More photos » Mike Fuentes - AP

Even Nolan doesn't really know how this will all shake out - but either way Rangers fans should have a winner at he helm.

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There is a battle set to play out today in Texas, reminiscent of the classic western shootouts with the grand prize being an MLB team that's currently sitting in first place. The Rangers will officially go up on the auction block in a bankruptcy court  where a strange process seems to allow the court to select a single winner, but then the MLB somehow gets final say and can select a different bidding group to take ownership.

While we don't purport to understand all of the legal nuances of the federal bankruptcy process for anti-trust exempted business entities, we do know that this appears to have come down to two groups of investors led by local sports icons who come from vastly different backgrounds and represent extremely different potential futures for the organization.

On one side of the O.K. Corral stands baseball great Nolan Ryan, the roughneck fireball hurler and Texas bad ass who has spent the last 15+ years since his retirement owning a minor league squad outside Austin and, more recently, calling the shots for the Rangers organization. The leader of the other posse is the outspoken multi-gazillionaire Mark Cuban, who made his fortune on the Internet and has spent the big bucks taking the Dallas Mavericks from perennial cellar dwellars to one of the most high profile franchises in the NBA.

Cuban has long wanted in on the MLB and last year he offered a cool billion for the Chicago Cubs, but his bid was thwarted by some untimely insider stock trading allegations that let the good old boys from the baseball fraternity keep him out. Reportedly his bid was the only new one to make its way into the auction by yesterdays deadline and its expected to include a cash component thats more than the $306.7mil that Ryan's group offered up previously.

Ryan is a legitimate living legend and as great a baseball player that the state of Texas has ever been able to claim its own. He's also done a heck of a job as Rangers team President building a team that includes one of the best pitchers in the game in Cliff Lee and arguably the greatest offensive player in the league with Josh Hamilton. They are currently in first place in the AL West, up 8 games over both the Angels and A's, and appear to be cruising towards the playoffs. Ryan's presence would continue to legitimize the new front office and most would expect him to help be a guiding force in their likely continued success.

On the other hand, Cuban is eccentrically entertaining and has already proven his worth as a Dallas area pro-sports franchise owner, having turned the pitiful Mavericks into a Finals team - all while whooping it up on the sideline as the most energetic fan in the building. If his group wins the bid, Rangers fans can have full confidence that in a league without a salary cap, Cuban will open up the checkbook and spend like he owns the Red Sox or the Yankees, which should help to ensure that the franchise is able to sustain success well into the future.

It should be interesting to see how the court rules and then how Bud Selig and the MLB owners choose to handle their decision. Either way Rangers fans are likely to have a positive outcome.

And, we welcome whichever party loses to join the Project Franchise effort as a partial owner in the minor league team we acquire - as long as they don't mind that on our team the fans will be the one's really calling the shots.

While cruisin by LAX this afternoon I pulled up to a light behind a black Rolls Royce Phantom with a license plate that read "WldChmp" with a Lakers frame and thought to myself, "Well this must be someone cool."

As I pulled up next to the saucy whip, I noticed a random older woman sitting alone in the backseat and was a bit disappointed - that is until I got up towards the front and noticed The Dr Jerry Buss riding shotgun. Looking awesomely ridiculous in his blond toupee and a colorful Hawaiian shirt, he was surely on the way to the airport for some fabulous off-season trip to the tropics - and all I could do was give a jealous gaze as I thought, "I want to grow up to be him." I've been in LA long enough to know its not okay to take pics of celebs - unless you work for Harvey Levin - but this was one I couldn't resist.

                                        The Doctor Rolls Heavy

As aspiring professional sports franchise owners, we definitely idolize the guys who run squads the right way - almost always delivering maximum enjoyment (aka "winning") for their fanbases, while keeping it classy and living the good life... So pardon me Mr Buss, but do you happen to have some Grey Poupon?!

More photos » Anonymous - AP

Even as a non-Yankee fan, you can't help but look up to The Boss.

