Richard Justice has a new blog post up, talking about Jim Crane, Drayton McLane and the Texas Rangers reaching the World Series. He brings up a lot of good points, especially wondering if Drayton is even paying attention to the baseball playoffs right now, but I think the points about Crane's past and Bud Selig are the most compelling.
↵If you had to point to a reason why Crane hasn't been approved, it's not the move to the American League. That wasn't on the radar when his bid was accepted and probably didn't just pop up now at the last minute. That came up because of all this wrangling over Crane's past.
↵Selig has done a lot to promote women and minorities, like Justice said. He also oversaw baseball retiring Jackie Robinson's number for every team on the 50th anniversary of his integrating baseball. So, I can buy that Selig would have questions about Crane's past.
↵Still, that's an awful lot of money to turn down, which is why I think things will get done. If there are questions over Crane still, MLB can just use those as leverage to keep him from asking for as much compensation in moving to the AL.
↵I do think the Rangers success should bother whatever Houston owner is in charge. This team is not going away, either and will have a window of at least two or three more years. Maybe the Astros can be competitive by then...