Are the "Astros to AL" on Bud Selig's bucket list?
Houston Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice has done again what he does so well. Today he’s written another article which stirs the hearts of Astros fans like yours truly to further rue and dread the day we ever read that local businessman Jim Crane was buying the club from Drayton McLane, Jr. for $680 million dollars on a maxed out line of credit to him and 29-30 minority partners. Now Justice suggests that the final approval of the club sale may hinge upon Crane’s agreement to move the Astros in the direction that Commissioner Bud Selig wants them to go – that is, to the American League West, with its abominable DH rule and tons of late night season game starts from the west coast. * (See addendum at end of column.)
If Justice is right, all Houston has to do is to surrender its ninety year identification with the National League, dating back to Houston’s history as a farm club with the local Buffs through 1958 – and then give up its place as a full-time member of the NL, a status its held as a club with the Colt .45s and Astros from 1962 through 2011. Oh yeah, those little changes, plus picking up the DH rule as our new standard guide for playing the game, and getting used to the Astros never again playing the St. Louis Cardinals during the season on a regular basis.
That’s all. Is that too much to ask?
In exchange, we fans also get to fall asleep on the couch watching a ton of games from the west coast against the Angels, A’s, and (ho-hum) Mariners – and also to the joy of extending the Silver Boot Series with the Rangers to a full load of 18 home and away games. – Jeez, I can hardly wait!
What’s it really all about? And what does Houston being forced to move to the AL have to do with the final approval of the team’s sale to Jim Crane? – Who knows?
Justice’s September 8th column strongly suggests that Commissioner Bud Selig has far more concerns about Jim Crane’s business record than he exposes, but that he will probably not kill the deal because of his friendship with Drayton McLane. Justice goes on to conjecture that Selig may still use the power he has to get Crane to accept an AL West move by the Astros as a quiet, under-the-table condition of approval.
As for me, I am not The Shadow and I have no evidential eye on what evil lives within the hearts of men, but my political intuition tells me, maybe this time, there is something to Mr. Justice’s suspicions.
All I know for sure is that the young pups now playing in the living room of our club’s future are looking pretty good out there. We fans just need that other shoe to drop soon on the matter of ownership change to whatever it is going to be. Excessive time delays beyond the end of the 2011 season are going to hurt trust and hope and ticket sales for 2012.
We fans don’t like being played for pawns. And baseball needs to remember. Without us fans, baseball has no market for its product. And over time, these critical delays on the Crane sale are starting to make some of us feel that we fans are simply being taken for granted as a support base that will be there, no matter what.
Think a damn-gin, Commissioner Selig. Your inaction on the executive level is putting us through another kind of drought in Houston, but like the weather-cycle drought that now enfolds us in a haze of billowing smoke, our baseball decision drought is also causing a local smolder of its own. Do we have to wait until this baseball smolder bursts into a flame that reaches up to torch a certain part of your anatomy, Mr. Commish? We hope not.
We just need a good baseball decision on the future of the Houston Astros. And we need it now. Even if it’s to start all over on a search for the best next owner of the franchise.
* ADDENDUM: Forgive me for creating any wrong impression. Richard Justice is not saying that an AL West move would be the deal-breaker in Commissioner Bud Selig’s final decision to approve Jim Crane as the new principal owner of the Astros. He’s just saying that it could be a condition that works its way into the settlement of things. As per usual, none of us outside the loop know for sure sure what is going on. We just know that it seems to be going on for an excessive amount of time.
Tags: Sale of Houston Astros
The Pecan Park Eagle 
September 8, 2011 at 5:32 pm |
I think Selig and MLB are doing a wonderful job destroying any value the franchise may have and that Crane will find himself owning a franchise the people of Houston won’t care to invest in. Check out the AL attendance breakdown per team compared to the NL. An AL franchise won’t make the money that an NL team will and if I’m Crane I’d be demanding they shave $100 million off the sale price – for starters.
What MLB is doing to Crane would be tantamount to fraud if it were done in the real world. If you agree to buy a new Cadillac and you agree on a price but then the dealer forces you to buy a Buick instead for the same price, that’s fraud. There are laws against that.
MLB is forcing Crane to buy an inferior product to what he thought he was agreeing to without any concessions on the price.or improvements on the product.
I don’t know why Crane walked out of the last deal with McLane and MLB but he looks like a gutless wonder if he doesn’t walk away from this one.
