Mark Cuban has lost another battle to own a major league baseball team. The Dallas Mavericks owner was bidding at auction for the bankrupt Texas Rangers against a group led by baseball legend, Hall of Famer and Rangers president Nolan Ryan.

In a 1am decision yesterday, the court approved the bid offered by Ryan’s group, which beat out an offer worth nearly $600 million by Cuban’s group. The auction finally ended about 1am, around 10 hours after it had begun, when Cuban’s group did not try to counter Ryan’s $593 million offer, which included $385 million in cash.

On August 2 it was reported that Cuban was pushing MLB saying that if he won the team at auction, the approval vote by MLB’s 30 owners should be expedited and taken no later than August 16 and that closing on the transaction must take place before that date, though there was no reason given for the August 16 date.

This is Cuban’s second failed attempt to own a major league ball team. Two years ago, he waged a campaign to buy the Chicago Cubs, but eventually pulled out after the SEC filed charges of insider trading.

Prior to those charges, Cuban had made trips to Wrigley Field, sitting in the bleachers with the fans, trying to garner their support for his bid. The bid went to the Ricketts group, headed by Tom Ricketts who officially announced themselves as the new Cubs’ owners in a late October press conference last year.

In both cases, MLB and the Commissioner’s office had made it clear who their choices were for owners of both teams. For the Cubs, it was the Ricketts. For the Rangers, it was the group headed by Nolan Ryan.

MLB has final approval of team sales and could have gone with the second-highest bid, but the auction ended when Cuban reached a predetermined cash amount.

According to the Ranger’s bankruptcy plan, creditors will receive about $75 million from the team. However, the judge has said lenders, who are reportedly owed approximately $525 million, can go after now former team owner Tom Hicks and his other companies.

This is a great move for the team and for baseball. Ryan knows the game and is adored and respected by fans and peers. Nolan is the complete opposite of Cuban who is flamboyant and outspoken, something MLB has shied away from. Ryan finished his career in Texas playing for the Rangers in 1993, his Cooperstown plaque is pictured above.

After the auction, Cuban showed good sportsmanship and tweeted on his Twitter account, “@mcuban Congrats chuck and nolan. Go Rangers !”

The Rangers are currently leading the American League West Division.

Used with permission of the author.

Miriam Romain is a Chicago-based sportswriter and national columnist covering the Chicago Cubs for Examiner.com. The Windy City native is also the Associate Editor for SBNation Chicago and has been published in the Maple Street Press Cubs annuals. In her free time, Romain is working on a book titled “Summers At Wrigley With My Dad.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

After losing seven consecutive games, the last two to the Milwaukee Brewers, a different Cubs team took the field yesterday. Who were these guys? Who cares? They won 15-3.

How do you start to explain this team? You can’t. There is no rhyme or reason to how these guys are playing right now, and there are so many things going on with the team, it makes it harder still to comprehend how a team can be so bad for a few games and suddenly break free like they did yesterday.

The team is now without Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot, who were traded to Los Angeles last week for Blake DeWitt and two minor leaguers, who was inserted into the lineup upon his arrival to the Cubs. Manager Lou Piniella returned to the dugout on Tuesday after taking three days to attend a family funeral in Florida. Derrek Lee rejected a trade to the Angels before the trade deadline, reportedly angering some in management.

Carlos Silva experienced a rapid heartbeat in Denver, was taken out of the game in the first inning, spent a night in a Denver hospital being monitored and is currently on the disabled list awaiting word from his doctors about when he can play again.

Carlos Zambrano returned to the team and supposedly made his apologies to his teammates. He was used as a pinch hitter in Denver over the weekend and in relief yesterday, but will return to the starting rotation on Monday in San Francisco. And Aramis Ramirez has been in and out of the lineup with a sore thumb. The team is also playing with many rookies especially in the bullpen. That’s a lot for a team that has struggled to have to deal with.

Statisticians will tell you what the team should look like on paper, but these changes and distractions have been showing in poorly executed play on the field. Perhaps now that Lou and a hopefully calmer Z are back the team can turn its full attention to the game and winning.

Everyone knows this team is going nowhere this year, and evidence of fan apathy is really settling in. Promotions for available bleacher seats are ongoing, but Tuesday night, those sitting in the bleachers had room to stretch out. Empty seats in the stands are starting to become the norm. The Cubs aren’t likely to go on a huge winning streak and suddenly find themselves in contention for a playoff spot, but they need to start winning in order to keep from ending up in the cellar.

Used with permission of the author.

Miriam Romain is a Chicago-based sportswriter and national columnist covering the Chicago Cubs for Examiner.com. The Windy City native is also the Associate Editor for SBNation Chicago and has been published in the Maple Street Press Cubs annuals. In her free time, Romain is working on a book titled “Summers At Wrigley With My Dad.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

CHICAGO – Phones may be ringing across Chicago after the Chicago Cubs Opening Day 16-5 loss in Atlanta yesterday. “The Cubs are horrible.” “Zambrano is awful.” “We were robbed by that call — we need replay.”Well, two out of three of those comments might be correct and some may say all three are correct.

