The next owner of the Dodgers slid some of the caprese salad appetizer next to the spicy fried calamari, careful not to interfere with the integrity of Sisley Italian Kitchen’s famous Italian quesadilla that was in front him.

It might seem as if Josh Macciello has a lot on his plate at the moment in the Sherman Oaks restaurant. But don’t doubt he’ll have plenty of appetite left for the main course.

“I want everyone to know that I want the whole enchilada,” said Macciello, not afraid to mix his culinary metaphors.

Specifically, that would be the Dodgers’ franchise, the stadium and the land that surrounds it.

He’s willing to pay $2.2 billion for it. An all-cash deal. And all of it to make Frank McCourt disappear.

“Why would I over-bid?” Macciello continued as he grabbed a fork. “We need closure to start the healing process. No fan wants to hand over $20 to park and think they’re giving him any more of their money.

“So I want to give him an offer he can’t refuse.”

Josh Macciello wants to buy the Dodgers and is making the rounds on TV morning shows and sports-talk radio. Friday, February 10, 2012. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

Don’t worry. The Brooklyn native and Studio City resident with the pointed black beard and elaborately tattooed right shoulder was just getting warmed up.

Media reports change almost daily in an attempt to nail down who has met certain “deadlines” and “qualified” to move “to the next round” in this unusual process. Magic Johnson, Peter O’Malley, Stan Kroenke and Michael Heisley apparently are in.

Few, if anyone, bother to include the 36-year-old Macciello.

When he made his intentions known with an introductory mini-media blitz last month, some polarizing reaction was predictable. One started up a fansite, JoshForDodgers.com, to monitor his progress, but others stayed skeptical of his net worth and labeled him a publicity seeker.

Add to that the jilted supporters of one of the most storied franchises in sports history who simply are too skittish that he could be McCourt version 2.0 – someone who appears paper-rich but ends up disappointing everyone.

Macciello understands the doubters, but he has no doubt he can win them over.

If needed, he can produce proof he’s made his millions in TV and movie development projects. A recent discovery that some property he owns in Arizona turned out to be gold-rich, yet-to-be-mined land has been verified to be worth billions more.

Macciello was so agitated by the failure of acknowledgment from representatives from the New York-based Blackstone Group, hired by McCourt to handle the bankruptcy sale, that he took his case to the sports talk radio airwaves last week. On 710-AM’s Steve Mason and John Ireland show, Macciello answered questions from callers and defended himself as a viable option amidst more apprehension.

One caller told him he sounded like some fast-talking used-car salesman. Macciello reminded them that was the first career choice by current baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

Sources close to Macciello’s group who did not want to be identified because of nondisclosure agreements produced documents that show Macciello put into escrow a $2.2 billion bid Jan. 18 with the intent to buy the Dodgers and all of its holdings through his company, Armital Sports, Inc.

Macciello would own 51 percent. The other 49 percent would be owned by Eagle Crest LLC, headed up by two of Macciello’s financial partners. One of them is South Korean-born businessman Myung-Ho Lee who has, according to more confidential documentation given to the Blackstone Group, $10 billion deposited in the Hong Kong branch of the world’s largest bank, HSBC. Lee is in the process of having it transferred to a U.S. branch, and Macciello said he’s got access to $3 billion of that, with additional money going toward stadium repairs and roster salary.

The three-man group will combine to pay a $75,000 vetting fee Major League Baseball has requested for this process.

“You think I’d pay that much just for media attention?” Macciello asked. “That’s stupid. I’m not looking to be a Kardashian.”

Representatives for McCourt or the Blackstone Group did not return requests to comment on Macciello’s bid.

As it all turns out, Macciello’s window of opportunity to get into the bidding has not closed. He recently has been informed he’ll have until March 1 to secure his offer.

The only real set deadline in this whole process is McCourt picks the new owner by April 1. After the transaction is completed, he has until the end of April to pay off his debtors.

If Macciello isn’t satisfied with how he’s treated, he’s prepared to stall the entire sale proceedings by taking whatever legal action is necessary, an ironic twist to how the litigious McCourt has put the Dodgers ownership into this awkward holding pattern in the first place.

“I don’t want to sue anybody,” Macciello said. “But what other choice might I have?

