The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

[royals19]

In the state of Texas, nothing is bigger than the game of Baseball.


OK… Maybe I came on a little too strong… Maybe that isn’t necessarily true. After all, everyone knows that everything in Texas is big. Football is big, the ranches are big, the trucks are big… But still, nothing is quite as big as baseball. You come home from a hard day’s work on the ranch, sit on your front porch with a tall pitcher of lemonade and a couple of pulled pork sandwiches and throw the Texas Rangers game on the radio because lord knows you’ve had enough Cowboys like everyone else.

For many years, that was what you did. You’d throw on the TV or the radio just to hear about one name: Nolan Ryan. Nolan was the home state hero, renowned for his blazing fastball, workhorse ability and rancher mentality. For many Texans, Nolan Ryan is right up there with heroes George Strait and Tom Landry on the Mount Rushmore of great Texans When you think of baseball in Texas, you always think of Nolan Ryan.



Nolan had a great relationship with the Rangers well through the end of his career and things reached a climax when his group purchased the Rangers in 2009. Nolan Ryan’s group brought stability and playoff wins to a starving fan base who is now forever eternally grateful. Ryan developed the pitching staff personally, stood behind Josh Hamilton and spent every last dollar he owned to bring a World Series trophy to the great people in the state of Texas.

However, our story doesn’t begin there or after a demoralizing Game 6 defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals or a rapid exit from the playoffs after a Wild Card upset. Instead, somewhere along the way, Nolan Ryan was strong armed and betrayed by his ownership partners who ousted him in an epic power struggle that essentially ripped the franchise apart. 16 million dollars in debt, betrayed and with his image tarnished, Ryan left the Texas Rangers and retreated back to his Alvin, Texas ranch.



He may have been embarrassed and humiliated but Nolan Ryan was not broken. That’s why after some heavy thinking over a glass of lemonade in his rocking chair, Nolan Ryan decided that, no matter the cost, he was going to take back what was rightfully his:

The Texas Rangers

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Ryan’s Ranch
February 28th, 2014
6:00 AM

Nolan Ryan got to work earlier than usual this fine November morning. He grabbed his old typewriter, turned on a little George Strait and began to pound away his award winning scheme that would net him the Texas Rangers. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. You see there was one central problem that kept his plans from moving forward: Money… or a lack thereof. It wasn’t like Nolan Ryan could just roll up to his bank and take out an 825 Million Dollar loan to take back the Rangers. Sure, he was Nolan Ryan but ain’t nobody got enough credit to take out that big a loan; especially if you're already 16 million in the hole.

Perhaps there was a way around this. Perhaps Nolan could end up with his Texas Rangers without having to spend a dime. He started hammering away on his typewriter.

Get old buddies to “Clean House.”
Latch onto the next owner.
Get World Series Ringz

Nolan Ryan knew that he would never be able to own the Rangers outright again. It simply wasn’t feasible from a monetary and safety perspective. However, there was a role that Nolan could undertake that would net him the control that he desired. If Nolan could somehow remove the current ownership group and then establish a puppet owner who would give him complete control over baseball operations. Who gives a rat’s hat about scheduling promotions and setting ticket prices when you can build a world series winning franchise and take all the glory right?

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Texas Ranch
Somewhere in Texas
March 10th 2014
9:00 PM

A couple weeks after he hatched his award winning plan, Nolan set about contacting some old friends who could help him get the ball rolling on his plan. He didn’t like having to go about things like this anymore than the next guy but as the old saying goes, in order to do good, one may have to engage in evil. Making a handshake deal with these goons was like making a deal with the devil… something you don’t do unless you’re a really good fiddle player.

???- What we did in 1963 is a whole different gig Nolan… You’re asking us to whack off the ownership of the Texas Rangers. That could get us into all sorts of trouble. The people love them, the cops would throw us in jail and your *** would be grass.

Nolan Ryan- I didn’t ask if it would be a good idea. I asked you if you could make it happen.

??? 2- Well what are you going to pay us with? Your debt? You don’t have any cash.

Nolan Ryan-What if I give you a promise?

The men looked at each other.

??? -3 What kinda promise?

Nolan Ryan- What if I promise you a world series win?

