Chuck Greenberg and his controversies
Just after seven months of being the CEO of the Texas Rangers, Chuck Greenberg decided to resign. This news was made public around the time of the Spring Training and it had everyone wondering about what really went down to lead to this decision so soon
after he gained power and especially at such a crucial time for the team.
As unbelievable as it may seems, this is not the first of the controversies that have surrounded Chuck since he bought the Texas Rangers with Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. It seems that in the short span of seven months, there have been many controversies surrounding
Greenberg, and most of them have been due to his habit of excessive talking.
Greenberg got into trouble when he started having issues with the team president, Nolan. Since Nolan had more power than him, that wasn’t the wisest of choices that Greenberg had made. He went behind Nolan’s back to sell one of the suites reserved at the
stadium for family and business gatherings despite Nolan’s disapproval. But this was only the tipping point for him as a lot had been done by him before this to sabotage his position.
The Rangers had their first ever World Series appearance after beating the Tampa Bay Rays as well as the New York Yankees in the playoffs. While this was a euphoric moment for the Rangers, Greenberg over shadowed it with his comments in which he called the
Yankee fans awful, violent and apathetic. He commented that they were the worst kind of fans he had come across and claimed them to be an embarrassment.
After he made his comments he was met with wide spread disapproval by the MLB commissioner’s office where he was asked to apologise, which he did later on. The comments also embarrassed his employees.
Another example of Greenberg putting his foot in his mouth was when he claimed to have been the reason that world class pitcher Cliff Lee decided to join the Philadelphia Phillies instead of the Yankees. When Cliff Lee chose the Phillies at the cost of a
richer contract over the Yankees who were willing to give a lucrative contract, it was breaking news for everyone and still remains one of the most talked about moments in the 2010-11 offseason.
It was at that moment that Greenberg decided to highlight how he had played a part in this move when he claimed to have created the opportunity that the Phillies took advantage of. This comment also landed him in trouble with the Yankees’ president Randy
Levine who called Greenberg delusional and said that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
His next problem was with the people at his own camp who believed that it was Chuck who drove Lee away from signing the contract they offered. In reality Greenberg’s frequent visits to meet up with Lee’s camp annoyed them more than win them over. He told
them that Lee would save a lot of taxes by being in Texas but the statement wasn’t valid since Lee would roughly save around $2 million over the length of the entire contract.
Everyone believed that having Cliff Lee on board with the Rangers will make them the top contenders for the World Series, so naturally their resentment towards Greenberg grew when they saw him mess things up for the team.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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