LAS VEGAS — Maybe Astros owner Jim Crane should wear his new World Series ring on his middle finger.
That's what he might as well be extending to two of the men who procured him the jewelry. Some 67 hours after Houston won its second championship, its first since perhaps the greatest scandal in the history of the sport threatened to bring down the organization entirely, general manager James Click stood before a dozen reporters at the general managers’ meetings and asked forlornly whether anyone wanted to ask him any questions about baseball.
No one did, because Crane could not be bothered to treat his highest-ranking employees like human beings. Instead he left Click, 44, and manager Dusty Baker, 73, to spend months answering questions about their contract status. (Not just from reporters, either: Their peers are just as curious as anyone else.)
