“I’m Just Another Guy off the Street”

It is tempting to think that marriage is not necessary, legally speaking, as long as one is careful about making up wills and football jersey signing directives and buying insurance policies. But, from a practical standpoint, that’s just not true (even putting aside the premiums and lawyers’ fees for all those papers). Nor is this only about the elderly, though that’s bad enough: according to the Social Security Web site, there can be benefits for a surviving spouse of any age who is caring for a child (including an adopted child) under the age of sixteen—or older, if the child is disabled—if the widow or widower’s income falls below a certain level. (There are also benefits in the child’s name.) So if your parents were married, there is more of a safety net for your care. And what if your parents weren’t allowed to get married?

Incidentally, Bowersock’s late registered domestic partner (and federally unacknowledged husband), Harvey Frand, with whom he lived for thirty-two years, was one of soccer uniforms the key figures behind “Battlestar Galactica.” So we owe him one for that, too.

Marriage is hard—getting married, staying married. David Boies has, as a lawyer, had a couple of cases recently that may give him an interesting perspective on that matter. Boies was a lead counsel in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the same-sex marriage case (Margaret Talbot wrote in the magazine and blogged about it earlier this year). He is also representing one of the sides in what ESPN magazine this month called “the worst divorce in sports,” with what seems like good reason. Boies’s client is Jamie McCourt, whose marriage to Frank McCourt is tangled up with their ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Times had a piece on the questionable sports-business management practices that have been revealed in various findings; then there are accusations of infidelity, “moles” planted in Dodger stadium, and a Russian healer who deployed “V-energy.” Also, a lot of houses and an alleged plan to make Jamie President (of the United States; she was already president and then C.E.O. of the Dodgers, before her husband fired her). According to ESPN, this could be “the most expensive divorce in California history,” which is saying a lot. The magazine writes that Dodgers fans are worried that, because of the divorce, the team is in a “payroll lockdown,” just as key players are set to become free agents. Or, as Boies put it,

Every dollar Frank spends on soccer jerseys attorneys to keep Jamie from getting a penny could be spent on starting pitching.

And every unhappy baseball team is unhappy in its own way.