The one thing that finally turned the public against John McMullen was when he let local icon Nolan Ryan escape up to Arlington and the Texas Rangers in 1988. Dr. McMullen would never recover his standing in the community, a standing which had already been virtually destroyed after the firing of Tal Smith way back in 1980.
Several years ago, Drayton McLane signed Nolan Ryan to a personal services contract and Ryan has spent some time working with Astros farm hands. Ryan has also purchased, and now runs with his kids, two Astros farm teams, the Round Rock Express and the Corpus Christi Hooks.
It was reported this weekend that Ryan is now involved in discussions with the Texas Rangers to become that team’s President of Business Operations. McLane has given the okay for this because it’s not a baseball job.
But I wonder why Drayton is not making this same offer to Ryan. Ryan’s minor league operations are top flight money making organizations. You can’t help but wonder about what Ryan would do if given the chance to run the Astros business organization. After all, Drayton’s always bitching about how he loses money. So let Ryan do it.
Sure, maybe there’s already somebody doing this job. But if Drayton’s losing the money he claims to be losing, then that person’s not doing much of a job, so it wouldn’t really hurt to dump that person. Unless, of course, Drayton’s been lying about his finances.
Don’t let Nolan Ryan get away from the Astros again, Drayton. — John Royal
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2008.