“Everyone’s putting deadlines on everything, but that’s all make-believe by the media. The reality is my attorneys feel I have plenty proof of funding here, and all I’m fighting for is a fair chance.

“Once we get past this hurdle, I will win this team. I will stop at nothing.”

Call him the wild card in this whole drama, and you won’t be far off. He says on a scale of 1 to 10, his chances of owning the Dodgers: “I live every day on a scale of hitting a 10. Realistically, you might think I’m psychotic, but I think I’m going to own the Los Angeles Dodgers and I’m going to bring a World Series by the end of this year.

“That’s what’s in my head. And there’s no doubt in my mind.”

Josh Macciello gets a kiss from his mother Rose. Josh Macciello wants to buy the Dodgers and is making the rounds on TV morning shows and sports-talk radio. Friday, February 10, 2012. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

Macciello continued to make friends and influence people Saturday. He suited up and participated in a charity softball tournament in West Covina sponsored by Dodgers online bloggers and raised money for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Macciello made a $5,000 donation to the cause on top of it.

What definitely could play into Macciello’s favor is once Major League Baseball approves the final pool of buyers, McCourt has the final say in who he sells it to. If he takes Macciello’s offer, McCourt – who some predicted would be lucky to break even – stands to clear some $700 million, according to Macciello’s calculations.

Likewise, McCourt also could see this as his last opportunity to give Selig and the other owners the equivalent of some neighborhood kids lighting a paper bag on fire and setting it on their porch.

“I’m counting on that as the winning factor,” Macciello admitted. “But if he’s counting on me to do a worse job (than him), I’m counting on doing the best job.

“Everyone now realizes that McCourt is going to make the most amount of money on a bankruptcy in the history of the world. We just want to get back in that race, meet with him, have him give me a number on a napkin and I’ll pay it.

“You know, the one thing that really scares me – what if you’re all so scared of getting another Frank McCourt that you’re losing the greatest owner you could ever have? That’s a possibility. What if I could win six championships like the O’Malley family, but everyone is so scared of me because of what McCourt did, that you pass on me?

“I feel that my ownership of the Dodgers will be more than just a guy fulfilling his dreams. It’ll impact this country, which has no guidance right now. People feel lost in this horrible time in America right now, that there’s no hope with big business and government and everyone else screwing them over. And then here comes this guy, who’s not part of all that, who wins this organization, the underdog.”

Macciello, decked out in a flat-billed blue L.A. cap with a Dodgers’ No. 23 home jersey that has his name on the back, picked up another piece of calamari and started talking more about his immediate plans.

He’s keeping Don Mattingly as Dodgers manager and Ned Colletti as general manager. He’ll invest millions into security to make everyone feel safer. If fans aren’t crazy about “Don’t Stop Believin”‘ played after the seventh-inning stretch, he’ll let them pick the song.

He’s confounded why 50 cents worth of beer can be sold for $9. He can imagine when trolley cars bring fans in and out of the stadium as part of a public transportation service.

And, when all’s said and done, he’ll be just fine moving from the third-base season seats he’s shared with some friends since 1999 over to the row of seats that McCourt set aside for himself next to the Dodgers’ dugout.

“The way I see it, I’m like Gibson at bat right now,” Macciello said. “I’m in that same hole, facing one of the best closers in the game. And it doesn’t look like I have a chance. So I’m hoping to perform like he did. That’s my inspiration.”

You can read this story on The Daily News website

Josh Macciello says he always had big dreams.

At the moment, his dreams are the same as those of Magic Johnson, Joe Torre, Mark Cuban, Larry King and guys like that. He wants to buy the Dodgers.

What makes Macciello’s dream even more amazing is that he’s an admitted underdog in this fierce bidding war, and if he were to succeed, he would—at 36—be the youngest sports franchise owner in history after making the biggest purchase of a sports team in history.

Sources close to the deal confirm that the bid he laid out recently is about $2.2 billion for the Dodgers and the stadium. Macciello would only confirm that, “with the money I’m bidding, I could buy three sport teams.”

Macciello is our neighbor—a seemingly average guy who eats well-done over-easy eggs, well-done turkey bacon and well-done wheat toast every morning at Jinky’s Studio Café, often with a co-worker or his nephew. He coaches his daughter’s softball team at Studio City’s Beeman Park and loves cramming his family into $5 photo booths for goofy family pictures.

