After months of legal wrangling the Greenberg Group prevails.

Current Rangers owner Tom Hicks agreed to a bid on Jan 23 to sell the Rangers to a team lead by Club President Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg.  When I first started writing this blog it was right before the season and at the time I figured the team would be sold before opening day.  At the time if you would have told me that the sale of the team had not been finalized by the trade deadline, but the Rangers acquired Cliff Lee, I would have assumed you were crazy.

The Rangers were projected to do decent in the American League West in 2010, but it was assumed by many that the Seattle Mariners would steal the show.  We all know what they say about assumptions!  Over the off season the Mariners had resigned future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr and had acquired Cliff Lee from the Phillies to help solidify a rotation starting second to Ace Felix Hernandez.  After the trade deadline the Mariners are in the A.L. West cellar, Griffey retired and Lee was traded within the division.

As we all know the Baseball season is crazy long, the NBA and NHL both play 82 games, which is one game more than half a season of baseball at 162 games.  Sometimes when I set back and think about how brutal the baseball schedule is, it somewhat amazes me.  I guess that’s what makes it the greatest game out there.  Anyhow back on track here with only about fifty games left in the season its amazing how much the preseason outlook has changed.

I do not know if the fact that the Rangers ownership situation is still in limbo or that the Rangers acquired Cliff Lee is more of a shocker here at the beginning of August.  Bidding has gone on all day today between a group consisting of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Houston Businessman Jim Crane and the original bidders of Greenberg/Ryan.

When I started writing this blog tonight, I had not checked google yet, but I decided to do a quick google search of Jim Crane and one of the first things I see was a USA Today article saying “It’s all over: Chuck Greenberg, Nolan Ryan outlast Mark Cuban win the Texas Rangers.  The article can be found here.

According to USA Today the final bid was $385 Million coming in about 40 minutes ago at 12:25 Central Time.  The legal battle has been going on since early yesterday morning and lasted more than 15 hours, the USA Today article states that Jim Crane shook Nolan Ryan’s hand and said that they were not going to enter another bid.

I am personally ecstatic, I know Cuban has dabbled with buying a MLB team.  He seems like a very passionate owner, but I do not feel he is a good fit for the Rangers.  I have hoped all along that Nolan Ryan would be part owner/club president because he knows what it takes to be effective on the field.  Cuban in MLB would be like George Steinbrenner reincarnated.

The Greenberg groups financing runs out in 7 days, so MLB will approve the ownership group either late this week or early next week.  The confirmation by MLB owners can take place on a conference call with only 3/4ths of the MLB Owners approving the sale, although I believe it will be a 100% vote.  If the Cuban Group would have won, I do not believe they would receive a 100% vote, plus that can take months before they actually owned the team.  In the end all worked out well and  congratulations to the Greenberg group, thank you for you long hard fight.