Baseball Jamie McCourt wants to take 'high road'

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Jamie McCourt, mired in highly public divorce proceedings that also potentially involve the future of the Dodgers, told the Los Angeles Times she "absolutely" views herself as the team's owner.

McCourt, 55, was fired last month by Dodgers owner and her estranged husband, Frank, who claims she was having an affair with her bodyguard-driver and was doing a poor job in her role as chief executive.

Last week, Jamie McCourt lost her bid to be reinstated as the team's CEO during a court hearing.

McCourt, who also is a lawyer, told the Times she has a plan to purchase the Dodgers outright, though part of the issue is the validity of the 2004 marital agreement in which Frank McCourt is listed as the team's sole owner.

"My dream would be to have a coalition of people," Jamie McCourt told the Times. "People who want to be involved investment-wise from every single demographic in L.A. When you have partners and you have equity, you have an opportunity and the wherewithal to have an expanded budget for player compensation."

Jamie McCourt was Dodgers vice chairman before being named team president in 2005. In March 2009, Frank McCourt promoted his wife to CEO, citing Jamie McCourt's "outstanding job of building a first-class business operation" in announcing the move.

"When I became CEO, Frank used to say, 'Go be the face of the Dodgers, go be the external brand [in the community],'" she told the Times.

Frank McCourt, in court filings, says his wife of nearly 30 years cheated on him with Jeff Fuller, her bodyguard and driver who also had the title of director of protocol before he was fired in early October.

In her first public response to the accusation of adultery, Jamie McCourt told the Times: "I have never been with another man until the marriage broke up. Ever. Ever.

"I've been in this business 30 years, either practicing law or doing something else in a man's world. If I had known that somebody would say to me, 'Go do what you want because they're going to make something up at the end anyway,' I would have had a lot of fun for 30 years. I never even had a date until I was separated -- besides my husband."

Frank McCourt, asked by the Times for comment, responded through a team spokesman: "He will respectfully decline comment."

The McCourts have four sons, the youngest 19 and the oldest 28.

"To read everything that's been said is devastating, and my kids are pretty upset about it," Jamie McCourt said, the Times reported. "I want my kids to look back and say she took the high road. It's hard, but that's what I'm going to try and do."
 
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