His neighbors in the Fryman Canyon area include Studio City notables like George Clooney, Miley Cyrus and Julie Bowen, the mom in Modern Family. He came into money over the past five years through gold mines in the Pacific Northwest, and through his entertainment company Armital Entertainment. ESPN and other journalists have poked and pried into his history and personal life for months trying to find out if he is for real. They could find no hoax.

“I’m not a joke, I’m out to do this, I just need to be taken seriously,” he said, having his characteristic breakfast at Jerry’s Famous Deli near PINZ Bowling Alley. He has taken the steps of proving that he has the money, and submitting a bid. Now, he is hoping for a meeting with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

“If I could get in the door, I am sure I could show them what I’m all about,” Macciello says. “I love baseball, I love the fans, I could turn this into a winning team and people will start having fun again.”

If owning the Dodgers was put to a public vote, Macciello would have a better chance. When fans hear him on the radio, they Tweet him, and he answers every one of them—sometimes nearly 1,000 a day. Another fan wrote a song about him, and even journalists who say he seems “too good to be true,” also say, “I love that guy!” (CLICK HERE to see what some say.)

He has met with former Dodgers Coach Tommy Lasorda and other notables on his way through the bidding process, but still feels very much an outsider.

So, he listens to sage advice from 81-year-old Michael Bash, president of a multimillion-dollar real estate development, Berkley Enterprises. They meet once a week at Jerry’s Deli to talk about business, and history. “This is a guy who lived through the Great Depression,” Macciello says. Bash gives business advice, but also reminds Macciello to keep family priorities in order.

His 11-year-old daughter Nicole attends The Wesley School in North Hollywood, and Macciello’s twin boys, Anthony and Joseph, 6, go to Carpenter Community Charter School, where he tries to be an active parent in a world of super-active PTA parents.

He just celebrated his 13th wedding anniversary to the woman he describes as “the one and only love of my life,” Anna Oganesyan, whom he met at Valley College.

“I was taking a class in advanced statistics on a whim, and we were chatting for about 15 minutes, and then one of her friends said, ‘Anna, you’re in the wrong class’ and you know what? She ended up staying there and taking the class even though she hates math,” he laughs. They’ve been together ever since.

“She’s my Adrienne,” says Macciello about his wife, referring to her like the wife of Rocky Balboa. “She keeps me grounded.”

Anna lost both her parents to cancer before she was 30. She worries about having the house clean when her husband brings over unexpected guests.

His mother lives in their 4,600-square-foot house on a cul-de-sac and she complains about the tree that sheds too many leaves out front. He has a bulldog named Tiger who is friendly to strangers. Macciello says he is looking for another larger house to move into, but he wants to stay in Studio City.

“My wife and I always wanted to live in Studio City, we love it here,” he explains. “It’s centrally located, it’s easy to get over to Beverly Hills, the studios and great places to eat.”

Family is so important he even has it tattooed on his right shoulder—a Joshua “family” tree with symbols, and soon a Dodger’s cap.

His house is filled with inspirational sayings on the wall, classic photos of Frank Sinatra and the Brat Pack, symbols of Buddha, and a poster of King Kong.

He has great ideas for the baseball team, but doesn’t want to get into specifics yet. He plans to build Little League parks and have batting cages in the land around the stadium.

“There doesn’t seem to be much hope right now for people,” he says. “For me, winning this is for the 99 percent, not the one percenters. I may have the money to be part of the one percent, but I’m on the side of the 99 percent.”

Macciello sighs,“I just want to be treated fairly, I just want to have my fair shot.”

Frank McCourt will make a decision on the sale of the Dodgers by April.

Macciello turns 37 in March. He is hoping he will have more than a birthday to celebrate.

You can read this story on the Studio City Patch website

By Mike Szymanski
Studio City Patch

For more information about him, go to: joshfordodgers.com

See an exclusive video tour of his house, click here.

A man who started stacking his billions of dollars by backing and financing movie and television projects is now hoping his own Tinseltown dream comes true.

Macciello is attempting to live out the fantasy of millions by breaking into a fraternity of the few, and his first knock on the door came Monday.

