My immediate interest in the Rangers’ sale has waned in the past week because (1) the fact that they traded for Cliff Lee means that they’ve made their big on-the-field move and thus getting the sale done before the trade deadline isn’t as pressing for baseball purposes as it seemed before; and (2) with all of the motions, cross-motions, requests for injunctions and all of that jazz, it’s starting to remind me of the old law gig, frankly, and that’s a real drag for me.
But I do feel duty-bound to keep up, and I thus am obliged to pass along word -- gleaned from Daniel Kaplan’s latest at SBJ and Barry Shlachter’s reports in the Dallas Morning News -- that the bankruptcy judge yesterday set the auction for the team for August 4th. It had originally been scheduled for July 22nd, but the Greenberg/Ryan lawsuit -- which the judge has decided to treat as a mere motion in the ongoing case as opposed to its own thing -- and other events have made the earlier date impossible. The creditors wanted to push things out even farther, but the judge said no dice. The auction date should be seen as a win for Greenberg and Ryan.
Other news of note: After months of suggestions that he would not be approved, Major League Baseball is now apparently fine with Jim Crane as an owner in the event that he wins the bid. Jeff Beck too, though that was less in question than Crane, seeing as baseball was fine with him back in December when he was part of the Dennis Gilbert bid. I assume that means that the auction is the real deal -- highest bidder wins -- with an MLB veto not coming into play. There will need to be formal approval (i.e. an owner vote) later, but that should be a formality once all of this legal messiness is over. I mean, really, how badly would Bud Selig crush, say, Fred Wilpon if he decided to be a pain in the butt about this after all the trouble everyone has gone through?
The judge said that, assuming the auction goes off smoothly, the team could emerge from bankruptcy that day. Viva efficiency.