I understand where Bud Selig comes from most of the time.
What he cares about:
#1 – trying to find SOME way to give baseball players, major and minor league, as little as possible so that the owners can get most of the pie.
#2 – minimal media controversy while trying to make himself/owners look good and greedy ballplayers/agents look bad/greedy/ungrateful.
#3 – obedient owners who understand that the most important thing, next to screwing the players out of as much money as possible, is to accept their role and understand that some teams are more popular than others and the popular teams should get as much national face as possible and be in the playoffs as much as possible. Some teams are getting paid from the luxury tax/revenue sharing to suck. Their owners must blame the greedy players.
Crane and his lack of any sort of serious cash, was unacceptable to MLB during the bidding for the Rangers – and yes, we ALL know that Bud wanted Nolan Ryan in as owner.
MLB knows only too well that the other bidders for the Astros had real money and no leveraging and Crane has only leveraging, so why is he OK? Might could it be that Bud wants re-alignment and Crane agreed to screw the Astros fans and the city of Houston by agreeing to move the Astros to the AL West, where not only would the games start too late, but would be polluted by the stench that is the DH?
Coule it be that he knows that Crane has no money and therefore will let the payroll drop into handouts territory and then claim that the greedy players and their greedy agents is what is preventing the Astros from signing top prospects/FA or keeping good players?
Revenge is a dish best tasted cold, as my Daddy sez, and he ought to know.
No one but Houstonians really care about the Astros. There isn’t going to be any rivalry between us and the Dallas Rangers – really silly to pretend otherwise (see Silver Booted) as neither city cares real too particular much about the other.
The local media either have no interest in investigating Crane, or have been censored (yeah, surrrre – where is the Houston Press? Does Crane own THEIR advertisers as he does the Chron’s? And what about sports radio? Or do the “reporters” just want to whine and complain about how athletes are overpaid and get all the hottest wimmen and are lazy anyhow – instead of, you know, like, investigating??)
But Maury Brown, writing for Forbes, asks if Crane could be controversial. Crane’s war profiteering in Iraq
let me repeat that – WAR PROFITEERING IN IRAQ
is not controversial. His discriminating against wimmin and darkies is not controversial, and neither are reports of his companies lawyers shredding documents that the EEOC wanted and not providing others – anyhow, all yall know how Those People are always complaining about discrimination just because they “lack the necessities” (oh dear GAWD if only Crane could have been found to have pulled an Al Campanis – but I don’t guess that would be as controversial as Rep Weiner’s pulled weiner.
Nobody but Maury and a few of us Astros fans cares if Crane has no money, has nefarious business dealings and continues to drive the Astros to the dark pit of the major league – no matter WHICH league, to serve as something for the Big Popular Teams to beat up on. And that’s the truth. Crane isn’t getting any media coverage for the simple reason that he either hasn’t sent photographs of his nekkid youknowwhat to people who can’t WAIT to tell everyone about it so that some females can be shockedSHOCKED that some man would wave his Weiner in front of a camera, or he hasn’t been stupid enough to use his real name or account where he could be traced.
One of the commenters here on my blog said he hopes Crane stops “the stupidity” and all I can say is – well, he SURE as heck isn’t spending any money – he’s said so right out first media interview he did about buying the Astros. He can fire Fast Eddie, all right, but exactly who is he going to replace him with? Biggio? Bagwell? Gerry Hunsicker? Andrew Friedman, who wants to leave an extremely successful franchise and come to a guy who won’t spend and who got the team with less money than his father’s group did?
Fire Millsie-poo? Who again left an ineffective reliever in to get killt and give up 3 runs (no wonder Arnesberg had “philosophical differences” with SOMEone).
He’s gonna replace Millsie-poo with, like now WHO is this great manager just eagerly waiting to come? Biggio?
Getting the band back together?
I guess I should say something about how the hitters aren’t hitting with RISP and how the bullpen has returned to awfulness and how J Happ needed 108 pitches to get through 5 innings, giving up 6 H, 4 BB and 2 runs. Or how Brett Wallace is looking more and more like Mo Vaughn with the glove but without the home run bat.
I would, but I’m too depressed.
Jordan Lyles tonight – hope he pitches well and gets some run support.
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB, Pirates, Pittsburgh Pirates
(I posted this in the last thread but it probably belongs here …)
I’m starting to think my theory from a few months ago was correct: Aside from wanting maximum dollars, McLane went and found a lousy new owner who will make Uncle D look like the best owner in history and have fans begging him to come back.
Gray_Jay – Maury Brown’s two articles are alarming, to say the least. I have no clue how Crane could be seen as an acceptable MLB owner. How can MLB reject people like Mark Cuban but then approve a guy with Crane’s skeletons? We’re not talking about some isolated scandal. We’ve got racism, sexism, discrimination, allegations of corporate malfeasance, multiple cases of war profiteering, and a divorce that made the McCourts’ seem pleasant. And who knows what else is out there.
The only people who’ve talked about Crane in any depth are a few of us here, Maury Brown, and Richard Sandomir from the N.Y. Times. Brown and Sandomir are both 1,500 miles from Houston, so it’s not like they have dozens of local sources like the local media should have about a local like Crane. The whole thing stinks to the heavens. The Chron is a joke and the Houston Press has been oddly AWOL. (And forget about MLB.com, which ran a fluff piece today about “better time ahead.” Is Brian McTaggart on crack? Jordan Lyles and Jim Crane = a “bright future”?)