Texans don’t support losers in their sports teams and MLB is doing everything possible to make the Astros losers for decades to come.
September 8, 2011 at 5:37 pm |
American League baseball looks like baseball but it just simply isn’t baseball. They use 10 players not 9! Roster sizes need to be about 23 in American League to match the NL straegy because you never have to double switch or consider leaving a Pitcher in to try to save a relief pitcher that will be burned when you pinch hit the next inning.
I am a lifetime Cardinal fan but enjoy the Astros and will be saddened if they are forced to move to the American League. Heck I don’t even like interleague play as it takes away from the mystic of the World Series.
Most any player or manager who has been involved in both leagues prefers the NL style of play. Oh I do see some AL teams bunt and hit & run but the Pitcher not hitting bothers me and sometimes the DH is a Sluggo. Hey I no problem with Jim Thome or David Ortiz but grab a glove and play 1B or LF.
Move the Brewers back to the American League Commish Selig – develop that old rivalry with the White Sox and Twins again. Oh I see you left that door open with interleague play. I say let the Brewers play the A’s, Angels, Mariners and Rangers and leve the Astros alone.
September 8, 2011 at 8:00 pm |
If the Astros switch to the AL I will stop supporting them. This is no idle threat; I dropped my season tickets to the Round Rock Express this year after 10 years because of their affiliation change to the Rangers. I do not like gimmick baseball. Selig has been a terrible commissioner. He needs to move his Brewers back to the AL if reallignment is such a good idea.
September 8, 2011 at 9:16 pm |
Bill, I support moving the BREWERS and their hoky center fielder to the AL. Be watching when he comes to bat next year against Carpenter. On second thought, maybe moving the Astros to the AL wouldnt be all bad. Only team they can beat seems to be the Cardinals after they play patsy for Milwaukee. Just kidding, sort of. Bud
September 9, 2011 at 12:10 am |
I’ll also be done with baseball if this goes down.
September 9, 2011 at 5:02 am |
Aside from our World Series appearance, this is probably the biggest issue in Houston professional baseball since the city was awarded an MLB franchise.
So, I think that this represents a potential crisis to baseball in Houston and Texas and our region as a whole.
I think that this whole situation is inherently unjust. I was shocked when I first heard about it and now I am angry.
Perception is often reality. Even if Mr. Selig is not engaging in some excessively hardball tactics, it may appear to many fans that he is and therefore hurt Major League Baseball in Houston and Texas and even Louisiana and this whole region. Don’t forget that football is a strong competitor to baseball and football could be the beneficiary of this whole public relations disaster. I would hate to see baseball suffer in the Lone Star State as a result of this issue.
I think that there is a strong taint of hypocracy. If the American League needs another team then why didn’t the Brewers remain in the American League in the first place? The choice to leave the American League fell to the Brewers, who, on November 6, 1997, elected to move to the National League’s Central Division. MLB knew that this would create more NL teams at that time. Yet, they moved to expand the NL anyway. Now they want to change the numbers in the NL. Can’t they stick to a decision?
It is important to note that the Brewers were allowed to leave by a vote. Is Mr. Selig becoming a baseball dictator and trying to withhold the free will of the ownership and fans of the Houston Astros to stay in the National League?
Unlike many people, I do not hate the American League. It is the League of inarguably the greatest postion player of all time (Babe Ruth – despite his short time with the Braves) and arguably the greatest pitcher of all time (Walter Johnson) and undoubtedly the greatest baseball franchise (the New York Yankees). However, I also love the National League and think that the fact that the Astros have been a member of the NL for nearly 50 years should mean that the NL tradition is too strong to change now.
My suggestion is that if the American League needs another team that Mr. Selig should pursuade the Brewers to return to their original home in the American League! My other suggestion is that the Colorado Rockies or Diamondbacks who are much younger franchises should make the switch instead of the Astros. They are closer to the West Coast than the Astros. Also, the offensive oriented Rockies would be a better fit for the American League than the traditionally pitching rich Astros.
I think that we need to make our voices heard. The Astros need to remain in the National League!
September 9, 2011 at 4:29 pm |
Just in case someone from Mr. Crane’s ownership group reads this…If that so called Commissioner forces this on the Astros, I can assure you that they will lose my long-standing season tickets.
