Rupert Murdoch and welcome to the LAPL, the Los Angeles Political League, where the game was too rough for O'Malley, but it's probably just right for a tough and cunning man like you. It's here, on the playing fields of the LAPL, that O'Malley backed down in a fight for his dream, construction of a football stadium to house a National Football League franchise, next to the Dodger Stadium baseball field. This is where he learned that politics is a cruel and unforgiving business, with none of the clubby image that baseball projects.
Baseball likes to romanticize a loser.
In politics, a loser is simply a loser. People walk away from one for fear the condition might spread. Then they start looking for a winner. And that's what was happening Tuesday in one of the Los Angeles Political League's most historic and ornate venues, the L.A. City Council chambers, where the politicians began talking about Murdoch, whose international media company, News Corp., controls the Fox television network and several cable networks, among other properties. O'Malley needed City Council approval of ordinances to build a football stadium and to remodel the baseball park.