Reid Ryan takes the reins of Houston Astros as president of the ballclub – MLB news
Houston Astros have announced that Reid Ryan, the 41-year-old son of legendary Nolan Ryan, will be taking over the reins of the administration of the ballclub after the resignation by George Postolos.
Jim Crane, the owner of the Astros, was impressed by Reid whom he says is someone who can engage the crowds and can connect well with them.
“He's working the crowd, he's working with the fans, he's got a good personality and a good presence,” Crane said.
The owner was also quite certain that the Astros’ staff would like to work with the new president whom he referred to as a people’s person. Jim is excited to have him onboard.
“When you first meet the guy, you like the guy. We're really excited in him getting engaged in that area. He's a people person, and I think the staff will enjoy working with him,” said Crane.
Reid was previously associated with the Ryan-Sanders Baseball and was their President and CEO. The company owns multiple Minor League franchises including the Corpus Christi Hooks, a Double-A team and the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate for the Texas Rangers.
Ryan discussed the possibility of working with the Astros ballclub in some official capacity only recently with Jim Crane. It appears that the timing was spot on.
Being around the Astros since childhood and knowing many people currently in the organisation, Reid felt that it was a dream come true for him. He said that he had grown up to be an Astros fan.
“Today really is a dream come true,” Ryan said. “You grow up an Astros fan here in Houston, everybody's got their hometown team that they had, and the Astros were mine. This is just a very special day.”
The priorities are quite simple for the new president. He wants to get the fans involved and wants to make sure that they are taken care of.
“If we take care of their best interest, they'll take care of us,” Ryan said.
While he was taking care of the teams in the Minors, his teams did well with the fans. The Express had nearly 8400 fans per game whereas the Hooks had over 5500 people attending each game.
The second goal that Reid Ryan has is to make sure that the players are performing. He is aware that the ballclub will have to develop players as well as acquire some of the best in order to become competitive once again.
It will not be the easiest of tasks by any means for the new president to get the affairs of the team in order. There has been a lot of performance based trouble for the team and it will take some real hard work to turn that around.
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