Macciello is a 36-year old billionaire and he wants to own the Los Angeles Dodgers, and on Monday he placed a bid to make that happen and expects to be at or near the top with his offer.

“I will probably put in the highest bid, from what I understand,” said Macciello, who is attempting to buy one of MLB’s staple franchises, a franchise that experts estimate will sell for more than a billion dollars.

But this process comes down to more than money. It is political. Unless Macciello’s offer is far and away better than the field, the money is almost secondary in this process. It comes down to who the other owners want to let into their exclusive society, and if history tells us anything, it is that those owners steer away of those who are different from their norm.

Josh Macciello is different.

Who is he?

Unless you had a keen eye for a fine timepiece or some other subtle indication of wealth, you might not know Macciello is a man of nearly infinite means.

He shaves his head with clippers. He has the shadow of a full beard and a goatee that hangs well below his chin. Sometimes he wears thick black prescription glasses like Clark Kent. He owns suits, but he is far more likely to be seen in a T-shirt that barely exposes an arm tattoo, jeans and Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers.

Basically, he is the polar opposite of Frank McCourt, the man Macciello hopes to purchase the Dodgers from, and not just opposite in appearance. McCourt bought the Dodgers mostly on credit, but Macciello claims to have cold, hard cash, and it is pretty much all his own.

The Brooklyn native—he moved to the Los Angeles area more than a decade ago—was a washed up junior college baseball player stopped by an injury. He later worked on Wall Street before moving West and struggling for years producing feature film and TV scripts.

But things were going badly. Six years ago, on Valentine’s Day, the Macciellos—his wife, Anna, daughter and twin sons—saw the front door of their apartment in North Hollywood, Calif. decorated by an eviction notice. Around that same time, Macciello spent Christmas bawling his eyes out in his tiny kitchen after his daughter asked, “That’s all, Daddy?” after opening some modest gifts.

Those incidents provided extra motivation, and soon after some of Macciello’s projects and some real estate investments started to pay off. That was about five years ago, and he made his first million shortly thereafter. Then his big break came last year when he took over a bunch of gold and platinum mines that have been appraised in the tens of billions of dollars, and Macciello is more than happy to provide the paperwork to prove that.

His current title is CEO of Armital Entertainment LLC, a company with interests in motion pictures, plays, resorts and restaurants among other endeavors.

Macciello doesn’t boast about his wealth in normal conversation, but he does when talking about buying the Dodgers. That’s because he believes having his own money and not relying on a huge group or hedge funds or any other outside source is what separates his bid from all the others.

“I’m not going to show up with gold bricks to pay for the team,” Macciello said during a phone interview last week. “I hope (MLB) knows I’m more intelligent than that. I’m not Jed Clampett. I have cash.”

The people’s choice?

Macciello has not been quiet about his desire to own the Dodgers. He’s done television, radio, newspaper and online interviews to tout his candidacy. He has a Twitter account flooded with Dodger talk. There is a YouTube video and website promoting his campaign.

Macciello says he is a die-hard baseball fan and wants to see the Dodgers become the New York Yankees of the West, a franchise that accepts nothing less than a World Series title every year—no, he has no intention of moving the team to his native New York. He is in Southern California to stay, he says, and if he were already in place as owner, he says he would have signed Prince Fielder.

That is what Dodgers fans want to hear. For too long they watched Frank McCourt skimp on free agents and payroll and tank the on-field product. It resulted in a boycott of Dodger Stadium last season, but the fans desperately want a reason to return.

Macciello has his skeptics, but mostly he has support from the average fan. Support from the other owners is the challenge, however.

The Good Ol’ Boys

For its entire existence, MLB has been steeped in tradition, including when it comes to who owns franchises. You can’t be too young. You can’t be too loud or outspoken. You should dress a certain way. You should fall in line.

That seems to be why boisterous Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban doesn’t own a baseball team yet. He won’t conform. And while Macciello is quick to point out differences between himself and Cuban—“I won’t be out there yelling at umpires and getting fined,” he says—the fact is neither fits the mold of what MLB and commissioner Bud Selig is likely to want, and Macciello’s public campaign to buy the team probably doesn’t go over well in The Commish’s Milwaukee and New York offices.

