Mark Cuban to buy the Rangers?

[Chrispy]

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A bankruptcy judge has ruled that the Aug. 4 auction of the Texas Rangers won't be delayed, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban may be among the bidders.

Angry creditors argued Thursday that other interested buyers would not have time to secure financing and suggested a Sept. 30 auction.

The starting bid will be from the group led by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg. Major League Baseball endorsed the Ryan-Greenberg group after it was selected in the original bidding process last year, but the $575 million deal has been stalled by creditors.

Cuban's attorney said his client has been approved by MLB and hopes to submit a bid.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=5401515

Of course he still has to be the highest bidder, but what do u think about Cuban in the MLB?

[stevsta]

I want him to buy the dodgers

[longhornfan]

I'm all for it. I know Cuban would put money into the team to make them a contender every year.

[longhornfan]

Here's an article from today.

Tim Cowlishaw
Archive | Blog | E-mail

On the field, the Rangers continue to do marvelous things. A 5-2 road trip through Boston and Detroit followed by Cliff Lee on the mound against the Angles tonight...does it get any better?

Then there's the bankruptcy case that never ends. And the news that Mark Cuban is interested in being much more than just a minority owner.

Is there any way to see that as a good thing?

It came to light in the courtroom yesterday that the Chuck Greenberg/Nolan Ryan funding runs out on Aug. 12. If that group does not win the auction on Aug. 4, or if that auction gets delayed as the lendors are seeking, then I don't think we can consider the Greenberg/Ryan group the front-runners to replace Tom Hicks any longer.

And that's bad.

Because as much as Mark Cuban can say he would want to keep Ryan as president, I don't think that happens. Ryan is clearly sick of being involved in this entire mess. He can afford to walk away if he chooses to.

Until now, it has been easy to view Hicks as Bad Guy No. 1 with the lenders following right on his heels.

Throw Cuban into the mix as well. Cuban's presence gives the lenders the belief that even if they lose the Greenberg/Ryan money and even if Jim Crane can't get his deal together in time for the Aug. 4 auction, the Cuban money will solve all of their problems.

I talked with Greenberg yesterday and he couldn't comment on the case beyond his testimony which is to say that the Aug. 12 deadline is a real deadline for many of the investors in his group. They are sick and tired of this process as well.

Greenberg and Cuban are Pittsburgh guys and they know each other and are friendly and all. I wouldn't say Greenberg is welcoming Cuban into this process, nor should he.

What does any of this mean to Rangers fans?

Nothing good that I can think of. If Cuban can pull off buying the team and keeping Ryan and keeping Jon Daniels, then I am wrong and more power to him.

But I don't think that happens. And I think the fans who think Cuban would come in and immediately jack up the Rangers' payroll up to the Yankees' level or even Boston's or the Angels' are out of their minds.

Cuban has made it clear that he wasn't initially interested until it became a better business proposition. I don't see him buying the Rangers in order to lose millions of dollars year after year.

Cuban is a lightning rod. Those Mavs fans that love him do so unconditionally and pay little attention to the fact that the team is not fundamentally better off than it was a decade ago when he purchased it from Ross Perot Jr.

The team had Dirk, Nash and Finley then. It has Dirk, Jason Kidd and Caron Butler now. There's a better mix of role players behind them that keeps the team at the 50-win level. It's not a championship contender, and the addition of Tyson Chandler certainly didn't scare the Lakers' Phil Jackson into retirement.

Likewise, there are fans that hate Cuban for no real reason other than a jealousy of the self-made billionaire who gets to play by his own rules through the game of life.

I don't think Cuban would buy the Rangers with the intent of sitting on the front row screaming at umpires. But if you see him sitting there next season, I don't think there's any way you find Nolan Ryan beside him.

And that's the real shame of Cuban's pursuit of the Texas Rangers.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072310dnspoblogtim_hp.a848c68.html