??? 3- When?

Nolan Ryan- Why not this year?

???- I suppose we can take you up on that offer. After all, we’re getting tired of putting all our hopes behind Tony Romo and the Cowboys. You’ve got yourself a deal.

Nolan shook their hands and departed for the evening. The only left to do now was sit back and watch the fireworks. His grand plan was moving ahead, full steam. Nolan offered a mischievous grin when he thought about the surprise waiting for his old partners…

[CameRoN0407]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Glad your back! Must've been the Royals that gave you the motivation, right?

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Glad your back! Must've been the Royals that gave you the motivation, right?

Feels good to be back!

Unfortunately, the Royals weren't what gave me motivation. In fact, I'm cheering against them. My family had a very close relationship with the team for 18 years and the Royals elected to end it this July. I'm not going to forgive them for that so I've decided to throw my lot against them.

***

25 Man Roster Breakdown

After setting up the backstory, I think it’s time that we look at the actual on the field product the Texas Rangers will be running out this season. The Texas Rangers have been on sort of a decline since they lost Josh Hamilton and fell apart in 2012. In 2013, they failed to make the playoffs completely and in the offseason, the Rangers tried to mix up their franchise and make some improvements. The Rangers roster this season is actually looking worse than it did at the end of last season. That’s due to the fact that some key players such as Matt Garza and Ian Kinsler have moved on and also due to the fact that I will be keeping players such as Prince Fielder, Jurickson Profar Martin Perez and Mitch Moreland off the roster for the entirety of the season. All in all, the Rangers this season don’t really looked poised to do anything. There are still some decent players left in the everyday lineup but its mostly characterized by AAAA players and depth options.


Catchers: Robinson Chirinos and Tomas Telis
Chirinos is the clear cut starter here due to his good defensively ability and also due to the fact that he can hold his own on the offensive side of the ball. Backing him up will be Telis. Telis could possibly spell Chirinos from the lineup if he can consistently show his double’s power that scouts show he possesses. Catcher is obviously a position of weakness for the Rangers and it will certainly be one of the things that will be addressed down the line.

Infield: J.P. Arencibia, Rougned Odor, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre and Adam Rosales.
The everyday infield of Arencibia, Odor, Andrus and Beltre actually has some promise to it. Granted, the right side of the infield is fairly questionable due to Arencibia’s sporadic hitting ability and Odor’s lack of experience. On the left side however, Andrus and Beltre form a formidable duo which should continue to produce at a high level. Then you have defensive specialist Adam Rosales coming off the bench in order to play the corners and up the middle occasionally. Odor is the biggest question mark for me because he isn’t exactly a highly regarded prospect, he’s 20 years old and he’s going to be expected to take the majority of the reps at second. Things could get real bumpy if Odor doesn’t hold his own.

Outfield: Shin-Soo Choo, Leonys Martin, Alex Rios and David Robinson
The outfield this season is headlined by offseason acquisition Shin-Soo Choo. He’s got a little bit of everything to his game and his skill set should give a well needed boost to the outfield crop. Joining Choo will be Leonys Martin and Alex Rios. Martin is going to get another shot in center this year after hitting .260 last season. He brings a nice mix of speed and defense to the team that should play well at the top of the order. In right field, we’ve got Alex Rios who is a pretty consistent performer and someone that will need to play well in order for this club to have success. Lastly, coming off the bench will be David Robinson. Robinson isn’t a very good hitter but he has a nice speed and defense combo that should play well in the 4th outfielder roll. All in all, this outfield has the potential to be really nice as long as everyone stays healthy.

On the Fringe: Jason Donald, Josh Wilson, Ryan Rua, Jim Aducci, Jake Smolinski and Engel Beltre
These guys are going to be competing for several of our bench spots and probably moving up and down the ladder from the big league squad to AAA all year. Just glancing over the group, there isn’t a whole lot to like here. It’s mostly made up of guys who are journey men, prospects who have washed up and organizational depth types. For me, the early favorites are probably Rua and Smolinski just because they seem to be the most big league ready. I can also see Aducci or Beltre as part of that group too.

