ESPN: Jerry Jones talks about the Rangers sale

[CCBoy]

Jerry Jones talks about the Rangers sale
August, 4, 2010 Aug 47:12PM CT
By Calvin Watkins


http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys



SAN ANTONIO -- As the Rangers deal with a bankruptcy hearing all day today, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is following the proceedings from training camp.

"I bet you could cut it with a knife and as it should be," Jones said of the tension. "A lot at stake not only from the standpoint of the fans and major league baseball, [but] that’s a lot of money being bounced around there. You can bet not a lot of one-liners going around there I'm sure."

Here's the latest on the sale in a story from the Associated Press:

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban keeps upping the ante in the auction for the Texas Rangers.

His group of investors submitted the highest opening bid for the AL West-leading at a rare and unusual auction in bankruptcy court Wednesday, jeopardizing the sale to Major League Baseball's preferred buyer.

The group led by Rangers president Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg then countered but Cuban's group, which includes Houston businessman Jim Crane, went over the top with an even higher bid.

Rangers attorney Martin Sosland said Cuban's initial bid was about $25 million more than the bid submitted by Ryan-Greenberg. That group, endorsed by MLB and the only other bidder for the team, offered about $520 million as its opening bid.

After a lengthy recess to evaluate the Cuban bid, the Ryan-Greenberg team returned to the courtroom with a bid of $320 million -- $2 million more than the cash portion of the Mark Cuban-Jim Crane bid. Cuban's lawyer almost immediately approached the bench and followed up with a bid of $335 million for the cash portion.

Jones, who is a fan of both Cuban and Ryan, said he would not get involved in another sport, saying his passion is for the Cowboys and the NFL.

"As far as I'm concerned, when Mark says he’s going to do something, look out you will probably see it done," Jones said. "It's the old deal that says, 'You know they’re going to move that mountain over there? And the [other] guy says, well get out of here. You can’t do that. Who said they’re going to do it? Mark Cuban. Where they’re going to move it to?'

[CCBoy]

I'm wondering if when the team is involved in the camp arena, does Stephen spend more time developing and running operations that come into the new stadium?

[Sam I Am]

If Mark would have bought the Rangers, I would have wished an extremely brutal and bloody death on him.

Back in the mid 90s, the Rangers corrected a huge mistake they had been making. They changed their philosophy and started building the team from within. In that change, the Rangers started winning and walked away with three division titles.

Enter Tom Hicks. First order of business. Buy a winner, enter Alex "A-ROID" Rodriguez. The team begins a masses slide back into the world of ****ty teams. (imagine that, you buy the best player in baseball and you immediately become a loser)

Finally Hicks figures it out and restarts the process that he destroyed and the team has finally started winning again.

Now, if Cuban had purchased the team without question he would have put his hands all over it. Just like he does the Mavs and the Rangers would have returned to the bottom.

[dwdj75]

If Mark would have bought the Rangers, I would have wished an extremely brutal and bloody death on him.

Back in the mid 90s, the Rangers corrected a huge mistake they had been making. They changed their philosophy and started building the team from within. In that change, the Rangers started winning and walked away with three division titles.

Enter Tom Hicks. First order of business. Buy a winner, enter Alex "A-ROID" Rodriguez. The team begins a masses slide back into the world of ****ty teams. (imagine that, you buy the best player in baseball and you immediately become a loser)

Finally Hicks figures it out and restarts the process that he destroyed and the team has finally started winning again.

Now, if Cuban had purchased the team without question he would have put his hands all over it. Just like he does the Mavs and the Rangers would have returned to the bottom.

Look I can't stand Cuban, but your argument makes no sense. Cuban's hands are all over the Mavs, yet they are a repeating playoff team.

I'm still glad Ryan won the bid though.

God I hate Cuban.

[CCBoy]

The Rangers have some terrific sticks that should be there for quite a while. Their overall play has been upped in the field. I hope the Commish awards Nolan Ryan the deal anyway, above the top money offered also. With Ryan with his hand on the pulse, the pitching staff will continue to upgrade. Right now, the staff looks a great deal stronger. Agreed.