The Cubs scored three runs on a Marlon Byrd home run in the top of the first, but Zambrano was not on his game. The Cubs No.1 starter gave up six runs in the bottom of the first, three on a three-run home run by rookie Jason Heyward in his first at bat.

In all, Zambrano was rocked for a total of eight runs before being yanked in the second inning. It was the earliest exit for Zambrano in his career. While his pitching was far from perfect, there were a couple of times when defense was lacking as well.

Z didn’t handle the pressure of an Opening Day start on the road and has toned down his fiery temper, at least in front of the cameras. Regardless, the fans cannot point the finger only at Z. The Cubs as a team totally fell apart in the 6th inning after a blown call by umpire Marvin Hudson on a Byrd fly to center was called out.

Replays showed the call by Hudson incorrect, supplying more ammo for those who are calling for instant replays to have a greater role in Major League Baseball.

“Replays support the #cubs in bad call in 6th on what should’ve been a hit for Marlon Byrd. Ramirez was doubled off,” Tweeted Cubs MLB beat writer Carrie Muskat.

“Absolute BS. Yet another reason replay MUST be adopted. #Cubs got screwed,” Tweeted Bleedcubbieblue.

Even Lou Piniella wasn’t on his game today. He did come out to challenge that call in the sixth, as he should have, but the fiery Lou that Cubs fans expected never materialized — even after the umpires had a meeting and refused to overturn the original call.

If this is a glimpse of things to come for the season, it will be a long season. The Cubs need to get over this game and Lou needs to show he’s really in it. If the skipper of the team loses his fire, it may trickle down the ranks and this season will be another very long one for Cubs fans.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

The Minnesota Twins have signed catcher and local Joe Mauer to a massive eight year, $184 million contract, which includes a full no-trade clause. The contract is the fourth largest in Major League Baseball history in both value and average salary.

Mauer, who was entering the final year of his current contract with the Twins, got the new new deal that will cover him through the 2018 season, when he will be only 34.

In this final season of his current $33 million, four-year contract, Mauer will earn $12.5 million then under the extension agreed to yesterday, he will earn $23 million in each of the next eight years of his new contract.

Even Mauer’s teammates were impressed with the deal. Twins center fielder Denard Span reportedly tweeting, “184 million for Mauer! Wow.”

Mauer, 26, has won three American League batting titles and was last year’s American League MVP. He is considered one of the best defensive catchers in baseball.

The only contracts bigger than Mauer’s deal are the $275 deal Alex Rodriguez signed with the Yankees in December 2007, the A-Rod $252 deal he signed with Texas in 2000 and a $189 deal signed by Derek Jeter in 2001 with the Yankees. Roger Clemens’ $28,000 prorated deal in 2007 with the Yankees in which he actually received $17, 443, and the $25.2 million Rodriguez deal with Texas are the only two higher average salaries than Mauer’s. CC Sabathia, now with the Yankees, also has an average salary of $23 million.

This signing makes Mauer the highest-paid catcher, surpassing Jorge Posada’s four year $52.4 million with the Yankees.

Mauer was the Twins’ No. 1 overall pick in 2001. After sitting out the first month of last season, he hit 28 home runs and had 96 RBIs, helping propel the Twins in the AL Central Division champs.

A press conference will be held at the Twins spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida, at 7pm this evening.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com, Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is also writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

If you build it, they will come. And yesterday they came – all 13,391 fans, setting a new Cactus League record. And those fans saw the Cubs lose to the Dodgers 7-3. It’s not surprising that this game was so popular, the Cubs and Dodgers have the most draw in the Cactus League, with Cubs fans following their team to the different Arizona venues.

But the biggest losers of the day were not the Cubs; the biggest losers were the fans who could not get out of the parking lot after the game at Camelback Ranch.

What makes this so disturbing is that fans can get in and out of every other stadium in the Phoenix area with minimal problems. This is year two for Camelback Ranch – which is shared by the Dodgers and White Sox.

You’d think that after the horror stories of last year, the powers that be would have figured out a better way to route traffic out of the stadium than what is currently in place. Not so. If you park in the lot, and if you park in handicap parking (or ADA, as they call it there), forget about getting out – that is if you get there early and you’re lucky enough to get one of the few coveted handicap spots.

Some will say that Camelback Ranch was put up quickly and the infrastructure isn’t quite ready to handle it. Not true. If the person, or people, designing the place had done their homework, getting in and out of the parking lot could have been made a lot easier. The Cubs need to take a good, long look at Camelback Ranch, see all of its flaws and learn from them.

Trying to get out of the parking lot probably made Cubs fans, who were in the majority at the end of the game as Dodgers fans started leaving in droves around the seventh inning, forget that former Cub favorite Reed Johnson hit a three run home run for the Dodgers, or even that the Cubs lost.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com, Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is currently covering the Cubs in Arizona during Spring Training 2010 while she takes a break from writing her book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”