It's Official: Astros to AL for 2013

[Party]

I'm not going to challenge most of your post because I agree with most of it.

However....

1) Pennsylvania has 2 NL teams.

2) Once upon a time, the Marlins were going to play in the same state as the Giants.

3) Houston and the Metroplex are separated by 300 miles.

4) Kansas City has a strong AL tradition yet they were the first candidate back in 1997 to make the switch.

5) Even by your criteria, Texas has a very weak AL tradition.

[Jay]

DC is pretty close to Baltimore and it is much closer than the Texas teams.

[emkayseven]

1) That's for a number of reasons. First, they came around when there was really only 1 powerful league, the NL. The Pirates became an NL team after the NL courted them to move from the American Association. Second, it's not like there were only 2 NL teams in the state; the A's were there from 1901-1954.

2) I must not know what that is

3) So? That's still relatively close compared to other cities.

4) Okay, and they vetoed it, because they had that tradition. Just because Selig is a fucking moron doesn't mean that was right.

5) How so? They've been in the AL for 40 years in Texas, and for 10 years before that in Washington.

[Branch]

I bet Festa would support moving the Giants back to Brookyln and into the AL, if not for their strong AL tradition, then to piss off all the hippies in San Fran.

[Omar]

It would be pretty hard to move the Giants back to a place they weren't from in the first place

[MiamiHomer]

ehe

[Branch]

Wow I fail. I dunno why I typed that instead of Dodgers.

[Party]

I think there is a difference between an AL team that has been shitty for most of their existence and a NL team that has won like 14 pennants.

[Branch]

Probably winning the pennants would be the difference you are referencing. I could be wrong?

[jOOj]

How about we just get rid of the Mets? Solves all the problems really.

[Chewford]

Agreed, we just need to accept that the whole New York Mets thing is a failed enterprise and move on and pretend it never happened.

[Omar]

Chewie already laid the groundwork for this in his offseason predictions

[The Hanram]

Chewie already laid the groundwork for this in his offseason predictions

ehe.

[Party]

MARK BERMAN
Sports Director

HOUSTON - Major League Baseball sources confirm for FOX 26 Sports that commissioner Bud Selig has asked Houston businessman Jim Crane to agree to move the Houston Astros to the American League if he is approved as owner of the team.

MLB sources told FOX 26 the fact that Crane has yet to agree to the request has kept him from being approved as owner.

That approval can only come from a vote of the game's owners.

Major League Baseball cannot move a team from one league to the other without that team's consent.

Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association may decide to expand the number of teams in the playoffs, and to do that they want each league and each divison to be balanced.

Right now the National League has 16 teams and the American League has 14 teams.

The only two divisions that aren't made up of five teams are the NL Central (six teams) and the AL West (four teams).

The Astros are in the National League Central.

MLB sources also told FOX 26 it is believed Crane can still get MLB's approval to buy the Astros franchise without consenting to move to the American League.

However, the sources said the issue of shifting the Astros franchise would be addressed again at a later date.

Crane has an agreement to buy the franchise from Drayton McLane for $680 million.

It was thought the deal was going to be voted on by the owners last month, but that vote was delayed according to baseball as it continued the approval process.

Crane is not available for comment.

McLane declined comment when asked by FOX 26 Sports to respond to this story.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/spor...id-to-buy-team

[Todd]

Not a fan.