[Ren]

If Mark would have bought the Rangers, I would have wished an extremely brutal and bloody death on him.

Back in the mid 90s, the Rangers corrected a huge mistake they had been making. They changed their philosophy and started building the team from within. In that change, the Rangers started winning and walked away with three division titles.

Enter Tom Hicks. First order of business. Buy a winner, enter Alex "A-ROID" Rodriguez. The team begins a masses slide back into the world of ****ty teams. (imagine that, you buy the best player in baseball and you immediately become a loser)

Finally Hicks figures it out and restarts the process that he destroyed and the team has finally started winning again.

Now, if Cuban had purchased the team without question he would have put his hands all over it. Just like he does the Mavs and the Rangers would have returned to the bottom.

The Mavs where a joke before Cuban took over and they've been to the playoffs every year since, Had Cuban won it probably would have been a good thing, as i doubt they'd still be just another tripple A team for the Yankees to raid every time someones contract is up

[Reality]

enter Alex "A-ROID" Rodriguez
:D :D

That made me laugh this morning :)

As for the Rangers sale, I have mixed opinions on it. At first, I wanted Ryan and his group to buy the team simply because Ryan is firmly rooted in not only Texas, but also baseball. I'll admit that a lot of my opinion goes back to his playing days where he was a man on the mound .. meaning he would throw high and tight and absolutely dare you to come out to the mound. I have a feeling if he were pitching today, he'd likely be one of the most suspended players in the league :D Still, it was nice to see a pitcher that didn't dance around when a batter rushed the mound.

However, I am a little concerned that Ryan's group would be a little too old school and would avoid free agency as much as possible, not just for trades that benefit the team now but trades that benefit the team in the future as well.

For example, if a guy comes up through the farm system, is a solid third baseman for several years and has a .300 average and 25 homeruns near the trade deadline, yet the Rangers are out of the playoff race, would Ryan's group be likely to trade him to acquire two or three high quality minor league prospects that could make the team stronger in the future or would they be more likely to stick with the guy two years since his last decent season later due to over extended loyalty?

While I'm extremely protective and loyal to farm system built players, when they approach 29-30 years of age, unless you are a serious playoff contender, you should start looking to replenish your farm system with high quality prospects that can help you for many more years. Basically, you trade one player who has 2-3 good years left for two or three prospects that could give you 6-8 good years.

On the other hand, I'm concerned that if Cuban's group wins, he'll strive to the become the South's version of Steinbrenner and the Yankees. While it's nice to have your team do well and win championships, there's a lot more pride to be had in earning it rather than buying it. Using an NBA philosophy on an MLB team will give you a Yankees Jr. team and that is not good for baseball.

That being said, both groups have their advantages and disadvantages. It really comes down to what do you want from your team? Do you want an owner whose primary goal is to win at all costs or do you want an owner whose primary goal is to win the right way or lose with respect and a "we'll get 'em next year" attitude?

It's a tough decision for sure .. the traditionalist in me wants Ryan's group to win while the realist in me wants Cuban's group to win.

-Reality

[Sam I Am]

Look I can't stand Cuban, but your argument makes no sense. Cuban's hands are all over the Mavs, yet they are a repeating playoff team.

I'm still glad Ryan won the bid though.

God I hate Cuban.Cuban is an emotional trainwreck. This is (one reason anyhow) why I don't like him. The Jason Kidd trade was absolutely moronic. He basically traded five 1st picks (Devin Harris, (2) future 1st round picks, DeSagana Diop, and Maurice Ager) and then also gave them $3M bucks for a 35 year old point guard and then resigned him for three years guaranteed. He did that when the *huge* 2010 free agency was coming on top of it locking all the money that could have been used to bring a younger player in.

The Mavs where a joke before Cuban took over and they've been to the playoffs every year since, Had Cuban won it probably would have been a good thing, as i doubt they'd still be just another tripple A team for the Yankees to raid every time someones contract is up

No, Cuban bought the Mavericks right as they became a good team. He didn't build a good team. Finley, Nash, and Dirk were already part of the team and it was those three core players that brought the Mavs back to prominence. If you remember correctly, it was Cuban that brought in that train wreck Dennis Rodman. How bad did that fail. He is also the one that let Steve Nash walk who went on to win two league MVP titles.

