Ryan refuses to sound bitter about losing role as president
After revamping team’s fortunes on and off field, he’s focused on helping where he can
ARLINGTON — Reid Ryan is a portrait of positivity. One day shy of his 48th birthday, the baseball lifer continued to wear a constant smile and cheery disposition. He shuffled across the Live! By Loews lobby Wednesday afternoon, shaking hands and patting backs before settling into a plush chair to confront his career crossroads.
”Being in this game my whole life, everything kind of has a season,” Ryan said. “This season for me was incredible. I’m a big believer that there (are) seasons in life, and it’s kind of time for the next season.”
After Game 7 of the World Series, Astros owner Jim Crane met with Ryan — his president of business operations — to tell him “he didn’t feel like he needed a president anymore,” according to Ryan.
In Ryan’s place, Crane inserted his 36-year-old son, Jared. The news release announcing Jared’s arrival contained no actual title for his job. Whether Jared has one now is unknown — his father declined to answer questions earlier Wednesday.
Ryan was relegated to “Executive Advisor, Business Relations.” The seismic shakeup effectively ended Ryan’s full-time tenure with the franchise, one with which he was associated for most of his life. When his father, Nolan, starred in the Astrodome during the 1980s, Reid was a bat boy.
When he grew up, Reid helped shepherd the franchise to new heights.
“It was a dream come true. I’m
proud,” Ryan said. “I’m very proud of the numbers we put up. I’m very proud of all the things we accomplished. One thing about sports is that change is inevitable, and so I definitely understand and respect what Jim wants to do. My goal really this year is to try to help him make this transition as seamless as possible and be there where he needs me to be there.”
Ryan’s plan “right now” is to remain with the Astros through the 2020 season, though he acknowledged “talking to some people” at the owners meetings. Asked if he’d spoken to other clubs about specific job opportunities this week, Ryan said he had not.
“I still feel like I’ve got some good years ahead of me,” Ryan said. “This has been an incredible experience. It would have to be the right place, but I definitely will stay in baseball. At a minimum with the Round Rock Express, a team that I started when I was in my 20s, to maybe doing something in Major League Baseball, maybe doing something at the league level. I’m keeping all my options open.
“At the end of the year, (we’ll) evaluate if Jim is happy with me and feel like he needs more time. Then I would be open to that. But if he feels like we’ve made a successful transition, I’ll move on to something else. I’m very appreciative of the opportunity I’ve been given.”
If Ryan harbors any ill will toward the team or Jim Crane, he did not display it publicly. His smile never faded in a 10-minute conversation with the Chronicle on Wednesday. He politely declined to “get into all the details of feelings and all that stuff.”
“I don’t think it’s material to what we accomplished,” Ryan said.
“I have a great relationship with Jim and the Astros now. I respect how hard it is to buy one of these teams, and you deserve to be able to run it the way you want to run it. I have a son that works in the business, so I had a lot of respect, too, for Jim wanting to have his son in the business. I think that’s great.”
Ryan’s hallmark across six years with the Astros was a wonderful connection with a fan base he helped grow. If someone attending a game communicated a problem, Ryan often went from section to section inside a ballpark he helped renovate, ensuring the experience ended better than it began.
Whether noticeable or not, Ryan’s fingerprints are firmly on the Astros’ renaissance. In 2013, he came aboard amid absolute instability. The on-field product was
putrid. The franchise was in a standoff with Comcast SportsNet Houston, which was forced into bankruptcy when it was unable to pay millions of dollars in rights fees it owed.
Two years into Ryan’s tenure, the entire franchise had to selfevaluate and ponder “how do we compete with some of the big boys?”
“It had to do with creating an incredible ballpark experience and being priced appropriately and then conveying what our plan was to the fans,” Ryan said. “It’s great that (general manager) Jeff (Luhnow) was able to deliver on that plan and we were able to get him the money he needed to be able to put that kind of product on the field. I’m proud of that.”
Ryan oversaw renovations of Minute Maid Park that razed Tal’s Hill and inserted restaurants and bars in center field. He overhauled in-game entertainment, reconfigured gates, got a new sound system and, in a policy that still persists, opened the gates for batting practice.
“I think we brought a real sense of pride to Astros fans and the city of Houston with what they expect when they come out to the ballpark and how the team played,” Ryan said.
Ryan politely declined to speak on behalf of his father, who said earlier this month he would relinquish his Astros role as an executive adviser in the wake of his son’s reassignment. Nolan Ryan’s contract was set to expire in February, Jim Crane said. Crane insisted the Hall of Fame righthander is always welcome at Minute Maid Park.
Whether Reid Ryan’s new role will affect the Astros’ affiliation with the Class AAA Round Rock Express — a team he founded alongside his father, his brother Reese, and Houston financier Don Sanders — remains to be seen. Three years remain on the professional development contract the Astros and Express signed last year. Reid Ryan ceased everyday involvement with the franchise during his Astros tenure.
“I think there’s just a lot of things that will have to shake out with that MLB/MiLB agreement that will probably affect the future more than anything to do with me personally,” Reid Ryan said.
For now, Ryan plans to keep his Houston residence. He expressed love for the city and its fans, people that “I’ve always felt like I know their DNA and I know what they’re like.” He has no rush to cement his next career move.
“I have a job to do,” he said, “and that is to help Jim transition and be here for the Astros for the 2020 season.”