HOUSTON -- Major League Baseball owners approved the sale of a controlling stake in the Seattle Mariners from Nintendo of America to a group of minority owners led by Western Wireless Corp. founder John Stanton and retired Microsoft executive Chris Larson.The sale was announced in April and approved Thursday. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said the deal will close Friday or Monday.This will be the first transfer in control of an MLB team since Ron Fowler led the purchase of the San Diego Padres in August 2012.Stanton will take over as control person from current chairman Howard Lincoln, who is retiring. The Mariners anticipate a seamless transition in management.Theres not a soul, other than the people retiring, that will be impacted, because all of these same partners are still involved, Mariners chairman emeritus John Ellis said.Nintendo of America, under the direction of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, bought the Mariners from Jeff Smulyan in 1992. Under Nintendos ownership, the Mariners moved from the Kingdome to Safeco Field in 1999.We all started it with this very generous input from Mr. Yamauchi and Nintendo. Its the only way we saved the team, said Ellis, who will remain a director. Now to have the same group rearranging its percentages, John Stanton taking over, the Japanese backing down to 10 percent, is the transition that guarantees to the team for the future.Nintendo is selling all but 10 percent of its stake in the franchise and the regional sports network ROOT Sports. The transition shifts the percentage of ownership shares within First Avenue Entertainment LLLP, which owns the franchise and a majority interest in ROOT Sports, holdings the team said in April were valued at $1.4 billion.Stanton said in April the ownership group includes 17 investors and there will be no majority owner among the group. 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Andy Murrays drive to seize the world No. 1 ranking over the past six months has been a thing of beauty, and Sunday, it got the happy ending it deserved.Murray won the Paris Masters 1000 title with an artful, gritty 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4 win against surprise finalist John Isner.Sometimes after you achieve something big, or something that you maybe didnt expect, it can be quite easy to have a letdown and feel a little bit flat, Murray told the media after the final, a reference to having clinched the No. 1 ranking. I felt really nervous before the match today, and I was happy about that.The win brought closure to a process that breathed new and welcome life into mens tennis in the second half of the year. As recently as June, Novak Djokovics dominance was so comprehensive that pundits were speculating he might complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Rod Laver did it in 1969. By the end of October, the roar of Murrays progress was like the rumble of a freight train, drowning out all else -- including the question, Whats wrong with Djokovic?Nobody knows the answer to that question, but we do know whats right with Andy Murray.The 29-year-old Scot, who had been humiliated -- theres no other word for it -- by Djokovic at the peak of his powers in so many Grand Slam finals, never gave up. He never settled for the comfort of being a solid, successful also-ran.It was never enough for Murray to be a Big Four afterthought. He still trails Djokovic 24-10 in the head-to-head, and come early February, the deposed Serb might make Murray pay dearly for this moment of insolence. After all, Djokovic battered Murray into submission in the Australian Open final in four of the past six years.But each time Murray got knocked out, he picked himself up off the canvas and came lurching back for more. In the end, it wasnt Murray who went away. It was Djokovic.Djokovic is 3-1 against Murray this year, and that includes wins in the Australian and French Open finals. A skeptic might argue that were it not for a mysterious loss of focus, motivation, or both, on the part of Djokovic, Murray would not have realized his mission.dddddddddddd Or you could argue the absence of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were a great boon to Murray, on the grounds that beating two or even three of the Big Four at the same tournament has always been a bridge too far for him.Theres some truth in those theories. But the on-the-ground reality tells a different story. Although Djokovic was busy evolving as a human being and trying to sort out his desires and goals after completing his career Grand Slam at Murrays expense at the French Open, the Scot sucked it up and soldiered on. He was beaten by Djokovic at Roland Garros despite playing some of the best tennis of his life. Instead of becoming discouraged, Murray won the Queens Club, Wimbledon and the Olympic Games.That trio of wins set him up for the big push, which was marred by only one puzzling loss -- his US Open quarterfinal collapse against Kei Nishikori. After that, Murray won three more tournaments on the trot, including the Shanghai Masters 1000, to set himself up for this critical last week in Paris.Murrays final-round wins in recent months, counting backward from Paris to the French Open, were against Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roberto Bautista Agut, Grigor Dimitrov, Juan Martin del Potro and Milos Raonic (twice). His tournament losses were to Nishikori and Cilic. It isnt Murrays fault that Djokovic was unable to make any of the appointments the seedings set up for them.The symbolic value of Murrays win over Isner in Paris is significant, but so is the practical fruit. Murray picked up 400 additional rankings points for winning. They will provide him with a valuable cushion at the ATP World Tour Championships, which begin in London in a weeks time.Thats likely to be helpful to the hard-working new No. 1, who just achieved something he said he maybe didnt expect, but something he surely earned and deserved. ' ' '