Don’t Know Where to Start

Lots of news this morning, most of it bad.

• My daughter and son-in-law lost a dear friend Thursday night when his motorcycle was hit head-on by a drunk who was being pursued by the police.  In a ghastly irony, the guy driving the car was a close friend of the victim.
• The US was officially represented for the first time at yesterday’s Hiroshima Memorial Ceremony.
• Elena Kagan was confirmed as a member of the Supreme Court.
• The head of HP, asked to resign by the board after allegations of sexual harassment, was given $10 million to go away.
• Ten medical aid workers were ambushed and murdered in Afghanistan.
• A Leukemia patient’s COBRA insurance was (almost) cancelled because she underpaid her premium by a penny. (story)

The list just goes on and on.

I’m giving the world the weekend to get its act together.  My birthday is Monday, and I’m going to be too old to have to deal with this kind of crap.

What Happens to Round Rock?

Now that Nolan Ryan’s group has bought the Texas Rangers, what happens to their other baseball teams? I’m talking about the Corpus Christi Hook and the Round Rock Express – double and triple A farm teams of the Houston Astros – already owned by the Ryans et al.

Here’s the best answer I’ve found so far:

The Astros' top two minor league affiliates are owned by Ryan-Sanders Baseball, in which Ryan is a principal owner.

A look at Ryan-Sanders Baseball and the likely futures of its holdings.

The players

Nolan Ryan — Principal owner: Baseball Hall-of-Famer and Alvin native, who played for the Mets, Angels, Astros and Rangers during his 27-year career. He became the Rangers team president in 2008 and was part of a group that won an auction for the Rangers in a Fort Worth bankruptcy court on Wednesday.

Don Sanders — Principal owner: Long-time prominent Houston businessman Founder of Sanders Morris Harris investment banking and securities firm.

Reid Ryan — Owner and CEO: Former minor league pitcher and Nolan Ryan's older son, handles the operations of the holdings.

Reese Ryan: — Owner and CFO: Nolan Ryan's younger son, who handles the finances.

The holdings

Round Rock Express (Astros Class AAA): The Astros affiliate from 2000-2004 as a Class AA club and since 2005 as a Class AAA club is likely on its way out of the organization. Astros Owner Drayton McLane has been resigned to the likelihood that Ryan's Rangers will take over the player development contract with Round Rock, which ends after this season. That would leave Oklahoma City without a big league tie, and the Astros would be the most logical choice, though more vacancies will open after this season in the biennial shuffle.

Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros Class AA): This affiliate is safely in the Astros' hands. The player development contract does not expire until after the 2012 season. And the Rangers have a contract with the Mandalay Baseball-owned Class AA Frisco RoughRiders in the vicinity of the major league home ballpark in Arlington, which they allowed into their market in 2003.

That seems likely, but when asked about it yesterday, Astros owner Drayton McLane said “We have had a great relationship with the Ryan Sanders organization. We have to wait and let the dust settle and see where we are.”

Nolan Gets His Own Team

Word this morning that Home Town Boy Nolan Ryan has successfully purchased the bankrupt Texas Rangers.

I guess owning your own team is a good thing and though I’ll always think of him as an Astro, he did have some good years with the Rangers.

Ryan’s group had the winning bid in bankruptcy court, but word from those in the know is that the team could have been had a lot cheaper without interference from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban:

By RANDY GALLOWAY

rgalloway@ star-telegram.com

Mark Cuban’s basketball club is now a flat-line outfit, life and death in this era to simply survive the first round of the playoffs.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning, Cuban was in a Fort Worth courtroom, hell-bent to crash another local team.

As midnight came and went, as Wednesday night became Thursday morning, Cuban had pushed the Rangers into a total cost factor nearly reaching $600 million.

And then Cuban backed off and backed out at 12:45 a.m. Thursday after doing his dirty deed on behalf of dirty debt lenders who were stupid enough to allow Tom Hicks to cheat them.

The Greenberg-Ryan group now owns the Rangers. That’s the best news of all.

But it came at a cost much higher than expected, and a cost that might impact future spending. It certainly doesn’t help it.

Cuban knew that. He didn’t care.

The Hicks lenders rejoiced at this result, meaning the $600 million. Cuban is one of them. He’s totally in bed with the lenders.

Cuban and his surprise partner in the process, Jim Crane of Houston, appeared to be pony boys for the lenders, biding up the cost with certainly a nice financial payoff coming from the lenders.

This is shameful, Mark. Even for you, it’s shameful.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/05/2384807/cubans-swinging-for-the-fences.html#ixzz0vjeGRHpi

Plates

 

Here’s a look at the new design for Texas auto license plates.  They have recently been put into use, and are going on all new and used cars sold and for renewals of any plates over 7 years old.

Aside from cosmetic changes, the big difference is that the new plates now use a total of seven letters and/or numbers – one more than previous plates.  If my math is right (and it could be way off) that increases the number of possible plate numbers from about 4 1/2 million to around 27 million combinations.  There aren’t that many vehicles on Texas Highways yet, but just spend some time on Loop 610 and you’ll see that it ain’t that far in the future,

Below are some proposed designs for computer-designed specialty plates currently being considered:

I have my own opinion (for example – OU on a Texas plate??? and the NASCAR design looks like a gay pride banner) but YOUR opinion is being solicited by TXDOT at http://www.txdmv.gov/vehicles/license_plates/eview/eview.htm

If you can’t Say…..

Thumper’s mother is almost universally quoted as saying “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Not to take anything away from good ol’ mom, but Thumper actually got the advice from his dad, who never appears in the movie.

The dialog in Bambi actually went like this:

---

Thumper: He doesn't walk very good, does he?
Mrs. Rabbit: Thumper!
Thumper: Yes, mama?
Mrs. Rabbit: What did your father tell you this morning?
Thumper: [clears throat] If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all.

 

Liar, Liar

There seem to be more and more ads on TV that say that it is perfectly OK to lie to your kids if it is “for their own good.”

It started with – or, at least I first noticed it in – ads showing mothers who would do anything to keep their munchkins from learning that the canned pasta products they love contain Vegetables.

It quickly spread to the new drinks like that hide the taste of veggies behind fruit juice and sugar.

Now, it has even spread to the marketing of computers, and the lies (and liars) have expanded. 

A commercial that aired this weekend shows a kid lying to his mom about how long it takes to do his homework. Meanwhile, he is  spending time on social networking sites with his friends. 

Mom, it turns out, is perfectly happy with the lie, because it gives her “Me time” to surf the web herself!

I know and accept that each generation is convinced that the world is going to Hell in a hand basket, but isn’t this getting out of hand.  Shouldn’t someone at the agency – or at least shouldn’t the sponsor – have said “This is unacceptable behavior that we do not wish to endorse?”

Bye, Lance II

Well, now it is official. Berkman was traded to the Yankees yesterday.

He has been having a bit of a down year, but he’s a great guy and an excellent player – sorry to see him go.

For what it’s worth, he went 0 for 4 against Tampa in his first appearance for New York, while the ‘Stros were blanking the Brewers for the second night in a row.