MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has invited prospective Astros Owner Jim Crane to Milwaukee today for a "get-acquainted session that could play a significant role in Crane's chances of winning approval" from MLB owners, according to Barron & Justice of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. Part of Selig's "management style is to have a one-on-one relationship with each owner," which makes today's meeting "important." Selig and Crane "met briefly two years ago when Crane was in the midst of negotiations with" Astros Owner Drayton McLane "that ended without a completed agreement." MLB officials "have predicted the sale will win easy passage by the 29 other owners, especially with Selig's endorsement." McLane: "It'll sail through. Major League Baseball has seen the documents along the way." Meanwhile, Barron & Justice noted NAACP Houston Branch President D.Z. Cofield, whose organization "had expressed concerns" about the sale, was "encouraged by the results of a 90-minute meeting Friday with Crane." The NAACP in a statement last week had expressed "concern about a complaint in 2000 from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concerning EGL, the Houston freight forwarding company that Crane owned through 2007." The NAACP said EGL had a "dismal record in the area of discrimination" during Crane's tenure and asked for him to be "monitored very closely in the area of employment discrimination as it relates to minorities and women" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/21). In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote we will "see what type of owner" Crane will be. The "initial feeling is that Crane will spend to rebuild the Astros in the offseason, but he may sell off" players before that (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/22).
LEARNING EXPERIENCE: In L.A., David Wharton wrote, "Even for the savvy businessman, sports can be tricky." Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban and Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis all have said that they "learned a thing or two in their early years as owners." Wharton: "They discovered that success in the boardroom does not guarantee wins on the field. ... Successful businesspeople venturing into sports often find themselves in a vastly different world." Kraft said, "They don't teach you how to run a professional franchise at Harvard Business School. You have to get knocked around a bit first." Cuban in an e-mail said owning a team is like a "roller coaster where your every move is second-guessed and over-analyzed unlike any other industry." Wharton noted "some of the scrutiny comes from the media." Leonsis said that AOL "could launch a new product worth millions of dollars and garner only a few paragraphs in the Washington Post, but a regular-season Capitals game gets plastered across the front of the sports section." Kraft added, "I'd be at a red light and people would pull up and offer their opinions. I'm at Dunkin' Donuts and if they didn't like a trade, I'd hear about it." Wharton: "Under such pressure, otherwise brilliant executives sometimes abandon the principles that made them successful in the first place" (L.A. TIMES, 5/21).