For that reason, some won’t take Macciello seriously. In fact, on Sunday the Los Angeles Times ran a list of “prospective bidders who have been identified publicly,” and Macciello’s name wasn’t included among the likes of Magic Johnson, Joe Torre, Steven Cohen and Cuban.

Monday’s bids will be scaled down to maybe a handful by MLB and its owners and submitted to the Blackstone Group, the New York-based investment firm in charge of the sale. Ultimately, McCourt will have the final say on who buys the team from him.

Getting beyond the initial bid has its obstacles, and Macciello knows as much. But he believes he at least has the assets if not the alignment with big baseball names. However, it is possible that if Macciello’s bid is accepted, some baseball people who missed out might try to align themselves with him. On the flip side, if Macciello misses out, it is possible other groups might call on him as a financial backer.

But that isn’t Macciello’s dream. He wants to own a baseball team. That is how his Hollywood script is written.

Unfortunately for him, Hollywood scripts aren’t usually reality. Away from the silver screen, the underdog rarely wins. They are long shots for good reasons.

Then again, Josh Macciello, the newbie billionaire, has fancied himself a long shot his entire life.

You can read this story on the AOL SportingNews website

By Anthony Witrado
Sporting News

STUDIO CITY, Calif. — Josh Macciello lives about where you would expect a guy who says he wants to buy the Dodgers would live.

In other towns, with other social graces, someone who has hit it as big as Macciello claims he has might show off a little more. Something sprawling with a big fountain out front. But in Los Angeles, those that have the most to spend generally tend to stay out of view.

Macciello and his wife Anna and their three children have a 4,600-square-foot home in a celebrity-studded section of Studio City, and the house is impressive, if understated. Family portraits hang over the fireplace. Sports memorabilia from Michael Jordan and fine china are on display. I’m looking closely at the house, tucked up in the hills on one of those narrow streets that tend to flood after heavy rains, because Macciello says he controls billions of dollars in assets and he just doesn’t look the part. Could a 36-year-old guy wearing a black “Rocky Balboa” T-shirt, sporting Clark Kent glasses, tattoos on his biceps, a Cartier on his wrist and a pointed, graying beard on his chin really be in position to make a $1 billion-plus offer to buy the Dodgers? I’m skeptical. But curious. Everything seems like a clue, and a riddle. The furniture, the way he dresses. Is it nice enough? Is it too nice? Is he trying to impress me? Would a guy with as much money as he claims to have need to?

As we approach the large oak dining room table, I get another clue. It is set beautifully … with paper plates and plastic forks and knives.

“My wife asked if she should put out the china for this,” Macciello says in a thick, Brooklyn accent. “But I was in the mood for Zankou chicken. You’ve had it before, right? They have take-out places all over here. The garlic sauce is the best.”

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

Josh Macciello sees himself as a simple man with a big dream.

I have spent the past month vetting as much as I could about what Josh Macciello said during our first four-hour interview in early December.

He said he has spent the past couple of months trying to buy the Dodgers. Or at least, trying to get people to let him try to buy the Dodgers.

His problem is pretty simple: No one has ever heard of him.

Macciello’s Internet presence consists of a LinkedIn profile, a few poker player pages from the time he finished 17th in a World Series of Poker event in June of 2010, a Classmates.com profile from Jefferson High in Tampa, Fla., and the website of his company, Armital Entertainment.

People who control billions of dollars in assets tend to leave a much larger digital footprint. Which is why Dodgers fans had no idea what to make of this guy when he did interviews on L.A.-area radio and television stations last week. His enthusiasm was infectious. Callers into the program seemed to love him. Then, people got skeptical.

“Did anyone hear ESPN Radio earlier today?” popular Dodgers blogger Roberto Baly wrote on his website, Vin Scully is My Homeboy. “A guy by the name of Joshua Macciello was on the Mason & Ireland show. Macciello wants to purchase the Dodgers and has big plans.

“I really enjoyed his enthusiasm. He seems to have passion and wants to win. This is the problem, it sounds too good to be true.”

Macciello responded to an email Baly sent him within minutes.