He made his money on Broadcast.com (which was a complete failure too) He was just lucky enough to sell it to Yahoo during the .com boom. (right place, right time) Look at his other deals since them. HDNet. FAIL, that has never panned out. He also purchased a large sum of register.com. That too is a big fat FAIL.

What is he going to do when Dirk retires? Where will the Mavs be then? He hasn't been helping the cause lately with some of his trades. Especially when he lets some of his younger drafted talent go. There were rumors of him trading Roddy this offseason too!

He needs to let Donnie Nelson do his job and keep his nose out of the player personal aspect of the Mavs. He is hurting the team, not helping it.

Thank {enter your deity here} he didn't get his hands on the Rangers!

[Sam I Am]

For example, if a guy comes up through the farm system, is a solid third baseman for several years and has a .300 average and 25 homeruns near the trade deadline, yet the Rangers are out of the playoff race, would Ryan's group be likely to trade him to acquire two or three high quality minor league prospects that could make the team stronger in the future or would they be more likely to stick with the guy two years since his last decent season later due to over extended loyalty?

While I'm extremely protective and loyal to farm system built players, when they approach 29-30 years of age, unless you are a serious playoff contender, you should start looking to replenish your farm system with high quality prospects that can help you for many more years. Basically, you trade one player who has 2-3 good years left for two or three prospects that could give you 6-8 good years.

See, I think Ryan is a brilliant man when it comes to business. He has built a beef business, and then also built a business on minor league baseball. (both successfully, unlike Mark's business ventures) I think the major were the next step and I think MLB getting someone like Ryan is a huge boon for them.

It's like the Salty trade. The Rangers were smart enough to know that Salty just wasn't going to cut it, so they traded him to help replenish some of the minor league talent they lost in the trades to improve the team this year for the playoff run.

Nolan is the best thing that has happen to the Rangers in a very long time. With him at the helm, I was incredibly excited about the Rangers. That hasn't happen in a very long time!

[Reality]

He made his money on Broadcast.com (which was a complete failure too) He was just lucky enough to sell it to Yahoo during the .com boom. (right place, right time) Look at his other deals since them. HDNet. FAIL, that has never panned out. He also purchased a large sum of register.com. That too is a big fat FAIL.

Wow, I knew about his involvement with Broadcast.com and HDnet but I didn't know he had ownership in Register.com (a domain registrar for people who don't know) .. Register.com was one of the worst registrar collapses in internet history.

-Reality

[Number82]

C He is also the one that let Steve Nash walk who went on to win two league MVP titles.

Almost anyone would have let Nash go. I would have, and he's my favorite player. They had Devin Harris who you just built up as good like two sentences before and Nash was a PG on the wrong side of 30 with bad knees. No one knew Nash would go on to be a two time MVP.

[Reality]

See, I think Ryan is a brilliant man when it comes to business. He has built a beef business, and then also built a business on minor league baseball. (both successfully, unlike Mark's business ventures) I think the major were the next step and I think MLB getting someone like Ryan is a huge boon for them.

It's like the Salty trade. The Rangers were smart enough to know that Salty just wasn't going to cut it, so they traded him to help replenish some of the minor league talent they lost in the trades to improve the team this year for the playoff run.

Nolan is the best thing that has happen to the Rangers in a very long time. With him at the helm, I was incredibly excited about the Rangers. That hasn't happen in a very long time!
Oh I agree that as an owner, Ryan would represent the best of what MLB was, is and strives to be. Jerry Jones learned long ago that championships are not built through free agency, but rather home grown talent. Free agency is for filling holes, not building teams. Unfortunately, Cuban hasn't reached this level of awareness yet.

I can also say that Cuban's business expertise is .COM based. By that I mean I've been in the business side of the .COM world since the early 90s and I have also dealt a lot with the owners and founders of large non-internet family-built companies in that time and there is a huge difference between the owners' mentalities from those two backgrounds.

