I concede it was a little lonely out there, at the start.

On April 5, 2010, Opening Day, I wrote on this blog that I was Done Bleeding Dodger Blue and would no longer support the Dodgers — until the team was no longer controlled by the McCourts. Any of them.

In subsequent weeks, I advocated a public purchase of the team, with Peter O’Malley put in charge of the new, fan-owned franchise … I suggested that remaining fans not take sides in a Matt Kemp-versus-Ned Colletti flareup and remember that everything that was going on around the team was a function of how the McCourts had screwed it up … I noted when a judge made a clear connection between “Dodgers organization” and “the parties’ extraordinary lifestyle” …and I applauded public action by a Dodgers fan, who planned to demonstrate against the McCourts outside City Hall.

Turns out, I was a little ahead of public opinion. Perhaps blinded by consecutive appearances in the National League Championship Series (2008, 2009), more than a few fans attacked me for that first “Done Bleeding Dodger Blue” post.

“Good riddance” was the most common reaction, though I wouldn’t put up many of the comments on the blog because they were filled with obscenities.

But today, with the Dodgers melting down, Bud Selig, the commissioner, did a wonderful thing:

He took financial control of the Dodgers away from Frank McCourt and gave it to Major League Baseball.

This could be the beginning of the end to Dodgers fans’ long nightmare.

We can hope Selig’s action today will force Frank/Jamie McCourt to sell the franchise, which has been my only goal all along, and seems to be Selig’s, too.

I will take a chance on literally anyone who comes along with enough scratch to purchase the team. Anyone.

I would prefer Peter O’Malley, whose family ran the franchise for 47 years, somehow be involved; Mike Antonovich, a Los Angeles County supervisor, called on Selig to name Peter as the trustee running the franchise.

Before we go any further, links to various news reports on Selig’s move: The story on espn.com, which is mostly Associated Press but includes some ESPN content and seems to be the most comprehensive single story on what is going on. Then the New York Times version, which does a good job of establishing Selig’s intent to force the McCourts to sell;  and the Los Angeles Times main story, which focuses on the apparent inability of Frank McCourt to find the money to run the club, suggesting that the $30 million personal loan Frank took last week, apparently to meet payroll, was what prompted Selig to move.

Others suggest Selig’s action is an “all of the above” sort of approach. That it began with the divorce-court revelations of the appalling lifestyles the McCourt’s milked from their ownership of one of the great Los Angeles institutions, on the order of $100 million skimmed off the top by Frank and his (now) ex-wife Jamie … continued with news that season ticket sales had plunged from 27,000 to 17,000 in four years … was ramped up by the near-killing of a Giants fan on Opening Day, which revealed Frank’s lack of connection with the club/the fans/reality and spawned a civic crisis … and was capped by the personal loan.

It is all fairly complicated, and may not play out as quickly and easily as did Selig’s forced sale of the Texas Rangers last season.

But at least we have hope.

My greatest concerns, now:

–Jamie McCourt’s statement applauding the Selig move worries me that she thinks she might be able to somehow gain control of the team, which would be a complete disaster and must not be allowed. She is ambitious and perhaps crazy. She is the one who commissioned, remember, a study by a Dodgers employee about how she could become president. Of the United States.

–Frank will somehow find some lawyers clever enough to block Selig’s moves and authority. MLB’s power over its owners has been upheld in the past, but all you need is one judge to turn this into years of limbo.

Meantime, this is the best news I have had on the sports fan front in a long time. Certainly since the Lakers beat the Celtics in Game 7 to win the NBA championship a year ago. And best Dodgers news since … “look who’s comin’ up!” In 1988.

It is my wish that someone else owns the Dodgers come next Opening Day, and I can make my way back to the team I supported with dollars and emotional energy for a half-century.

It was never about the uniform. It was about the ownership. I could not support the Dodgers as long as the McCourts were in charge.

Now we all — right up to Bud Selig — seem to agree the McCourts are bad news and need to get gone. It took a while, but I’m glad we all arrived at this point.