Roberto,

Thank you for tuning in today. I know most people are not going to know what to believe, if I am a real possibility or not but I will tell you direct my friend, I AM 100% for real and as we get closer to this deal finalizing you will see myself and my team as one of the groups making the right steps to take over the Dodgers and bringing LA a championship. You can blog that on your blog in BOLD letters!!!! Feel free to email me anytime. I am a people person and if I don’t get back to you right away I apologize.

Joshua Macciello CEO, Armital Entertainment LLC Co-chairman, Armital LLC

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Here’s what I know: Macciello attended one year of college and played baseball at a community college in Alabama before leaving school after a serious arm injury in 1994. After that, he moved home to New York and talked his way into a job on Wall Street with his brother-in-law Edward O’Connell. A few years later he moved to California, met his future wife, Anna Oganesyan, at Valley College in North Hollywood, Calif. — they’ve now been married 12 years — and began an up-and-down career in the entertainment industry producing and financing feature films and television projects.

Here’s what Macciello says: He became a millionaire two or three years ago after a series of successful financing deals on motion pictures. “Putting people and projects together, making good middle money,” he said. His break into the top 1 percent came just a few months ago when he says he secured control of several gold mines in the Western United States that have been appraised in the tens of billions of dollars.

When I asked to see the appraisal of the mine, he produced it immediately. When I later independently called the Washington state-based appraisal company, they confirmed they had a business relationship with Macciello, but asked that their name not be used in this story.

I then spoke to Macciello’s wealth manager, who also asked that his name not be used in this story for confidentiality reasons, and he swore on his 30-year career that Macciello, “has been able to secure a firm commitment to use a bunch of different gold mines as collateral to bid on the Dodgers.”

‘I’M NOT THE GUY WHO CAN PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL BUD SELIG’

Still, it’s all pretty hard to believe. And because his latest financial jump has occurred so recently, Macciello hasn’t even filed a tax return yet that would reflect it.

“No, I always have to prove it,” he said, when I asked if people believe him when he says he’s a billionaire. “They ask for confirmation and we give them the claims showing that we own [the mines] and the actual assay and geologists reports that support that claim that’s been going on since 1999.” Then he corrects me on something.

“It’s not like Josh Macciello has billions in his bank account,” he said. “I am chairman and CEO of a company that’s partnered up with another company, and through those two companies we acquired several gold mines that are worth billions of dollars.

“Had it been five years ago we wouldn’t have been as fortunate, but due to the economy and where gold prices are now and where they’re projected to be in the next five years, we’re very blessed to be in the position we’re in, to be able to say we have billions of dollars of assets.”

Macciello says he intends to use those gold mines as collateral to finance his bid for the Dodgers.

Those appraisals, as well as a personal note to owner Frank McCourt on Nov. 21, in which he made a substantial offer for the team, have gotten Macciello through the first door in the Dodgers bidding process.

I’ve been able to confirm that he has had extended discussions with the Blackstone Group, the New York-based investment firm handling the sale of the team for McCourt.

However, he has not yet submitted the formal paperwork to bid on the team in advance of the Jan. 23 deadline. Macciello says that’s because he is trying to align himself with the right partners to give his bid more credibility in the baseball world.

“I’m not the guy who can pick up the phone and call Bud Selig,” he explains.

In interviews last week, Macciello said he has met with former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda to seek his counsel on how to approach the situation, “as an Italian-American,” and that he’s spoken to several other high-profile investors.

Lasorda’s representative confirmed they met at a Beverly Hills restaurant last week, but maintained that Lasorda intends to remain neutral in the process.

AN EMAIL FROM BRAZIL

Josh Macciello sees himself as a simple man with a big dream.

I don’t think Mike Murphy has any reason to lie to me. He has done some business with Macciello over the years and considers him a friend, but is mostly happily retired as the former CEO of Mars Inc. Americas.

Murphy’s potential involvement with the Dodgers, should Macciello buy the team, would be minimal. Seats in the owners’ box, maybe a few business lunches. His reputation is far more valuable than his participation.

Last week, he wrote me two emails from a beach in Brazil, where he has been vacationing recently.

I am a retired CEO with over 30 years’ experience running multi-billion-dollar international businesses. My association with Josh has been rewarding both personally and professionally.