Most folks hate him, but he treats his players and staff well. I think Cuban would have been a great owner in Houston. And the guy has money. David Stern does not like him, so that idiot from Milwaukee instantly does not like him..
Mr Magoo Mills is making Arnesberg look like Dave Duncan or Leo Mazzone. You never BM mentioned in any articles these days for any of his comments after games. I guess the media relies on Milo the Mouth to do the hard interviews with the “skipper” before games? And don’t you dare criticize the Chronicle for their crappy reporting or the inept play of the Astros.
Finally, Becky Are you married?
This deal is going to get done, and NOTHING any of us can do will stop it.
Crane has “wriggled” in and out of trouble for YEARS! The fan base will be
put through the same controversy the Dodgers, and Mets are going through……
except THEY are better clubs. I’ve not “heard” who Crane is going to replace
Mills with. In a perfect world the ENTIRE front office, and ENTIRE coaching staff
should get sh$t canned. But, I doubt that is going to happen as well. I’m going
to the game Thursday to *see* Lyles pitch, in person. I’m excited to see this
kid, he looks like a keeper!!
Charlie…..You made me laugh! Yes, I’m very married. We have five children and eight grandchildren! I’m a retired Delta flight attendant (flew 33yrs.) but thanks for asking
I’ve been trying to get caught up…
I posted this link to Maury Brown’s interview in the last thread, but, as Anony says, it probably belongs here.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2011/06/15/the-controversial-jim-crane/
Mr Magoo Mills told a radio host that he is not surprised how far back the Astros are behind the Pirates? Think the Captain of the Titantic was surprised to be in the path of that Iceburg or if Custer was surprised that the Indians were not very hospitable at Little Big Horn? Reminds me a lot of Grady Little.
Something Crane should consider is bringing in a proven baseball manager. Or at least someone who played the game with some success
The little conspiracy theorist in my head keeps whispering that Bud and buddies want to move the Astros to not just another league but another city as well. If you suck out all the talent and wisdom from your team, you need to find a whole new set of suckers to buy you stadiums, give you tax breaks, and pony up for season tickets. It may be that Crane is just another yes man for Selig and the collateral damage that a Crane run team is offset by not having a Cuban or Steinbrener type owner.
I’m really curious to see where this train wreck is heading.
mark cuban spends $$$ on players. he does not have a decades long obsession with breaking the players’ union. this = bad
mctaggart works for mlb but he is a houston boy so he SHOULD have some local sources. maybe he isn’t allowed to publish anything he actually REPORTS besides press releases and a few quotes
and yes, the whole thing stinks to heaven
brad mills is the teflon manager. like phil garner. now that arnesberg is gone, we’ll see
There’s no chance the Astros are being moved to a new city. None. I don’t know how or where that meme got started, but people need to spend a lot more time making noise about Jim Crane and far less time worried about relocation.
Man everyone is reading way too much crap in all this. Things are what they are.
Went to the game today. Things that went right: Pence went 3 for 5.
Lyles was REALLY, REALLY good, after the first. Next is the bad…………………..
Carlos Lee is just wasting space.
NONE of our catchers can hit.
There is a HUGE cloud of disappointment on this team, and it SHOWS.
Barnett needs to be replaced. No one except Pence is hitting.
The bull pen is a train wreck.
Jason Michael’s should “sit down” permanently.
Matt Downs is a gritty little guy, and a plus on this horrid team.
Last, but not least……Mills is REAL nice guy, but real nice guys don’t finish first.
Becky:(
If you step back for a minute and survey the situation, it is truly impressive how poorly this team plays. They find a way to lose, even when they should win. Wow. this is grim.
Funny comment by Gil LeBreton in his Star-Telegram column today:
“… proposed new Astros owner Jim Crane has been quoted as saying he has no interest in moving the team to the American League. Crane grew up in St. Louis and reportedly considers himself a traditionalist. …
“Think Crane will get Ray Davis’ and Bob Simpson’s vote, after the way he helped to jack up the price of the Rangers last summer?”
– Crane actually hasn’t been quoted about anything since the press conference in May, but the part about Davis and Simpson was an angle I hadn’t even thought about. No one has written about it, but there have to be some owners lobbying against Crane behind the scenes, whether it’s Reinsdorf because of Crane’s EEOC problems, Davis/Simpson for Crane’s antics last year, etc.
—————
Shifting now to Dallas’ other major paper, does anyone subscribe to the Dallas Morning News? This article looks like it might be interesting, but it’s behind the paywall:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/texas-rangers/headlines/20110620-fraley-youthful-astros-have-long-way-to-go-major-rebuilding-job-ahead.ece
Gerry Fraley has been around a long time and usually does a good job.
[...] Whatever the reason, it really seems that Crane warrants more coverage because he has a very controversial past worth covering. It’s very curious that the MLB would be so very opposed to an owner like Mark Cuban (whose biggest controversy is his mouth) but appear to be quite so at ease with Crane, who has a long list of professional controversies to his credit. The bullet points, from this must-read article by Maury Brown of Forbes (special thanks to Lisa Gray at Astros-holic Synonymous for linking to it: [...]