Frank talk from Frank

McCourt addressed the Mitchell report at the Kuroda press conference today. Nothing too forceful, but he didn't shy away from airing his opinions.

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on Sunday offered his first public comment on baseball's Mitchell Report -- other than a carefully worded written statement issued through the team's public relations department last Thursday, when the report was officially released.
Among other things, McCourt called for the players' union to allow drug testing to be written into individual players' contracts by their clubs, something that isn't permitted under the game's current labor agreement.
``In 1984, the Dodgers were one of two organizations who went to baseball and requested that we be allowed to put testing into players' contracts,'' said McCourt, who bought the club in 2004. ``Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to put those provisions in. My plea to the union, as well as to my fellow owners, is, let's get it right.''
Not surprisingly, McCourt trumpeted the fact that no current Dodgers player was named in the report as a user of steroids or HGH -- even though three high-profile former Dodgers, pitchers Kevin Brown and Eric Gagne and catcher Paul Lo Duca, were.
``I don't think we should look at the Mitchell Report as being the last word, that only those players (named) should be held accountable and that every one of those players is bad,'' McCourt said. ``That isn't fair. We need to look at it more as a general statement.''