.COM entrepreneurs tend to be impatient and impulsive with their decisions and somewhat arrogant .. you have to be because you either anticipate and act or you get passed. In the traditional business world, you take your time, follow a proven strategy you've refined over many years and only change things when there is a significant benefit for the longterm to doing it.

-Reality

[Reality]

Almost anyone would have let Nash go. I would have, and he's my favorite player. They had Devin Harris who you just built up as good like two sentences before and Nash was a PG on the wrong side of 30 with bad knees. No one knew Nash would go on to be a two time MVP.

When the Mavs let Nash go, a lot of West teams celebrated. Nash was a playmaker with many good years left. Outside of major draft busts by some teams, it was one of the worst basketball decisions made by a team in recent memory.

-Reality

[Ashwynn]

Cuban has pissed off the NBA's commish so many times, so long as he owns that team, the Smavs aint winning crap but division titles. 50 wins a year is nice, but it does not mean a thing in the playoffs.

If he bought the Rangers, and does not start running on the field yelling at umps, he may yet finally win a championship, but it wont be the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

When hes a fan at the game, he needs to check his "Owners authority and access" at the door.

[hornitosmonster]

If Mark would have bought the Rangers, I would have wished an extremely brutal and bloody death on him.

Back in the mid 90s, the Rangers corrected a huge mistake they had been making. They changed their philosophy and started building the team from within. In that change, the Rangers started winning and walked away with three division titles.

Enter Tom Hicks. First order of business. Buy a winner, enter Alex "A-ROID" Rodriguez. The team begins a masses slide back into the world of ****ty teams. (imagine that, you buy the best player in baseball and you immediately become a loser)

Finally Hicks figures it out and restarts the process that he destroyed and the team has finally started winning again.

Now, if Cuban had purchased the team without question he would have put his hands all over it. Just like he does the Mavs and the Rangers would have returned to the bottom.

Makes zero sense. So you do not want an owner with deep pockets running a team in a league that has no salary cap? The Rangers can compete like the Yankees or they can be like the Pirates. Which one do you want?

[Sam I Am]

Almost anyone would have let Nash go. I would have, and he's my favorite player. They had Devin Harris who you just built up as good like two sentences before and Nash was a PG on the wrong side of 30 with bad knees. No one knew Nash would go on to be a two time MVP.

I don't see anyone screaming to let Dirk go because he is on the wrong side of 30. Nash was still lighting up the league in 2003. The only issue at the time was him wearing down at the end of the season. With the drafting of Devin Harris that offseason, that would have been all the Mavs needed. Devin Harris would have afforded the Mavs to not play Nash as many minutes per game. Especially is blowout games. This could have saved Nash for the playoffs.

Didn't happen because a non-basketball guy was trying to make basketball personal decisions. I bet Don (and Donnie) Nelson was opposed to letting Nash walk that season.

[CCBoy]

Wire reports now confirm that Ryan upped their bid and was awarded the purchase.

[Ashwynn]

I don't see anyone screaming to let Dirk go because he is on the wrong side of 30. Nash was still lighting up the league in 2003. The only issue at the time was him wearing down at the end of the season. With the drafting of Devin Harris that offseason, that would have been all the Mavs needed. Devin Harris would have afforded the Mavs to not play Nash as many minutes per game. Especially is blowout games. This could have saved Nash for the playoffs.

Didn't happen because a non-basketball guy was trying to make basketball personal decisions. I bet Don (and Donnie) Nelson was opposed to letting Nash walk that season.

Too be truthful, theres a world of difference between a slashing point guard on the wrong side of 30 and a spot up shooter on the wrong side of 30. The shooter can go till 45 if he has no defensive responsibilities, ala the mavs game. A point guard can go south on you in a heartbeat, the fact Nash didn't go is a testament to his training and endurance, I was surprised he didn't as well as the sMavs front office. But he can still go south any minute now.

[Sam I Am]

Makes zero sense. So you do not want an owner with deep pockets running a team in a league that has no salary cap? The Rangers can compete like the Yankees or they can be like the Pirates. Which one do you want?

