One of the flagship franchises in baseball is headed towards a terribly embarrassing moment.

The Dodgers, held in such high regard, as a jewel of the community, first in Brooklyn, and now in Los Angeles, are headed towards a dark hour.

The National League franchise has had great moments: Brooklyn, Ebbets Field, the win over the Yankees. Jackie Robinson, who changed the game. The Boys of Summer era. Fernandomania, Tommy LaSorda, Koufax and Drysdale, and many more.

It has also endured its share of bad times too: Home games in the L.A. Coliseum. A team once known as Dem Bums. The Steve Howe drug issues. And the awful era under Rupert Murdoch and the Fox ownership.

But all that may pale in comparison to what is happening over the next 11 days, with the ugliness of the Frank and Jamie McCourt divorce case about to be played out in an L.A. courtroom.

McCourt, who made his wealth owning Boston parking lots, bought the team nearly a decade ago under strange circumstances. Many felt he was grossly underfinanced to the point Fox loaned him money to make the down payment.

Over the following years, McCourt and his wife became staples of the community. He invested money in the renovation of ancient Dodgers Stadium. The team won a couple division titles, even won a playoff game. And there was the trade for slugger Manny Ramirez, and the hiring of manager Joe Torre.

She became active in multiple charities in Los Angeles, and moved up the organizational chart to become the highest ranking woman in professional sports.

That was then, this week is now. With batteries of lawyers on hand for every minute of this trial, the McCourt divorce case has begun. It’s a bitter fight over who owns the team, over finances, over selfishness, over affairs, over dishonesty. It will cover every piece of the box score.

The six months lead-up to the trial has been a black eye to the Dodgers family and to the legacy of the great ownerships the past.

At stake is the well being of a team that has drawn four million fans per game. Frank McCourt's lawyers will present six different documents, signed by husband and wife, in a post-nuptual agreement in 2004. The papers say he gets sole ownership of the franchise. She was given nine different pieces of property in return.

She, a lawyer herself, says she did not understand what she was signing. Others will testify, including MLB execs, who helped execute the initial sale of the team, that Jamie agreed to the deal, to protect the families assets, and to separate professional baseball from their personal lives.

If you read the box score of the documents presented, you'd be shocked. Frank and Jamie were drawing a combined 9M in salaries yearly to work for the club. Two of their sons were paid nearly $900,000 a year, though neither were employed by the club.

The McCourt's charged the team 14M per year in rent to play at Chavez Ravine, the park the family owns. That money was transferred to another business, Blue Land Corporation. The husband-wife team withdrew 108M over a six year period from Blue Land, to privately fund their "5-Star-Lifetstyle" according to court documents.

It didn't stop there. The McCourt's used that money to buy properties in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Mexico and in New England. They jet-setted everywhere, and lived in the spotlight as the owner of the Dodgers.

Then it unraveled. Frank accused his wife of having an affair with a Dodgers employee; of wasting enormous amounts of money on global trips; of becoming a power broker hiring her own personal staffs on the Dodgers payroll, to fulfill her private agendas, using the team as a front for her business dealings.

The legal costs for this infighting will me monumental. At one early hearing there were 19 different lawyers in the court room, as Jamie sought reinstatement after being fired as CEO. More lawyers showed up when she went to court demanding, and getting, $967,000 per month in support payments.

Legal experts say the billable hours from all attorneys will top 19M. They have both hired the priciest and biggest names in the divorce business. It's not batter up, it's lawyer up.

She is suing, under the California community property laws, to retain equal ownership in the team, likely to force a sale of the franchise. He maintains she traded all that when she took control of the family properties.

Jamie is stepping outside the box and beyond also, with demands her take in the divorce settlement also include future monies if Frank develops the real estate around Dodgers Stadium. And she wants a cut of the pie for the future Dodgers-Fox TV Channel, which has been discussed.

The six-month war has taken quite a toll. Virtually all the execs hired by the wife, have been fired by the husband in a retooling of the business side of the operation.

The baseball team has taken a huge hit too. The Dodgers, in the second biggest market in the country, stopped signing international players, have done poorly in the draft, and are operating with an 83M payroll, after dealing controversial slugger Manny Ramirez away over the weekend.

Manager Joe Torre is in the final weeks of his contract, likely to walk away from the L.A. war zone, an odd happening, in that Torre survived everything and anything that was part of the Bronx Zoo under the reign of fiery Yankees late owner George Steinbrenner.

The team is about to drop off the face of the earth in the National League pennant race, and has suffered a horrendous hit in their credibility. Look at the empty seats everywhere at the stadium.

There have been embarrassments before, but the depths of the dirt about to spill out in the L.A. divorce court may be the worst of all time. Funneling of money, back door deals, affairs, dirty business tricks.

The general feeling is when this divorce case is over, the McCourt's will be forced to sell the franchise. There is a toxic feeling will linger, that this couple from New England used the team as their own personal ATM account, with the bills being paid by the fans.

The McCourt's always wanted to own a club.They wanted to be the first family of baseball. The lasting memory will be about greed and infidelity.

Padres fans have seen firsthand the end result of the John-Becky Moores divorce case, with all its ramifications. Baseball should be very concerned that lawyers don't get a judge to allow them to open the books of the franchise, to sort out things likes revenue checks, revenue sharing, expenditures and more.

There will be two realities when this court case is over.

One, the real first family of baseball will always be the O'Malley family, the legendary owners from the 1950s into the 1990s.

Two, the divorce of Frank and Jamie cannot come quick enough for Dodgers fans, who want a divorce from their type of ownership.

The term "Dodger Blue" may take on a new meaning when the Judge hands down his decision.