Boy, this has been a good year for court battles:

Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan called on a federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday to auction off the Texas Rangers on Aug. 4 as planned, saying a delay could hurt the team and maybe even cost them slugger Josh Hamilton.

Ryan testified in his capacity as the team's president, though he and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg have the endorsement of Major League Baseball to buy the Rangers and would love to close the deal soon.

--snip--

The Greenberg-Ryan group, which has bid about $575 million, opposes a delay because its financing guarantee is set to expire Aug. 12.

Ryan also said the auction should be held as planned to avoid distractions as the Rangers make a run for the American League West title and their first postseason berth since 1999.

He also worried about having financing in order for next season and told the judge he was specifically worried about keeping Hamilton, whose .357 batting average through Tuesday leads the major leagues.

"I don't know that I want to be there [if] Josh Hamilton doesn't come back next year," Ryan said.

As Craig points out, Ryan's not exactly an objective observer ...

... it's worth noting that Nolan Ryan has every incentive -- not just as the Rangers' President, but also as its prospective new owner -- to get the team out of bankruptcy as soon as possible. That means that a doomsday scenario for the Rangers-in-bankruptcy is in his own best interests in this particular hearing, because if it's truly doomsday, Greenberg and Hicks' position -- auction the team yesterday before other bidders can improve their chances at landing the team -- should win. That doesn't mean that he's not telling the truth, but I'm betting there were a lot of "coulds" and "mights" in Ryan's testimony today.

--snip--

The vast majority of the Rangers' business issues right now are Tom Hicks' fault, not the fault of the process by which the court is attempting to ensure that the creditors Hicks stiffed for so long get something approaching fair value in return. The suggestion that it's the bankruptcy itself that is the real evil here seems wrong to me.

It's really hard to cry disaster -- credibly, anyway -- when you're in first place, you've just made a big trade to get better, and there's a long list of incredibly wealthy people who would love to purchase you.

Whatever happens in the next few weeks or months, the Rangers should be fine. Nolan Ryan sort of has to pretend otherwise, because of the odd position in which he's placed himself. But it's just pretend.