodgers and not the Phillies who signed a retread who's lousy in the outfield and a locker room cancer to boot. But not the folks in Los Angeles. Consider manager Don Mattingly, a guy who should know better. He was all enthusiastic about the signing. You can even say gung-ho. "Bobby's a guy, obviously, who's been a great hitter his whole career, and kind of makes us, we feel like, incrementally a little bit better," said Donnie Baseball, who was on the Yankees' coaching staff when Abreu played in New York.

CHRIS CAPUANO struck out nine while combining with two relievers on a four-hitter, James Loney drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the visiting Washington Nationals with a 2-0 victory on Sunday. Capuano (3-0) allowed three hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings, helping send the Nationals to their fourth straight loss after they entered the series with an NL-best 14-5 record. At 16-6, the Dodgers matched their best start since 1981 and moved 10 games over .500 for the first time since July 11, 2010.

JAMIE MOYER might have a new gig coming - if he ever stops pitching, that is. After hearing the 49-year-old Colorado Rockies lefty acknowledge he's not up on baseball history, the Hall of Fame offered him an internship to study in Cooperstown, N.Y. In making the announcement Thursday, the Hall said there's "an even more hands-on position awaiting the ageless wonder, if he ever chooses to retire. " The soft-tossing Moyer on Tuesday night became the oldest pitcher in major league history to win a game when he led Colorado past San Diego.

NYJER MORGAN scored on a fly ball by Ryan Braun in the 10th inning to give the Brewers a 3-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, the second late-inning thriller in a row for Milwaukee. With the bases loaded and one out, Braun lofted a shallow fly ball to centerfield. Morgan took off for home despite a stop sign from third-base coach Ed Sedar and was called safe on a close play at the plate - although replays showed that he may have been tagged out before reaching the plate.

After nine games, we can definitively say this about the 2012 Phillies: It could go either way. It went their way Sunday at Citizens Bank Park. After they tried for six innings to single the New York Mets and their own manager to death, the Phillies finally mixed in three doubles and seven runs during their final two at-bats and avoided a three-game sweep with an 8-2 win that sent them on a 10-game West Coast trip with a 4-5 record. That's not the start they were hoping for, and one 14-hit afternoon against the Mets is not going to ease the offensive concerns that were in place when the team left spring training.

Magic Johnson is a savvy businessman, and he leads the group that just spent more than $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. So which of these things is true? The shock waves from that outlandish sale price are going to reach all the way to the Phillies on the East Coast and across sports to the NFL. More immediately, though, the sale underscores that it is almost impossible to fail financially as the owner of a sports franchise - no matter how awful or incompetent you are. Consider Frank McCourt, a Bostonian who made his personal money by buying cheap South Boston real estate and turning it into commuter parking lots.

Lead Major League Baseball in attendance and in local television ratings and what do you get? For the Phillies, the answer was a 19 percent increase in value to $723 million, fifth-highest in baseball, according to Forbes magazine's annual valuations. The Phillies were valued at $609 million last year, the sixth-highest total in baseball and a 13 percent increase over 2010, according to Forbes. Forbes said the Phillies had $249 million in revenue in 2011, but they were in the red in operating income by $11.6 in million.

You've got to love those Red Sox, they of the epic, 7-20, September collapse. It's not yet March and they're at each other's throats. Just on Monday, former manager Terry Francona said Saturday's team ban on drinking beer in the clubhouse was a "PR move. " New manager Bobby Valentine not only denied it, he implied that Francona was just playing to the microphone in his new job at ESPN. Best of all, Josh Beckett - one of three pitchers reported as drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse during games last season - blamed "snitches" for leaking the story.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox settled their lawsuit late Tuesday night, removing an impediment to the sale of the bankrupt team. In a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Dodgers said they were abandoning their attempt to market future media rights and will adhere to their contract with Fox's Prime Ticket subsidiary, which kept intact its exclusive negotiating window from Oct. 15 through Nov. 30 this year. Fox Sports Net West, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., sued the Dodgers in September, claiming that owner Frank McCourt's attempt to sell media rights for 2014 and beyond violated its current broadcast agreement.

JOE TORRE resigned yesterday as Major League Baseball's executive vice president for baseball operations to join a group trying to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. Torre managed the Dodgers from 2008-10, then retired and joined MLB last February as a top aide to commissioner Bud Selig. He is part of a group headed by real estate developer Rick Caruso. The Dodgers were put up for sale by owner Frank McCourt in November, 5 months after the team filed for bankruptcy.