"After several months in the on-deck circle, the man who wants to buy the Astros is getting frustrated.

In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle on Thursday, Houston businessman Jim Crane said he was getting impatient not only with how long it's taking Major League Baseball to approve the sale but also with swirling media rumors about why it's taking so long.

The latest rumor, one involving a divorce and child-custody dispute more than a decade ago, prompted him to recount what happened as he recalls it and to make available his grown children to corroborate his story.

"When you go to the personal side, it's not a business deal anymore, and that's what offended me," Crane said in an interview at the Montrose Boulevard office of Crane Capital Group Inc.

Crane also revealed that his patience with Major League Baseball has limits and that his contract with longtime Astros owner Drayton McLane has a deadline attached.

"We have a contract with Drayton," Crane said. "When that expires, then it expires. The contract goes through November 30. You know, that's a pretty standard process when you sign a deal like that."

McLane, for 18 years chairman and chief executive of the club, called a press conference in mid-May to announce the $680 million sale to Crane, a Houston businessman who had made several previous attempts to buy a Major League Baseball team, including the Astros in 2008 and the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs in 2009. Although there's precedent for long delays in the consummation of a deal, this one was expected to be relatively easy. It hasn't turned out that way.

Crane suspects that Major League Baseball is holding up final approval to pressure him into agreeing to move the Astros from the National League to the American League. He says he would consider a move, but it's more complicated than simply saying yes.

"We signed an agreement in May, and that agreement hinges off all the economics that were presented to us," he said. "We're paying a very handsome sum for the team, and that was based off the deal that was presented to us. That was a signed contract, and we will honor that contract. If that changes, we've told baseball that if they want us to move to the American League we'd certainly consider that, but we have to understand all the ramifications of that. That includes travel, that includes paying for a designated hitter that we don't have to pay for. That includes our TV contract."

Crane says baseball has satisfied its concerns about past discrimination complaints and war profiteering charges at two of his companies, though an MLB official said Thursday that the league is still studying the bias allegations.

The stories that continue to bedevil Crane involve legal issues that he contends have been resolved. The one that prompted him to talk Thursday had its origins in Crane's 1991 divorce from his wife of seven years, Theresa Crane. She retained custody of the two children, Jared and Krystal, until 2000, when Crane sued.

"They were living in Colorado, and I tried to monitor them as best I could from here and tried to stay involved in what they were doing," he recalled. "They weren't performing up to what I felt their potential was. Their mother was moving to California and didn't let me know their whereabouts, so I thought it was best that they go under my guidance. I sued for custody and won."

The custody case, as detailed in a 2000 Houston Press story, turned nasty. One night, police were called to Jim Crane's North Boulevard residence."