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Astros sale to Crane, move to AL approved
Houston to shift and join state-rival Rangers in AL West in 2013
MILWAUKEE -- Calling it a "historic day" for Major League Baseball,
Commissioner Bud Selig announced on Thursday that outgoing owner Drayton
McLane had sold the Astros to a group headed by Houston businessman Jim Crane
for $610 million. Selig said that the vote of the owners was unanimous at
their final quarterly joint meeting of the year.
After that the waiting dominos all fell.
As expected, the Astros will move from the National League Central Division
to the American League West, effective in 2013, and MLB will add two more
Wild Card teams to the playoff mix and a one-game play-in perhaps as early as
next season. The Commissioner's Office and the MLB Players Association
collaborated on those developments during the ongoing collective bargaining
negotiations, which are about to reach fruition with a new Basic Agreement.
Selig on Astros' move to AL
"This will prove to be what I think will be a very historic day for the
sport," Selig said at a news conference immediately after the meeting. "In
September of 1993 we added the Wild Card and to say that it has been
remarkably successful would be an understatement. Today, we did several
things that will contribute to our history for the next 20, 25 years."
The shift of the Astros into the AL West, a division that includes their
state-rival Texas Rangers, will give each league 15 teams. All six divisions
will then be inhabited by five teams. Houston had long been an NL market. The
Astros expanded into the NL as the Houston Colt .45s, along with the Mets, in
1962 and are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
MLB will realign for the first time since the Brewers moved from the AL to
the NL in 1998, ushering in the era of Interleague Play with those games
primarily fit into the schedule during May and June. The new 15-15 format
will necessitate playing an Interleague game virtually every day, Selig said.
As far as whether MLB will go to a more balanced schedule rather than the
current format of each team playing 18 games apiece against their four
division rivals is still to be determined, Selig added.
Selig said he had been against losing the regular Interleague period, but
eventually came around.
"I came to 15-15 a little slower than many of my colleagues," Selig said. "I
worry about that. I love Interleague Play. Attendance was up 19 percent this
year, almost 20 percent over the rest of the season. The fans enjoy it, which
is all I really care about. So we'll have Interleague Play from Opening Day
on and that's good. I've looked at the sample schedules and maybe that will
attract people."
Crane's investor group consists of 45 people, including 10 principal
investors. The deal includes $385 million in equity, of which Crane is
contributing about 20 percent. The remainder came from $25 million
commitments from investors and through bank loans. There will be an 11-person
board of directors.
Selig was careful to say that McLane, not Crane, was the person who accepted
the pre-sale stipulation that the Astros move to the AL. Last May, when
McLane and Crane came to agreement, the sale price was announced at $680
million. But when Crane was told the sale was contingent on the Astros
changing leagues, he was granted a $70 million credit. That discount
reportedly is being split evenly by MLB and McLane.
Crane said he wasn't concerned about the realignment just yet. He said he was
more concerned with rebuilding a last-place club that had a 56-106 record
this past season, by far its worst in franchise history.
"It became evident the move to the AL was an issue," Crane said during his
news conference on Thursday. "We had a transaction that was done in May, and
with that transaction, it was made very, very clear to us that anybody who
owned the team would be doing that. And with that, we sat down with [MLB],
and Dayton sorted it out."
Crane had been trying to buy an MLB franchise for the past two years. He and
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban teamed last year to try and purchase the
Rangers through a bankruptcy court auction, but he lost to a group headed by
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan.
"Our goal is to rebuild the Minor League system, and we'll continue to focus
on that," Crane said. "Once we get that solved, it will help the big league
team."
McLane, 75, is one of MLB's longer-term owners, having purchased the Astros
in 1992. One of the few sole owners remaining in MLB, McLane said he was
divesting himself of the franchise for estate reasons.
"We all have abrupt changes," he said. "I knew when both of my sons graduated
from high school and went off to college that life was going to change
dramatically. This will change my life dramatically. I went to Spring
Training and 18 to 20 games. During the season I'd go to 70 to 80 games at
home and a few on the road. I'll continue to watch them on TV and follow them
on [MLB.com]."
Crane's purchase of the Astros had been on hold since it was taken off the
agenda at the last owners' meeting Aug. 18 in Cooperstown, N.Y. Baseball
needed more time to vet Crane and his partners as the collective bargaining
talks involving realignment proceeded on a parallel track.
"This feels very good; I've been trying to get a team for a long time," Crane
said. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm from Missouri. We're kind of
stubborn in Missouri. I played for the Mules. We had to stick with it. I
think now that we've got it done, everyone is very happy. I want to thank
Drayton for all he's done in helping make the transition. He was a big part
of getting this over the finish line."
Also approved on Thursday was the transfer of control of the San Francisco
Giants from Bill Neukom to Larry Baer, the club's president and chief
operating officer, who becomes the voting member of the organization at all
MLB functions. Neukom, a high-powered attorney, plans to retire at the end of
the year.
"I'll be more involved in the MLB dealings than I have been, and to some
degree on the field with the baseball staff," Baer said. "I'll be responsible
for our relationship with MLB. And we'll promote other people. It really is a
nice story, to be part of a front office that worked very hard together and
now to be our representative here. I'm very proud of everybody."
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Selig到底在想什麼......
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