The Texas Rangers have hired Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan to be their president. There will be a press conference to announce the move at 3pm today. But there is more to the story. … and while I'm something less than an enthusiastic Rangers fan, we’ve got our hands on that “more’’:

Larry Legend of our 75-Member Staff spearheads our digging up of some interesting and as-yet-unreleased aspects of the Nolan Ryan hire. …

1) Hicks went to Ryan out of desperation because he has been getting hammered publicly.
2) Ryan might be getting a piece of the Rangers in this deal.
3) And this is the BEST and most significant thing: Nolan Ryan will be assuming COMPLETE CONTROL of the Texas Rangers franchise, meaning he is to run BOTH the business side AND the BASEBALL side.

Now, for those die-hard Kool-Aid drinkers who had been suggesting owner Tom Hicks would be "sticking with" his latest 18-month-old plan, the latter issue (Ryan’s assumption of total power) represents yet ANOTHER change in direction.

The Rangers, from the time Hicks bought them, have been run on the business side by the President and on the baseball side by the GM, and those two offices have been VERY separate.

That is no longer the case. But THIS change – unlike so many of Hicks’ flip-floppy decisions -- was desperately needed.

Now, while Ryan gets complete control, we’re told NOT to expect "heads to roll immediately,’’ partly because it create a negative appearance and partly because it's a little late in the game to be making any significant changes for this season.

HOWEVER (and you can listen for this kind of talk in the press conference), Ryan will come in, look things over for "two or three months," and then make some decisions.

We would not be at all comfortable if we were Jon Daniels right now. We would suggest that with Nolan Ryan calling the shots, chances are very good the Rangers will have a new GM before 2009.

Also, if Ryan does indeed have a piece of the ownership in this deal, we believe it COULD be the first step to his buying the Rangers. Ryan has the money, and has approached Hicks about buying the team before, but Hicks refused to sell.

Hicks might continue to refuse to sell, of course. But if ownership is involved, this could be the first step in a direction that leads to the Texas Rangers being owned by Nolan Ryan.

And considering the track record of so many previous regimes, that – along with today’s announcement – represents a welcome change.

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