We thought all the ownership drama with the Rangers came to an end when Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan finally gained control of the team last summer.
We were wrong.
Less than eight months after becoming the team's managing partner, Greenberg is set to announce his resignation on Friday. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that he will step down to "pursue other interests."
If you're anything like us, that phrasing touches off some euphemism alarms. Men who spend more than a year of their life chasing after the Texas Rangers don't just decide to take up spelunking a short time later. What's more, Greenberg clearly enjoyed the job. His verbal jousting with the Yankees during the Cliff Lee chase was not the activity of a man who didn't feel comfortable in his role as the team's managing partner.
So, pursuing other interests is probably a case of crossing the wrong person. It's not surprising to learn that Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated is reporting that Nolan Ryan is the person that soured on Greenberg. Their styles were very different. Greenberg was brash where Ryan was composed and Greenberg was antagonistic where Ryan chose to present himself as above the fray. That was never more true than it was during the Lee pursuit, a pursuit that Ryan never seemed to join with the fervor of his partner.
Presumably Ryan will simply add the managing partner role to his duties as team president. He's already the public face of the franchise and his presence underscores that it is simply business as usual for the team. Greenberg did much to put the deal together but his financial stake in the team is insignificant so there won't be any reason for the Rangers to do things any differently as a result of his departure.
Still, it's a shocker that we didn't expect on a Friday morning. Not the most shocking or important thing, of course, but enough to change the name of the spring training home of the Rangers if it wasn't already Surprise.