:laugh2: No they can't! The Yankees can spend the way they do because they MAKE that much money every year! The Rangers on the other hand DO NOT! Cuban would go broke spending like the Yankees. Don't kid yourself.

Look at the Mavs, they have a salary cap, and Cuban is getting sued by Ross Perot Jr because he owns part of the team and they aren't profitable because Cuban doesn't know how to run them as a business.

The Yankees are not profitable until you add in the YES network. That is where the Yankees made their money. The YES network absorbs the Yankees losses from payroll and then some.

Now, the Texas Rangers aren't anywhere near the Yankees in popularity. On top of that, the Rangers don't own their own TV network. Now, if the Yankess are losing money even being the Yankees at a $209M payroll, how in hell would Cuban be able to afford a $200M payroll?

He couldn't. He would be in Tom Hick's shoes within 5-10 years. While the Rangers actually make pretty good money, it's nothing compared to what the Yankees make without the YES network.

[CCBoy]

Oh I agree that as an owner, Ryan would represent the best of what MLB was, is and strives to be. Jerry Jones learned long ago that championships are not built through free agency, but rather home grown talent. Free agency is for filling holes, not building teams. Unfortunately, Cuban hasn't reached this level of awareness yet.

I can also say that Cuban's business expertise is .COM based. By that I mean I've been in the business side of the .COM world since the early 90s and I have also dealt a lot with the owners and founders of large non-internet family-built companies in that time and there is a huge difference between the owners' mentalities from those two backgrounds.

.COM entrepreneurs tend to be impatient and impulsive with their decisions and somewhat arrogant .. you have to be because you either anticipate and act or you get passed. In the traditional business world, you take your time, follow a proven strategy you've refined over many years and only change things when there is a significant benefit for the longterm to doing it.

-Reality

In sport, with more extensive rosters for teams, you win by developing up the talent as well. The Braves had a pretty good run of 14 when enough of that hit the field together. Now that Ryan is the head of the Rangers, I look for the pitching and real strengths of the team to elevate similarly. Offense in the NFL, and pitching in MLB.

[CCBoy]

:laugh2: No they can't! The Yankees can spend the way they do because they MAKE that much money every year! The Rangers on the other hand DO NOT! Cuban would go broke spending like the Yankees. Don't kid yourself.

Look at the Mavs, they have a salary cap, and Cuban is getting sued by Ross Perot Jr because he owns part of the team and they aren't profitable because Cuban doesn't know how to run them as a business.

The Yankees are not profitable until you add in the YES network. That is where the Yankees made their money. The YES network absorbs the Yankees losses from payroll and then some.

Now, the Texas Rangers aren't anywhere near the Yankees in popularity. On top of that, the Rangers don't own their own TV network. Now, if the Yankess are losing money even being the Yankees at a $209M payroll, how in hell would Cuban be able to afford a $200M payroll?

He couldn't. He would be in Tom Hick's shoes within 5-10 years. While the Rangers actually make pretty good money, it's nothing compared to what the Yankees make without the YES network.

Curiosity here now, but with the passing of Steinbrenner and a last minute and directional marriage of sorts with Jerry Jones, now how does direction now develop between the Yankees and Cowboys?

[Sam I Am]

Curiosity here now, but with the passing of Steinbrenner and a last minute and directional marriage of sorts with Jerry Jones, now how does direction now develop between the Yankees and Cowboys?

Well, Hank Steinbrenner is now running the show. He (IMO) has a bigger ego than the late great George did.

What he does, I have no idea. I can't imagine he would breakup the Yankees and Cowboys vending partnership. (if that is what you're asking about)

[BlueStar3398]

When I went to bed last night, I thought Cuban had it! Congrats to Nolan Ryan!

I watched a video yesterday of Cuban & Ryan walking into court. Nolan Ryan was nice and polite to the reporters as he was walking in and answered a few questions. Cuban, on the other hand, was kind of a jerk in my opinion. He abruptly told them that he had to get in there. A cute young reporter asked him a question about owning 2 Dallas teams and he gave her a real smarta$$ reply. After that, I was hoping Nolan Ryan would win the bid. :laugh2:

[CCBoy]

Well, Hank Steinbrenner is now running the show. He (IMO) has a bigger ego than the late great George did.