Damon Leonetti
September 9, 2011 at 4:52 pm |
I meant to add the following earlier. Rivalries in baseball aren’t created due to proximity though sometimes it looks that way (Dodgers-Giants in NY, then west coast). They are created because of intangible reasons and usually balanced team quality. The Astros had a long rivalry with the Expos (I remember Darwin being a major instigator here) and the Dodgers in the 1980s. Rivalries shift over time. For instance, UT doesn’t consider TAMU a rivalry even with the cow school’s last few victories– UT dominates the historically inferior program. OU is UT’s real rival. You hate the team that beats you regularly, not because of proximity. That’s why so many people hate UT-they’re dominated by them. The Astros real rivals now are the Cards and to some extent the Cubs, though the Cubs, too, are historically an inferior franchise.
September 9, 2011 at 5:36 pm |
Wayne:
There’s a front page dynamite article on the Friday 9/09 Houston Chronicle that takes on Jim Crane and his current feelings about al of the delay on its purchase. From his words one can easily read the wear and tear this is causing, but this is statement that most bothered me. It’s in the first column of the Section A, Page 13 continuation of the story from Page 1:
“We signed an agreement in May, and that agreement hinges off all the economics that were presented to us,” (Jim Crane) said. ” …. If that changes, we’ve told baseball that if they want us to move to the American League we’d certainly consider that, but we have to understand all the ramifications of that. That includes travel, that includes paying for a designated hitter that we don’t have to pay for (now). That includes our TV contract.”
I don’t think Mr. Crane realizes the NL fan base that he is going to lose if he allows the Astros to be shuttled off to the AL. Some of us who don’t see the DH-brand as real baseball will be gone. It’s about time that he and Mr. Selig both realize that the future of baseball in Houston is going to need rebuilding with imported AL fans if the club is moved to the ALW. It’s that serious, but it’s becoming more obvious that neither Crane nor Selig realizes the fact.
September 10, 2011 at 3:15 pm |
Something I’ve avoided bringing up previously but will now since it’s apparently an issue with Crane and MLB approval. I have a Black friend from Port Arthur who tells me that his extended family doesn’t like the Astros because they’re a “racist organization”. At the time he pointed this out he argued that the Astros had NO Blacks on the MLB roster. He and his family don’t consider someone like Carlos Lee or Rafael Ramirez as Black but Hispanic. He and I have done a back and forth whenever the Astros pick up a Black such as Michael Bourn which he accepts as Black (has an American name). I was able to use Cecil Cooper for awhile as a counter to his claim but he let me have it when Cooper was fired and when Bourn got traded. I know this is weird, Blacks are fewer as a percent on MLB rosters than say, the 1970s, but his point is interesting. I recall Joe Morgan saying somewhere that when he came up Houston had a bad reputation with Blacks. What little I’ve read about Crane’s business activities including an allegation of discrimination, my friend has let me have it. I must add that this guy himself is an Astros fan.
September 11, 2011 at 7:39 pm |
@Wayne Roberts: If your friend really feels that way, then he is himself a racist, because he cares more about race than fielding a winning team.
September 13, 2011 at 4:43 am |
The Astros’ race record is superb, aside from the Harry Walker years. It speaks for itself.
But I’m thinking, surely a franchise isn’t moved without market research input. And market research on this idea would kill it in an instant – UNLESS MLB has a secret agenda to get baseball out of Houston. But why would baseball want that? Makes no sense, since the Astros have been one of the better revenue generating clubs. I don’t see how such a move would happen. It’s bad business in too many ways.
As others have said, it makes vastly greater sense to move the Brewers back to the AL, or one of the newer franchises like Colorado or Arizona. For that matter, Washington’s history is almost entirely AL, although such a move wouldn’t solve the geographic problem.
September 14, 2011 at 12:49 pm |
Actually, it’s not my friend who believes it but his family from deep SE Texas. He himself finds it an amusing observation he relayed to me. Go back and look at the Astros’ roster for the last decade or so, the dearth of Blacks with “American names” is startling. However, you may be able to see the same thing with many franchises in MLB. As you know, influencing the opinions of family members is no easy matter; I’ve given up long ago…you’re never a prophet in your own land. I have strongly argued with this guy about this perception and he just grins back. I find it hard to comprehend a major sports franchise in this day and age letting racial bias enter into its personnel decions. If my friend’s family’s perception is correct, your point about caring more about race than fielding a winning team is spot on, however it would be the Astros who are making that blunder. I do not believe that is case, at least not since the early days of the organization.
March 2, 2012 at 5:32 am |
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