Nolan Ryan used to be the Texas Rangers’ “control person.” Now it’s Ray Davis, who was ratified as such by the owners and Bud Selig today down at the owners’ meetings in Orlando.
Not that that means he really controls the Rangers the way we normally think of that term. It just means that he is the person who is accountable to Major League Baseball for the operation of the Club and for the Club’s compliance with the rules of Baseball. The guy Bud calls on the carpet if things are bad and the guy who gets to appear at celebratory press conferences if things are good.
Sometimes the control person actually runs the team. Sometimes he’s just the face while more anonymous monied interests retain control a la a board of directors or something. The Rangers are like that. The Giants are too. So don’t necessarily get used to stories about “Ray Davis calling the shots in Texas.”
And that’s the case even if people liked to pretend that Nolan Ryan did that when he was the control person before Davis.