There’s not much discussion of the Texas Rangers down in these parts — except for when they’re beating the asses of the Houston Astros, which they seem to do quite often. So Tom Hicks announcing now that he’s willing to sell a majority interest in the franchise normally wouldn’t generate much interest in Houston.
Normally, that it is. Except when Houston icon Nolan Ryan might be involved.
Ryan is a partner in two successful minor league franchises affiliated with the Houston Astros, the Round Rock Express and the Corpus Christi Hooks. And one of Ryan’s partners in these two franchises is Don Sanders, a former minority owner of the Houston Astros under John McMullen. Ryan is also the president of the Texas Rangers, a position he was allowed to assume when Drayton McLane let him out of a management contract Ryan was under with the Astros.
On Wednesday, when Hicks made his announcement, Ryan refused to comment, saying that he had yet to speak with Hicks about the matter. Yesterday, Ryan told the Dallas Morning News that “I think that here in the future we’ll see where this goes, and if there’s a possibility, I wouldn’t rule it out.”
Ryan also stated that if he purchased the Rangers, he would so as part of a group because “it’s very rare that you find one or two individuals owning them, it’s usually a group.”
If
a somebody new comes along to purchase the Rangers, they’ll find a team
that, unlike the Houston Astros, is in good shape talent wise. Ryan has
made improving the Rangers pitching staff a priority, and unlike
previous Ranger-management types who allowed Hicks to unwisely spend
millions of dollars on the likes of Ismael Valdez and Chan-Ho Park,
Ryan has worked on building a pitching staff in the minors that is
equipped to pitch in the homer haven that is the Rangers home ballpark
— currently, the Rangers pitching staff ranks first in the majors in complete games. The Rangers are also in first place of the American
League West, and along with the pitching, Ryan has been stressing that
his team learn to play defense.
The Astros are none of those
things at the moment. While the Rangers currently have one of the best
minor league systems in baseball, the Astros have one of the worst. And
while the Rangers currently have one of the best pitching staffs in
baseball, the Astros have one of the worst. The Astros defense is
atrocious — witness Miguel Tejada allowing seven unearned runs to
score on Monday afternoon. Also, unlike with the Astros, Ryan has
installed a strong management team up in Arlington.
Drayton
McLane seems to be happy with his management team here in Houston. He
went so far yesterday as to say that Cecil Cooper was not going to be fired,
and neither he nor general manager Ed Wade employed the dreaded words
“vote of confidence.” But one can’t help thinking that maybe the Astros
would be in better shape today if it was Ryan, and not Tal Smith and Ed
Wade were running the club.
The city was devastated when Nolan
Ryan departed the Astros after the 1988 season and joined the Texas
Rangers. I can’t help but imagine that things would be any better this
time around if Ryan were to purchase the Rangers and turn them into a
consistent winners while the Astros sank into oblivion of mediocrity.
If that was to happen, then I think it’s quite possible that John
McMullen and Bud Adams will no longer be the most hated sports team
owners in Houston history.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
