Round Rock Express Baseball Club MLN 2004 Business of the Year

Reid Ryan
Reese Ryan
Nolan Ryan
Don Sanders
Brett Sanders
Brad Sanders
Eddie Maloney
Jay Miller
Owners

The Greatest Save in Baseball
The Ryan Family brings the fundamentals back to the business of the game. Today the AAA. Tomorrow? Don't count Austin out as a major league burg someday.

Brian Ross
Sr. Editor
Minor League News

The baseball map has many destination points, from Cooperstown to Wrigley to Round Rock, Texas.

"Round Rock? You exclaim. "Where in the heck is Round Rock?"

People in the know will tell you. For Round Rock, in metro Austin, is one of the new Meccas of baseball.

While Commissioner Selig speaks of contraction, the Ryan Family is reigniting the spark under the passionate fire of baseball once more.

Nolan Ryan dominated the game from the mound. Reid and Reese are the next generation of smart owners that will dominate the sport, and, maybe, save it from itself.

Each year, MLN selects the best owner or ownership group across the 600+ professional franchises in minor league baseball, basketball, hockey, and football.

The selection is based upon how these owners and their teams are transforming the business of the sport, setting trends, and shaping an industry that brought in more than 88 million fans last year, far surpassing in real per capita growth any of its major league or college counterparts.

There is, perhaps, no more influential organization that meets the high standards that MLN sets than the Round Rock Express Baseball club, whose roots begin not in the boardroom, but on a pitcher's mound.

Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. was one of the most dominant players ever to grace a mound. A fierce competitor for over 27 years, he was also an exceptionally shrewd businessman. He 'retired' from the sport owning ranches and banks. He had three children: Reid, Reese, and Wendy. While there have been many great stories about the Ryan Express, the story of the Round Rock Express belongs more to the next generation of Ryans.

Others may speak of Nolan Ryan in future decades for his pitching prowess. If he has one great legacy, though, it is that he has infused the values, focus, intensity, compassion, and character that make for a successful life into his children. A five-tool set that would make for a great life, but also makes for one of the great business stories in minor league sports.

For it was Reid Ryan, scion of the legend, who dreamed the big dream of getting the family back into baseball by way of tapping one of the biggest and hottest markets in the country: Austin, Texas.

Continued...

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