Astros, Comcast back in court today

The Astros were back in court today to appeal the decision made by Judge Marvin Isgur to allow involuntary bankruptcy proceedings for CSN Houston. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, who has been assigned to preside over the appeal, promised to move things along swiftly. Then he proceeded to steal the spotlight with a series of hilarious one-liners.

As usual, The Chronicle’s David Barron was at the courthouse to bring us all the action. Does this guy do a great job, or what? The answer is,of course… yes! I mean, you’ve got to hand it to Barron. From my experience, being in a courtroom all day is nothing like what we see on TV shows like “Law & Order”. It’s incredibly boring.

But, apparently, Judge Hughes did everything possible to lighten up the proceedings and keep everyone awake. The man in the black robe provided us with these terrific quotes (courtesey of Barron).

Barron also tells us that the judge believes Jim Crane’s suit against Drayton McLane is frivolous and that the Astros Rockets and Comcast just need to get together and make things work. Another great Hughes quote from the article:

"You don’t want to turn this over to two aging bureaucrats with tenure like Isgur and me, because that is what you’re doing. You’re letting me run a sports league and a network. I guarantee you that’s like doing eye surgery with a chainsaw."

All in all, things aren’t looking good for the Astros appeal. It appears as though the bankruptcy ruling will be upheld and the parties involved are going to have to learn to play nice together. Whether or not that means CSN Houston will become available to more viewers remains to be seen. A proposed buyout of Time-Warner Cable by Comcast may be the best hope for Astros fans.

And let’s end it with one last delicious nugget from the Judge.

"This isn’t California. We don’t interpret contracts by getting naked and getting in a hot tub or talking about aspirations."