The Ryan Express defeats the Maverick

As you might have already heard, Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg finally won ownership of the Texas Rangers early Thursday morning, after a lengthy auction against high-profile Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. By all accounts of those who were there, the auction was drama-filled, contentious, and most of all, captivating. I'm not sure if I should be considered gullible for thinking this, but Nolan's victory came as a relative surprise to me. Cuban seemed like he was willing to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave in order to purchase the team, and with each Cuban bid, Ryan appeared as if he was barely able to outbid him. Since I'm no financial expert, all I know is that for some reason or another, Ryan was able to come up with more money up front, and that appeared to be good enough for the judge.

While I am not opposed to Cuban owning a MLB team, I do not think the Rangers would have been the right fit for him. First of all, Nolan Ryan is a Texas legend, and despite Cuban's recent run in popularity, he doesn't hold a candle to the Ryan Express in terms of appealing to the fan base. Second of all (and most importantly), it is because of Ryan that the team is where they are in the standings right now. If Cuban would have won ownership of the team, there would have been the risk of Cuban cleaning house and putting his own people in there, which likely would not have sat well with Rangers fans. Also, his ownership would have probably resulted in Nolan Ryan leaving the team, which would have been a PR disaster from the Rangers' standpoint.

Don't get me wrong, I really think Mark Cuban would be great for baseball. Unlike many of the stodgy old owners that are in the game, Cuban would be a breath of fresh air. He's funny, he's vocal, he's visible, and most of all, he would be very willing to spend whatever amount of money it would take to put a winner on the field. Unfortunately, Cuban's outspokenness and his iconoclastic nature does not sit well with many owners in baseball, so it will be very difficult for him to gain approval of being a majority owner of any team in MLB, and that is a shame. However, one can only hope that he can eventually get the opportunity to purchase a moribund franchise like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, or Baltimore and bring them back to their former glory. In the meantime, I am pretty sure that many Rangers fans are content with the Ryan Express owning the franchise.