Starting Rotation: Yu Darvish, Nick Tepesch, Colby Lewis, Miles Mikolas and Phil Irwin.
The starting rotation looks good with Yu Darvish at the top of it. After that, it’s slim pickings from there. Nick Tepesch has some decent potential and could be a sort of wild card as the number 2 this season. Behind him however, we’ve got Colby Lewis, Miles Mikolas and Phil Irwin who are all trying to establish themselves as members of the Rangers rotation. Lewis is coming back from Tommy John while Mikolas and Irwin are just trying to break in at the big league level.

Bullpen: Neal Cotts, Phil Klien, Shawn Tolleson, Scott Baker, Aaron Poreda, Ben Rowen and Neftali Feliz.
Wow. This Rangers bullpen has to be one of the worst in the game. I can’t even tell you who half of these guys are. The only ones that ring a bell are Shawn Tolleson and Neftali Feliz and thats for all the wrong reasons. Feliz might be the best arm in the bullpen this year and he’ll work back from Tommy John as the closer. Other than that, things are going to be real dicey as we lack any real significant threat in the setup or middle relief corps.

Prospect Watch:

Position Players: Jorge Alfaro (C), Joey Gallo (3B), Luis Sardinas (SS), Ti’Quan Forbes (3B/SS)
Most of the prospects in the Rangers system are the toolsy athletic types. The top prospects however (Alfaro and Gallo) are the ones who posses overwhelming tools and in their case, that’s light tower power. Following them, you have types such as Luis Sardinas and Ti’Quan Forbes who have good tools all across the board and can be major league regulars if they are able to tap into those tools.

Pitchers: Alex Gonzalez, Luke Jackson and Jake Thompson
The Ranges pitching depth has traditionally been very strong however, recent busts, trades and promotions have diminished the Rangers’ stockpile. What’s left now is a group of intriguing arms that feature middle of the rotation upside. Gonzalez is probably the most advanced of the trio followed closely by the big-armed Luke Jackson and the equally impressive Jake Thompson. This group here represents the future of the Rangers’ staff.

OUTLOOK:
It’s gonna be interesting… Real interesting this season. If everyone can stay healthy, there’s a chance we could possibly push the 90 win plateau but more realistically, it looks like the Rangers might be taking a losing season in preparation to gear up for a run next season. The rotation is OK, the bullpen is awful and the lineup, while intriguing, lacks a significant punch outside of Adrian Beltre.

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge



The Texas Rangers opened up the 2014 season at Arlington with a loss to Philadelphia. Not really familiar with the Ranger squad, we threw our #1 vs. theirs. Can’t go wrong with that right? So tonight’s matchup featured Yu Darvish against Philly ace Cole Hamels.



From just being a fan of the game, you know that Yu Darvish is a pretty good pitcher. But when you play with them on the Show, that’s where you separate the men from the boys. When Darvish is on, he’s on… When he’s not, well he’s not and he’s really bad. Tonight he was on for the first 3 innings just mowing down Philly hitters. Then an E1 caused a run to score and he lost complete command before regaining it for the last 2 innings of his outing. He went 7 strong innings, allowed only 5 hits and 1 walk to 7 strikeouts. Not a bad evening by any measure.



The game went to hell though when the bullpen came in and blew the game wide open… That much was to be expected. But making the 2014 Phillies look like the 2008 Phillies was a no go… Howard raked, Utley raked, Rollins raked… hell, even Cesar Hernandez (who?) raked.

Needless to say, the Rangers looked like absolute garbage. They scored 1 run, hit a ton of roll over ground balls that Utley and Rollins were too old to get to
and they hit maybe 1 or 2 balls hard all game.

And all because we couldn't touch Cole Hamels and a string of no-name, generic face relievers…

By dynasty rules I will be playing once every 6 games so we’ll have to wait till our road-trip up to Boston to see if we can get on track.

THIS WEEK IN REVIEW:
Rangers: 1-5 (sweep to Phillies, 1 out of 3 against Tampa)

[lilbiggio]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Good luck with this. I got a couple of guesses in mind on who could be the silent partner for Nolan, but I'll wait for some more clues to see if I was close.

