Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 16, 2008
Ryan to the Rescue

Mike Lawson sends this article on how the Rangers are using Nolan Ryan to try to bring back the fans:

There are pockets of doubting fans, hesitant to air their feelings publicly, who feel that Ryan's ascendancy is nothing more than a default-driven publicity stunt casting Ryan as a living, breathing mascot. But for the most part, everyone from Zonk (you can almost hear his drumbeat getting louder) to Charley Pride (you can almost hear the echoes from his annual spring training clubhouse performance) is buying what Nolan is selling. Even if the team remains the pathetic, penny-pinching Rangers. Even if it recycles the "You Could Use Some Baseball" slogan. Even if this is another season of prospects being groomed, veterans traded to contenders for even more prospects and a finish closer to fourth place than first.

Regardless, Ryan's touch is essential to pull the Rangers out of their spiral toward utter irrelevance. It was 10 seasons ago that Texas won 95 games and drew almost 3 million fans. But in this millennium, it has finished above .500 only once and last year attracted only 2.3 million. Nothing will make the boss grasp for the past like losing 23 percent of his customers.

It's a very good article about the positives and negatives of the team, and what Ryan will face as president as he tries to fix three decades of poor play in Texas.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:00 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

don't worry....that bronze statue of Bump Wills is almost finished.

Posted by: Leco at March 17, 2008 05:45 PM
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