During the 26-year career of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, he struck out 5,714 batters, a record likely to never be broken. Ryan also gave up a record 2,795 walks.
However, this time Ryan was not about to give a free pass to Texas Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg. The Ryan Express just rolled through Arlington, TX, and Greenberg was Ryan’s latest victim.
In a statement released by the Texas Rangers this morning, Chuck Greenberg resigned his position as CEO of the Rangers, effective immediately. Greenberg will also sell his interest in the team back to Rangers Baseball Express, the team ownership entity headed by majority investors Ray Davis and Bob Simpson.
Ryan joined with Greenberg in his bid to put together an investment group to purchase the Rangers from former owner Tom Hicks but had reportedly been at odds with Greenberg over several key issues in the past several months.
Ryan, who has been the president of the Rangers since 2008, was irked that Greenberg butted in on the negotiations with free agent pitcher Cliff Lee, who spurned the Rangers’ offer and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.
When the ownership group was put in place after the successful bid to buy the team, Greenberg was in charge of daily business operations, and Ryan was to control all baseball operations. However, Greenberg decided to intervene in the Cliff Lee negotiations, making a trip to Arkansas to visit with Lee, a move that was largely panned universally and seen as an inappropriate decision at the time.
Greenberg also inserted himself into the negotiations to extend the contract of general manager Jon Daniels. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Greenberg had sold the suite at Rangers Ballpark that Daniels had used to host families of front-office personnel as well as conduct meetings. The suite was to be part of the Daniels extension, and it was sold despite objections from Ryan.”
There were a series of other moves that Greenberg made that didn’t sit well with Ryan or the other investors as well, and it was clear that Ryan made it known that he would NOT take a back seat to Chuck Greenberg.
Since Ryan became president of the Rangers, they have improved by leaps and bounds during his tenure. While Greenberg certainly deserves credit for putting together the ownership team that led the Rangers out of bankruptcy, he clearly had designs to insert himself as the face of the franchise.
Um, he obviously underestimated the importance and value of Nolan Ryan to the Rangers organization and to Texas as a whole.
Ryan IS the face of this team and always will be as long as he is around. While Greenberg may have put together the group that finally ended the Rangers’ economic woes, he was NOT the man who led the Rangers to their first-ever World Series appearance. That was done by Nolan Ryan and the staff he assembled, including Jon Daniels.
Major League Baseball has never been keen on owners who make waves, especially new ones. Commissioner Bud Selig is no exception to that. While the Rangers were a great story with their on-field success last season, Greenberg’s actions were clearly becoming a distraction that had to be dealt with, and quickly.
Makes you wonder how much Greenberg played a role in the Michael Young situation, doesn’t it?
Once again, the Ryan Express takes a victim—only this time the victim also helped to punch his own ticket.
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