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Capitan D's
Alvin, Texas
10:30 AM
April 19th


It had been almost a month since Nolan Ryan talked to his old buddies about getting on board with his plan. Everyday, Ryan would go into town with a couple quarters, grab a warm cup of joe and sit at the local dinner while thumbing through the pages of The Dallas Morning News and everyday the news was the same:

No News

Nolan chuckled. Surely it didn’t take a month to map out a plan and put it into action. Where were the National Inquirer headlines? The front page stories? Surely, Nolan’s friends hadn’t just played him for a class A sucker like everyone else?

Nolan looked up disgusted from his newspaper at the TV, only to catch the best news he’d heard all week.

[xboxxerx]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Enjoying so far Royals. As always looking forward to seeing where this leads. Following and subscribed.

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge



So our next game a few days later would be up at the beautiful stadium of Fenway Park. Nick Tepesch took the mound against Joe Kelly. Right from the get go, it was apparent how much of a drop off there was between Darvish and Tepesch (our #2 starter for those keeping track).

Tepesch allowed 10 hits in 7 innings of work and only struck out 1. He doesn’t have any overpowering pitch but his 2 seam is a good double-play pitch. Without it, the score might have been a little different. And, much like last game, the bullpen allowed Boston to get back into the game and it turned about to be a lot closer than it probably needed to be.



Tonight our offense was firing on all cylinders. J.P. Arencibia, Robinson Chirinos and Shin-Soo Choo all went deep tonight. Chirinos was hands down the player of the game though thanks to his 3-4 effort which included a bomb over the green monster.

Unfortunately, the Rangers go on to drop the next 2 games against Boston. They did however take 2 of 3 from Houston though (whew).

THIS WEEK IN REVIEW:

Let’s take a look at the AL West Standings
1.Angels: 7-5
2.Mariners: 7-5
3.Astros: 6-7
4.Athletics: 5-8
5.Rangers: 4-8 (3.0 GB)

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

*We interrupt your scheduled programming for an important announcement.*

“This better not be another Tony Romo thing.” Nolan thought.

I am here at Globe Life Park in Arlington where high ranking sources in the organization say that principal owners Ray Davis and Bob Simpson failed to reach the ballpark in time for the annual begging of the year press conference. The Rangers have been very hush, hush about the disappearance of the owners but the police have been more liberal with their description of what has happened.

According to a police report released this morning. video footage captured at a local hotel shows the men being ushered into an unmarked Escalade that appears to be occupied by 3 other men who at this time are unidentifiable. Other than that, the police cannot confirm at this time the nature of the crime. The police chief however just stated that this looks like your typical high profile kidnapping and they are investing into who could’ve have done this. We’ll continue to cover this story and provide any updates as more light is shed on this disappearance…

As the TV switched back to the regularly scheduled programming, Nolan’s phone began to ring.

Hello?

Go Rangers.

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Back at Globe Life stadium for the second USER game in a row, the Rangers were greeted by the White Sox; a team that typically represents an automatic victory if you take care of your stuff. They got some talent, no doubt but we aren't talking about the Dodgers here. This is f'n Chicago bros.

However you should know by now that when all signs point to a victory the Rangers will always find a way to screw it up… and that’s exactly what they did. Today, it wasn’t the pitching or the offense. In fact, it was the Ranger’s typically strong defense that screwed things up.




The usually sure handed Elvis Andrus allowed a line drive to hit off his glove resulting in the tying run scoring in the 8th. Reliever Aaron Poreda managed to wiggle out of that jam but in the top of the 9th, he wasn’t so lucky. A line drive hit Alex Rios on the forearm and resulted in a base runner with 2 outs.



Jose Abreu came up to the plate, Poreda missed his spot and Abreu hit a 2 run shot into the right field seats that gave the White Sox the lead. The Rangers would then proceed to lay down and die as they went 1-2-3 in the 9th and lost their major league worst 15th game on the season

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Our next game took us up north to the rainy confines of SAFECO field, home of the division rival Seattle Mariners. In years past, the Rangers beat the living daylights out of the Mariners… And then they got Robinson Cano and Kendrys Morales.

Robinson Cano is good… No doubt. But Kendrys Morales?



