Sure, Tom Hicks Wants to Keep the Rangers, But Will MLB Let That Happen? Doubtful.

There's at least one person reading Unfair Park this morning: the Friend who sends along this piece by longtime New York Times baseball columnist Murray Chass, who wrote on Wednesday that now way in hell should Tom Hicks be able to sell Your Texas Rangers to Tom Hicks. Writes Chass,...

By Robert Wilonsky

November 27, 2009

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There's at least one person reading Unfair Park this morning: the Friend who sends along this piece by longtime New York Times baseball columnist Murray Chass, who wrote on Wednesday that now way in hell should Tom Hicks be able to sell Your Texas Rangers to Tom Hicks. Writes Chass, Hicks is the second-worst owner in baseball -- second only to a guy who no longer owns his team, matter of fact. Not that it matters: Chass writes that "one person well acquainted with Hicks financially" told him last week that Bud Seling and MLB -- not to mention the banks -- "would never" accept a bid from Hicks (and a group that would include Nolan Ryan and Roger Staubach). Why not? "He has no money. He hasn't been paying the players. Major League Baseball has."

Chass thinks former Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco agent Dennis Gilbert is the front-runner, via his relationship with the Chicago White Sox, but says he'd like to see the Chuck Greenberg-Nolan Ryan partnership land the team. Speaking of, Baseball Time in Arlington this morning takes a long look at the team's questionable payroll numbers, based on something Ryan said last month, and wonders, "What on earth transpired in the last two months that warranted snatching $10-plus million out of management's hands and effectively crippling the ballclub's limited, but still-existing market maneuverability?"

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