What he does, I have no idea. I can't imagine he would breakup the Yankees and Cowboys vending partnership. (if that is what you're asking about)

As you pointed out, there is a lot of combustable ego not in play. I was wondering if Jerry might get involved in the media or at least be tempted to in addition. My guess is that he feels about maxed out with his own degree of sophistication in corporation and cash demands where they are. I'm really wondering if Hank Steinbrenner will now get greedy or lay back.

[Stautner]

See, I think Ryan is a brilliant man when it comes to business. He has built a beef business, and then also built a business on minor league baseball. (both successfully, unlike Mark's business ventures) I think the major were the next step and I think MLB getting someone like Ryan is a huge boon for them.

It's like the Salty trade. The Rangers were smart enough to know that Salty just wasn't going to cut it, so they traded him to help replenish some of the minor league talent they lost in the trades to improve the team this year for the playoff run.

Nolan is the best thing that has happen to the Rangers in a very long time. With him at the helm, I was incredibly excited about the Rangers. That hasn't happen in a very long time!

I love having Ryan involved, but his value is as a baseball man, not a business man. His contribution to the beef business was primarily the use of his name, and he never was very actively involved with the minor league teams. He hired others to do that, but his name gave the ownership group credibility. The same is largely true for the Rangers. He's an owner, but a small owner. He will, however, be more involved in the day to day business than his other ventures, but still much of his input will be to make sure baseball considerations are factored into the business decisions.

[DFWJC]

Wow, I knew about his involvement with Broadcast.com and HDnet but I didn't know he had ownership in Register.com (a domain registrar for people who don't know) .. Register.com was one of the worst registrar collapses in internet history.

-Reality
Cuban had a few very large successes before Broadcast.com. One example was his company called MicroSolutions--which he founded, grew, then sold to Compuserve.
He was a multi-millionaire (but not a billionaire) long before the Yahoo deal.
I know him a little, but have friends who have known him very very well...for 20 years.

I'll just say he is passionate and has grown up a whole lot since getting married and having kids. Like many owners or players/celebs, Cuban is not completely has poertrayed by 30 second to one minute clips on TV.

As for the Mavs' success--of course he deserves plenty of credit. It's very VERY hard to maintain an upper tier team for a decade or more. Yes the core was in place and they were on the rise when he got here, but nothing had come to fruition or had been maintained or grown.

I agree that some of he and Donny's trades have been silly. But few people nationwide would call Cuban a bad owner.

Having said that, I'm glad the Ryan group won the Rangers bidding!

[Number82]

I don't see anyone screaming to let Dirk go because he is on the wrong side of 30. Nash was still lighting up the league in 2003. The only issue at the time was him wearing down at the end of the season. With the drafting of Devin Harris that offseason, that would have been all the Mavs needed. Devin Harris would have afforded the Mavs to not play Nash as many minutes per game. Especially is blowout games. This could have saved Nash for the playoffs.

Didn't happen because a non-basketball guy was trying to make basketball personal decisions. I bet Don (and Donnie) Nelson was opposed to letting Nash walk that season.

People are screaming, but Cuban needs Dirk to make the playoffs. He obviously didn't need Nash and both Nash and the Mavs still have zero championships.

I highly disagree. Hesistant, maybe. But opposed, I'm not so sure. Like I said, for as good as Nash was and still is. He's a PG with bad knees. Dude can go down any minute. It's a shock to most people that Nash won two MVPs so late in his career.

Also, Dirk recently won the MVP. Nash hadn't come close to being MVP before Dallas let him go.

[dwdj75]

I love having Ryan involved, but his value is as a baseball man, not a business man. His contribution to the beef business was primarily the use of his name, and he never was very actively involved with the minor league teams. He hired others to do that, but his name gave the ownership group credibility. The same is largely true for the Rangers. He's an owner, but a small owner. He will, however, be more involved in the day to day business than his other ventures, but still much of his input will be to make sure baseball considerations are factored into the business decisions.
Is this post supposed to be a downside ? Sounds like exactly what I want in an owner.

