The Pecan Park Eagle

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.