Kuzul

With the news that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren made their divorce official and with Frank and Jamie McCourt’s divorce starting tomorrow, August 30th, let’s take a look at some of the other big splits in the professional sports world.

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This is the day a lot of people have been waiting for since the decision came down that the Texas Rangers would go up for auction. At this moment it’s a two team race, so to speak, as to who will be the new owners of the Texas Rangers. The two teams are groups headed by Attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan up against Houston businessman Jim Crane and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban .

What we learned earlier today was that the group led by Crane and Cuban had the highest bid over Greenberg and Ryan by more than $25 million. At that point, the attorney’s for the Greenberg and Ryan group wanted 12 hours to look over the Crane and Cuban bid. The judge gave them one hour and asked that they come back and tell him where they were.

If you think this has been a clean battle, you’d be dead wrong. Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News, Dan Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal, Bob Nightengale of USA Today, and Brian Dolgin with the Texas Rangers are all on hand, and all have reported several heated arguments between the attorneys from both sides.

Dolgin and Kaplan both reported, via Twitter, that Louis Streubeck and Thomas Lauria, respective attorneys for both sides, got into a shouting match and cussed at each other during a confrontation in the hallway of the courtroom.

We may not know the resolution of the proceedings today but what we do know is Major League Baseball is not a fan of Cuban and does not want to see him become the owner of any team let alone the Texas Rangers. After his attempt at buying the Chicago Cubs from The Tribune Company, Cuban wrote on his blog , “On the flip side, my dedication to winning could also make my job of getting approval with MLB baseball much harder.”

Whether Major League Baseball approves Cuban and Crane as the new owners of the Texas Rangers is still yet to be seen. However, if the creditors get their way, they will urge the presiding judge to award the Cuban group for no other reason than to get more money.

If you ask a lot of the Ranger fans, at least those not after the “big name” owner, they’ll tell you that the best ownership group for the foreseeable future is the group led by Ryan. However, it might not be so far fetched to think that Cuban can’t bring a championship to North Texas. He has the kind of money that can bring in the players needed for the Rangers to compete in not only the AL West but also in the American League year in and year out. He can take the money from ticket sales, concessions, and advertising among other avenues, and put it back into the players on the field.

I’m not saying Ryan won’t do the same as he’s been a big part of the rebuilding process of this team over the years, however,  Cuban isn’t a bad owner and Dallas Maverick fans will tell you the exact same thing.

What those around Major League Baseball object to is his constant questioning of NBA officials as well as the members of the NBA front office as well. Major League Commissioner Bud Selig gets questioned enough by those around baseball, having Cuban’s outspoken manner might not go over so well in baseball circles.

Whatever comes of the court proceedings over the next few days, I believe the Rangers will be in good, and capable, hands going forward.

One thing you can take away from both Cuban and Ryan is the fact that both of these guys will be committed to winning and both will show that as the owners. I’m not going to say one is better than the other, but what I will say is one knows baseball, the other has admitted at previous times that he is not a baseball guy. I’ll leave you to figure out which is which.

The bids are in and Cuban is the lead horse at this moment with a bid of $335 million, much to the chagrin of Ryan and Greenberg who’s offer currently stands at $320 million. There’s been no response from the Greenberg/Ryan camp and the judge has said that he’s willing to work through the night to have a resolution by morning.

Though there’s been some talk of stopping for the night, the two sides have ordered themselves dinner to be delivered to the courthouse so it looks like they are ready to work through the night as well.

This is a long ways from over and, if today was any indicator, there are more fireworks still to come.

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