Dude is a huge time bum but he absolutely owns us because our pitching is crap. That’s what sucks when you got an awful pitching staff. Every crum bum the other team runs out there looks like some version of Hank Aaron or Pete Rose out there. What can you do? Even Houston’s pitching staff isn’t this bad.



On the flip side though, Adrian Beltre is just as good as advertised. He went deep twice today trying to will the Rangers to their first victory in 2.. 3… well a long time. He hits for average, he hits bombs and he’s a gold glove defender at third. It doesn’t really get better than that. The silver lining in that though is that Adrian Beltre is probably going to turn in a career year this year and it’s going to be worthless in terms of our team performance this season.



On that sour note, the Rangers in fact did win today behind Adrian Beltre’s two bombs and 4 RBIs. It felt good to finally win for a change but I just have a feeling I’ll be right back to shaking my head when the bullpen blows another game.

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

Nolan Ryan's Ranch
Alvin, Texas
7:45 PM
April 30th, 2014

With the current Ranger ownership group out of the way, Nolan was well on his way to getting what he wanted. But by clearing one obstacle, our hero had inadvertently jumped face first into another one. He couldn’t just tell someone “Hey, I want to run the Texas Rangers. Kick in 800 Mil and give me a GM spot. In return I’ll give you a pat on the back.” That just plain dumb. And that's why Nolan sat here on his front porch, legal pad a and pen in hand trying to come up with a solution to this problem. Perhaps he should've thought it out more, perhaps he should've waited until he had everything in his plan mapped out.

Where's the fun in that though? Nobody wants to sit here and read 100 pages about how Nolan Ryan wrote this award winning proposal that can be picked up at your local Barnes and Noble with the Oprah Book Club sticker on it. Nobody wants to sit here and read about how Nolan Ryan methodically took back the Texas Rangers according to this scholarly work! This is Nolan Ryan for crying out loud!

Ahem...But where there’s a will, there’s a way. At least that’s what Nolan Ryan thought as he sat in his study back at square 1.

Out of the blue, the phone on his desk began ringing off the hook and the caller ID showed a name…a name that Nolan hadn’t heard for quite some time. He picked up the phone and a familiar Texas draw rang loud and proud.

Hu..Hey Nolan. This is uh... (censored). I hear there are uh... Rumors on the uhh... Internets that the Rangers are looking for a uh... uh new owner. Now I gotta little bita 'ol (oil) money and I was wunderin' if you'd like to help me take back what's rightfully uh... mine? I thank I can compensate you too... That is if you're interested.

As soon as the voice finished, Nolan slammed the phone down. "Aw hell, not this guy again."

[royals19]

Re: The Legend of Nolan Ryan: A Story of Fastballs and Revenge

****

He was a goof, he had trouble with proper English, he painted pictures of dogs and at one point, he owned the Texas Rangers.

He too like had been cheated out of the system by the mystical "Powers That Be." Granted, being President of the United States was a nice consolation prize. This isn't about his ugly political career though, this about a man trying to take back what was rightfully his. This is about a man who was sick of painting pictures of dogs. This was a man that was hungry for revenge on all those that had done him wrong.

Everyone knows if someone screws with you long enough you'll snap and that's what exactly happened to him. He whipped out his old typewriter and a set of legal pads. He market analyzed, he looked at his Swiss bank account, he talked to Saudi princes and he hired ex-government analysts to help him devise a Bureaucratic plan to take back his most precious heirloom. If you didn't know any better you'd think he'd come down with a strong case of Potomac Fever.

At the end of it all, there was one thing missing; or not missing in this case and that was the Ranger ownership group. They wouldn't sell it to him, it didn't take an idiot to figure that one out.

Back at square one, he asked himself fundamental questions such as, "How do we get from A to B" and "Is our children learning?" In the midst of that, he was brought news... Joyous news from the kingdom of Arlington, Texas. News that would make even the most powerful man fall on the ground laughing. News that would make one ask: "Can it be any easier than this?"

It was the news that claimed the Rangers were looking for a new owner.

This isn't a story about his political career, this isn't a story where we make him look like a damn fool or a damn hero in American history and this certainly isn't a story that is supposed to be political.

Instead, this is the story of two men coming together to rain hell and bring the house down on those who did them wrong.