I followed up by asking him:

The first reaction to Josh among fans, media, etc., is that he’s coming out of nowhere and they want to know if he’s for real. Did you have the same reaction when you first met him?

Murphy responded:

Interesting question, although not surprising. Coming from nowhere only describes someone who doesn’t meet the stereotypical profile. This is a benefit to Josh, as it causes a sense of ‘unknown’ to competitive investors; especially those who are using name recognition with little to no skin in the game. If the due diligence process proves Josh to be a legitimate player — then so be it.

Over the years I have trained myself to be blind to appearances and only try and see the essence of who I am dealing with … in Josh’s case, he’s for real and there is nothing he says that he doesn’t personally believe in. [Winston] Churchill was short and fat, [Steve] Jobs and [Bill] Gates never graduated from college, [Abraham] Lincoln lost most elections he entered and had a history of mental illness, and Josh has a Brooklyn accent and a tattoo — the rest is history.

As for the fans, they are the only legitimate inquiry as they not only love the Dodgers, but more importantly represent the brand’s essence and resulting value. Fans have the gift of discernment and can smell legitimacy quicker than anyone — they will love and relate to Josh in a heartbeat.

BREAKFAST AT JERRY’S

Every Saturday, Macciello has breakfast with an 81-year-old man named Michael Bash at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Studio City. Bash is the president of Berkley Enterprises, a multimillion-dollar real estate development company headquartered in Las Vegas. “I was introduced to him by my CPA and I’m like his mentor,” Bash said. “When I was young I also looked for older people for advice. He reminds me of myself when I was in my 30s. “Now he wants to buy the Dodgers. I don’t know enough about what he’s doing on that to say whether it can happen. I’m not involved with it,” he said. “I just know Josh. He’s a very bright man, he’s very creative and he’s very ambitious.”

WHY JOSH MACCIELLO?

A month has passed since I first met Josh Macciello. In that time, former Dodgers manager Joe Torre resigned his position in the commissioner’s office to announce he was teaming with L.A. developer Rick Caruso on a bid, and several other prominent businessmen have gone public in their interest in the team.

I ask Macciello why he is doing this when there are so many other worthy suitors.

“In many ways the Dodgers mirror my life,” he said. “I’m the guy that’s not supposed to be here talking to you. The [Brooklyn] Dodgers were the team who played between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants. They weren’t supposed to beat those guys, but they did.”

In some ways, this auction is more democratic than a normal franchise sale. Baseball will formally vet some of the groups and let Blackstone know which would be approved by three-fourths of the 30 owners. But ultimately McCourt will have the final say.

Even if Josh Macciello is who he says he is, it’s hard to imagine him making it to the end of the process unless his bid overwhelms those of everybody else, or he partners with a more established group.

At best he is an underdog and a dreamer. At worst he is delusional or disingenuous.

He has left several clues along the way. He told me, before I found out by searching property records myself, that he leases his house in Studio City for $10,000 a month, but does not own it. He disclosed that he’d changed his name from Joshua Cruz to Joshua Macciello when he moved to California before a names and aliases search made that information seem incriminating.

And yes, he served Zankou chicken on paper plates when I visited his house because he just likes Zankou chicken and garlic sauce.

At the end of all this I suppose I’m more curious than skeptical. Josh Macciello mostly appears to be who he says he is. A guy who came from nowhere, chasing down a big dream. But like most things in life, that might not be enough. Will Major League Baseball let him into what is still the most exclusive ownership cabal in professional sports? Will he even be allowed to seriously bid?

It is expected that 20-30 groups will file preliminary bids by the Jan. 23 deadline to buy the Dodgers. Josh Macciello intends to be one of them. His intentions seem relatively pure. He’s just a baseball fan who says he has the money to buy a baseball team.

“My old baseball coach in high school, Pop Cuesta, used to say to us: ‘Everybody else makes this game a lot harder than what it really is,’” Macciello said. “You hit the ball, you throw the ball, you catch the ball. That’s it.”

You can read this story on the ESPN website

By Ramona Shelburne
ESPNLosAngeles.com

Ramona Shelburne is a columnist and writer for ESPNLA.com. ESPN enterprise reporter Paula Lavigne contributed to this report.

Follow Ramona Shelburne on Twitter: @ramonashelburne