Dodger tradition: in Rupert-Style danger?

Friday, June 27, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- From the same seat near home plate, Betty Chatwood has watched every Los Angeles Dodgers home game in the past 21 years -- a die-hard demonstration of loyalty that earned her the nickname "Dodger Mom."

But Mrs. Chatwood of Burbank fears that things may change if worldwide media mogul Rupert Murdoch succeeds in buying the Dodgers.

"I think it stinks, I don't want it," the feisty 72-year-old fan said during a lull in a recent game.

"What worries me is if I'm gonna be allowed to buy my seat. ... Somebody said he wants to put double deckers on right and left field and that'll ruin the park."

She isn't alone. Fear and rumor have haunted the regulars at Dodger Stadium since Murdoch -- owner of a global news and entertainment empire -- said last month that he was negotiating to buy the team.

Fans worry that the homey, family-friendly atmosphere cultivated at Chavez Ravine for five decades by the O'Malley family will vanish under Murdoch -- known for sensation-driven tabloid newspapers and racy fare on his Fox television network.

"If the sale includes the Fox attitude, if it impersonalizes things beyond the O'Malley ideal, I don't want that," said fan Mark Tomidy, 25.

Murdoch is aware of fans' concerns and he's anxious to dispel them, said Vince Wladika, a vice president at Fox Sports.

"We're not about to turn around and start tearing down the Dodgers," he said. "This is a club that has tradition. It's one of the most recognizable names in all sports. That tradition comes with a value and you don't start making changes that destroy that."

For example, Fox Group, the Murdoch subsidiary handling the sale, wants the Dodgers' front office staff to remain. And most of the staff probably will, said Bob Graziano, a Dodgers executive vice president.

"Their position is that they want to keep the front office team together and my sense of it is the front office wants to stay on," he said. "I think it's going to be a smooth and seamless transition."

Fox is considering adding luxury boxes at the stadium, but at the club level, away from Mrs. Chatwood's seat. Other changes will be "PBS style," or tasteful and subtle, Wladika said.

Taste and subtlety have never been the hallmark of Murdoch endeavors. In Britain, his tabloid newspapers feature photos of bare-breasted women, and the Fox network attracts audiences with racy shows like "Melrose Place."

"Murdoch has always believed that a couple of things are sure-fire sellers. People are always interested in sports, and the other thing is they're always interested in sex," said New Yorker columnist Ken Auletta, author of a Murdoch profile.

On the other hand, Murdoch is not a micromanager. Don't expect him to intervene if Mike Piazza's batting average drops or pitcher Hideo Nomo gives up too many hits.

"He's not a micromanager that way, but he's not the O'Malleys," Auletta said. "Murdoch is a tough guy ... with the Times of London he made the pledge (not to make changes) and a year later he fired the editor."

The Dodgers' expected $350 million to $400 million price tag would be a record for a baseball team, but it's a drop in the bucket for Murdoch, whose News Corp. is expected to earn $1.1 billion on revenues of $11.2 billion for the fiscal year ending this month.

Murdoch's vast holdings include the Twentieth Century Fox film studio, Fox Broadcasting Co., the New York Post and other newspapers worldwide, and international cable television and satellite operations.

So far, the Dodger deal appears to be moving slowly. The team was still waiting for Major League Baseball's permission to show its books to Fox. After that, the sale must be approved by Major League team owners, Graziano said.

The Dodgers purchase is the smallest in a series of recently announced Murdoch acquisitions that includes $1.7 billion for International Family Entertainment, parent of the Family Channel.

Symbolically, however, the Dodgers acquisition stands out as a "trophy property" that will boost Murdoch's public profile significantly, said Harold Vogel, an entertainment industry analyst for Cowen & Co. in New York.

Owning the Dodgers also meshes nicely with his plan to join Tele-Communications Inc. in an $850 million deal to form a new sports network expected to challenge Disney's ESPN.

"It's small in terms of monetary impact. It's large in terms of psychological and strategic importance," Vogel said. "Los Angeles is a major market for sports and major media and having a presence in the L.A. market is significant."