[Sam I Am]

I love having Ryan involved, but his value is as a baseball man, not a business man. His contribution to the beef business was primarily the use of his name, and he never was very actively involved with the minor league teams. He hired others to do that, but his name gave the ownership group credibility. The same is largely true for the Rangers. He's an owner, but a small owner. He will, however, be more involved in the day to day business than his other ventures, but still much of his input will be to make sure baseball considerations are factored into the business decisions.

Actually, Ryan owns three ranches that raise beef (http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/quality/faqs.aspx), and that is where a lot of Nolan Ryan beef comes from. He isn't in the beef business in name only. At one time he also was the majority owner of Express Bank, (two locations) but he sold his interest in those. He has also owned two restaurants though he sold one. Nolan Ryan's Bass Inn (sold, now just named The Bass Inn) and Nolan Ryan's Waterfront Steakhouse & Grill.

The two minor league clubs that he owns, he ran their operations in the beginnning. He taught his son Reid Ryan the business and now Reid serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Ryan-Sanders Baseball (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/team2/page.jsp?ymd=20100113&content_id=7912188&vkey=team2_t102&fext=.jsp&sid=t102). (The entity that manages both Round Rock Express and Corpus Christi Hooks minor league teams)

He is an extraordinary business man and a baseball guy. I believe he is the best possible person to be acting president of the Texas Rangers. He is smart, business savvy, baseball savvy, and he has an incredible work ethic.

The Rangers are in good hands right now and I'm damn excited about that!

[Stautner]

Actually, Ryan owns three ranches that raise beef (http://www.nolanryanbeef.com/quality/faqs.aspx), and that is where a lot of Nolan Ryan beef comes from. He isn't in the beef business in name only. At one time he also was the majority owner of Express Bank, (two locations) but he sold his interest in those. He has also owned two restaurants though he sold one. Nolan Ryan's Bass Inn (sold, now just named The Bass Inn) and Nolan Ryan's Waterfront Steakhouse & Grill.

The two minor league clubs that he owns, he ran their operations in the beginnning. He taught his son Reid Ryan the business and now Reid serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Ryan-Sanders Baseball (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/team2/page.jsp?ymd=20100113&content_id=7912188&vkey=team2_t102&fext=.jsp&sid=t102). (The entity that manages both Round Rock Express and Corpus Christi Hooks minor league teams)

He is an extraordinary business man and a baseball guy. I believe he is the best possible person to be acting president of the Texas Rangers. He is smart, business savvy, baseball savvy, and he has an incredible work ethic.

The Rangers are in good hands right now and I'm damn excited about that!

I knew he had ranches - always has. He grew up on one. The steak business is a different thing though. Experienced business people handled setting that up. I'm not saying he didn't have a hand in decisions, but he was part of the concept and not the guy with the experience or knowledge to set up the financing, the overall structure, the marketing and the advertsing. Same with the baseball clubs. He didn't just buy those and run them. He was ranching and had a role with the Astros at the time, and was not a nuts an bolts businessman. Again, I'm not saying he wasn't involved in the decision making, but Nolan was not the day to day guy running those minor league affiliates. He had the proper people in place to do that, and got his son involved so he wouldbe the one that knew the ins and outs of the business.

And also don't get me wrong and think I'm minimizing Nolan's role with the Rangers. Baseball factors are essential in running a baseball team. It can't be just the financing and structure and the marketing - the product has to be worthwhile. That's Nolan's value to the business. Making sure the product is good.

[StanleySpadowski]

Ryan may be the name most associated with the group and will be the team president but the man with the power will be CEO Chuck Greenberg and Rangers' fans should be happy with that.

What you should expect: a competitive team, year in and year out, based on sound decisions considering both financial and personel aspects but just as importantly, an improved fan experience. The Ballpark is great but look for tweaks in the future to benefit the fans.

You'll find out soon enough but trust me when I say that Chuck's one of the "good guys".