Tom Hicks had such a good thing going in Liverpool, where he owns the football club gearing up for tomorrow night's UEFA Champions League final against AC Milan. Then he had to go and open his mouth: In today's Guardian, the top U.K. read, the owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars said his purchase of Liverpool was nothing more than a business decision -- akin to his buying cereal-making Weetabix and nothing more.
"You could say that anyone who was eating Weetabix was paying for our purchase of Weetabix. It was just business. It is the same for Liverpool; revenues come in from whatever source and go out to whatever source and, if there is money left over, it is profit."And while comments like that might fly here, where hockey's on its way to minor-league status and Hicks' baseball team's already nine game under .500 and nine out of the AL West, not so much in the U.K. Hence the phrase "embarrassing detour" in the lead sentence. Hard to tell if Hicks has a soft touch or the golden touch. Oh, wait. He possesses neither. --Robert Wilonsky