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Legendary Yankees owner George Steinbrenner passed away today from a massive heart attack in Tampa, Fl at the age of 80, likely leading to a poignant moment of silence at tonight's Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

"The Boss" took over the team in 1973 as part of a group of owners that bought the famed franchise for $8.7 million and in the nearly 35 years that he ran the squad, no owner did more to help his team win. During his tenure the Yankees won 7 World Series and 11 American League pennants on the backs of some of the biggest and brightest names to ever touch a baseball.

While fans outside of New York, particularly in the smaller markets, may despise Steinbrenner for his often-times wild spending on big name free agents, the fans of his team could not possibly have asked for anything more from their owner. He was firm and often times ruled with an iron fist, so frequently clashing with under-performing (which in his eyes meant simply not winning a championship) managers and players that he became a glamorized character on Seinfeld and even got a gig hosting Saturday Night Live.

Critics will point to some of his pricier mistakes, such as paying big bucks for over-the-hill pitchers like Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown, and say that he wasn't really a baseball expert, just a guy with a big checkbook. Still others will claim that his wild spending on free agents like Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens, and the hundreds of millions he shelled out to lock-up Yankees stars like Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, ruined the sport for small-market teams that couldn't compete with the Pinstripes' payroll. While most baseball experts would disagree with the latter (in fact, most believe that his luxury tax spending more than made up for it), it really doesn't matter.

As the owner of a single professional sports franchise, you are solely responsible to the people of your city and your fans - and no one treated their residents and their fans better than The Boss. He was squarely focused on winning, recognizing that is what the people wanted - and if you give the people what they want, it will end up being good business all around. Because of that the Yankees are now arguably the most valuable franchise in sports, worth an estimated $1.5 billion, the reigning World Series champs and currently first in the AL East.

George Steinbrenner was as great an American sportsman as there ever was - he was born on the 4th of July, died during the All-Star break, and in the middle spent 80 years coaching football (at Northwestern & Purdue), owning a basketball team (the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League), serving as a VP of the US Olympic Committee, entering horses in 6 different Kentucky Derby's, and, of course, as the man in charge of the New York Yankees - plus the guy is literally named "George"!

As we move into the owners box of our own franchise in the near future, we can only hope our fans love us 1% as much as the Yankees fans have been devoted to The Boss.

As if the residents of Miami ever needed an excuse to celebrate, today they got exactly what they were hoping for when Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh announced they would be playing for the Heat for the for-seeable future as they have each signed long term, big money deals with the club.

Clearly over the last few seasons DWade has noticed that South Beach isn't a bad place to be a mid-20's male celebrity worth $100mil - and its certainly an upgrade from Toronto for Bosh - but we'd like to think that it was the Miami fans and the franchise who made the difference. With Pat Riley leading the sales pitch, the Heat organization did a phenomenal job harnessing the power of the web and their die hard core fan-base to remind their superstar just how much he would be missed if Wade left the club this off-season. Since the day the Heat's season ended this year, the team created a "We Want Wade" micro-site and has rallied fans to do everything from online scavenger hunt, to greeting the man at the airport wearing masks of himself. Their efforts were successful as Wade decided to return to the Heat, which got Bosh so excited he decided to sign with Miami for less money than he could have made elsewhere - meaning the team still has plenty of cap space to sign another big free agent (maybe even LBJ!) or some helpful role players to ensure that this team is a legitimate title contender starting next season.

Usually during these types of contract discussions professional teams, players and agents separate from the fans, go behind closed doors, and limit their announcements and press clippings to unhelpful phrases like, "It's a business decision." And while, it is true that sports are a business, they are also one of the only businesses where the customers are also literally fanatics and its great to see a professional sports franchise recognize the value of the customer when it comes to building a better business.

Although he was a bit before our time all this talk about John Wooden sure makes us think he must have been one heck of a good dude. He won a state title as a teenage hoops star in Indiana, then went on to play at in-state Purdue and led the Boilermakers to the national championship, eventually getting elected to the hoops Hall of Fame. And, as if that wasn't good enough, he's really known for being a coach - he had a winning record every season for three decades at UCLA, winning 10 NCAA Championships, including seven in a row at one point. In terms of college basketball accomplishment, he stands so far above everyone else there is virtually no chance that he'll ever get caught.

But whats amazing is that in all of the interviews and stories we've heard in the last couple of days since his passing, the main topic of discussion seems to be more about him as a good guy than anything about his ridiculously impressive resume. He had a lifelong love affair with his wife (who he continued writing love letters to after her passing - which made my wife audibly let out an "Aaaawww" when she heard it on the local news last night) and the kids he coached, teaching them more about life than basketball.

Clearly he was a one-of-a-kind and we can't ever expect to have someone of his caliber leading our squad, but when Project Franchise gets its own team, we only hope to have a guy (or gal) of his elk sitting at the front of the bench.

Stephen Dunn - Getty Images

I'd be throwing out fist-pounds too if my team always won.

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As the Eastern & Western Conference Championships played out each in 6 games last week, the NBA Finals had 4 potential match-ups in the works and the league has got to be pretty thrilled with the most marquee, cross country rivalry in sports coming out on top. Once LeBron and the Cavs were eliminated from the fray in the Eastern Semis, the remote possibility of a Phoenix - Orlando Finals must have had David Stern a bit shook up. After the Lakers and Celtics each got up 2-0, he probably breathed a sigh of relief, until each series got interesting again for a moment before eventually turning out the way most around the league and ABC (who will broadcast the games) had hoped.

This NBA Finals is really a testament to two organizations that have consistently done a fantastic job in building teams that can compete at the highest level over the course of many decades of basketball. While the Celtics have had a few lulls in success, most notably and recently the mid 90's to mid 2000's, they have had more championships than any other franchise, including the longest dominant run seen in professional US sports. At the same time the Lakers rise to the top under owner Jerry Buss in the early 80's has been remarkably unshaken, with only a few low seasons in the last 30 years - during which time they've played for and won more championships than anyone else.

This year is no different. Three years ago, sick of the longest lull in franchise history, the Celtics went and rebuilt their team, luring in All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to play alongside Paul Pierce, while since building around them with key acquisitions Rasheed Wallace, Michael Finley and Nate Robinson and the amazing development of Glenn Davis and Rajon Rondo. In almost the same way the Lakers blew up their once great Shaq-Kobe-Phil dynasty while retooling for a couple of seasons. As Kobe grew into more of a team player, so did the quality of the team around him as they brought back Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher, turned Lamar Odom into the best Sixth Man in the NBA, and landed a pair of their own major All-Stars in Pau Gasol and Ron Artest.

With the big names all coming together under the brightest lights, this NBA Finals should be a very tough, well played seven gamer (the NBA knows how to get their money's worth!) that both teams fans can expect to thoroughly enjoy. Folks in LA don't have to look any further than the Clippers to see that it's not very often in professional sports that a franchise spoils their fan's quite like the Lakers and Celtics have, so we at Project Franchise salute their owners, GM's and coaches for doing their fans a solid and Just Winning Baby.

Ken Rosenthal over at Fox Sports had an interesting column today discussing the importance of General Managers and how their salaries don't reflect the ability they have to do more for a franchise than any superstar player can.

It's all very true - a great general manager can take a team on path toward's sustained greatness. He can find those superstar players, negotiate great contracts that benefit the team long-term, make smart trades that maximize what he gets out of his assets. In terms of how they're paid though, GMs certainly don't come close to making any of the money their players do. Rosenthal points out that most baseball general managers make between $500,000 to $2,000,000 a year, with none making over $3,000,000. As we know, a star player can rake in 10 times that amount for a single season.

Rosenthal's argument is that for the price of a mid-tier free agent likely to have no more impact than a few extra wins, an owner can outbid what any other team is willing to offer and scoop up a top-tier general manager that has a chance to do major things for the team over the long haul. It's great in theory, but in practice I think the concept is flawed.

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For the last 8 years the LA Kings have missed out on the playoffs and have been treated like the younger, less successful Golden State brother by the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. 

 At one time, the Kings were the talk of the town.  Wayne Gretzky isn’t around to boost the team reputation any more, but in hockey-savvy towns, we’re all envious of the roster the Kings have put together.

While LA didn’t make it past the Canucks in the first round, there is plenty for the organization to be excited about.  The Kings have a young roster, with plenty of talent and it seems to excite both the traditional hockey analysts and the advanced statisticians alike.

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