DALLAS — Wearily, Nolan Ryan plopped down in the Rangers Ballpark press box dining area, covered his face with both hands and rubbed. It didn’t help.
On this Thursday, July 8 evening, he scarcely touched his tuna salad and cantaloupe. Glumly, he described his day in bankruptcy proceedings and the previous day’s hospital visit to a fan who had tumbled from the stands.
The rock-like Rangers president and Hall of Fame pitcher who KO’d a record 5,714 batters and pummeled Robin Ventura’s face seemed — gasp — defeated.
“This just isn’t a whole lot of fun right now,” Ryan said.
Thus began the most pivotal 24 hours in Rangers history. There was no hint that half-century-old dark clouds were about to disperse, that this luckless and literally broke franchise would unearth a diamond rabbit’s foot:
Cliff Lee.
With Texas now in the World Series, its heist of star pitcher Lee from the New York Yankees’ greedy clutches is the Cliff-hanger moment of a Hollywood-esque story.
Without Lee, there would be no feel-good plot about the manager who tested positive for cocaine use but, given a second chance, guided Texas to its first American League pennant — 78 days after the franchise was auctioned in federal bankruptcy court.
It was Lee who twice beat Tampa Bay in the American League Divisional Series, including in the decisive Game 5. It was Lee who earned Texas’ first playoff victory in Yankee Stadium — fittingly, against the team that nearly acquired him from Seattle in July.
And it will be Lee who starts Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
“He was heaven-sent for the Texas Rangers,” manager Ron Washington said. “We he came, we changed our attitude as far as pitching and catching the baseball.”
As if the July 9 acquisition needed another surreal twist, consider the circumstances of the men who pulled it off.
Sure, the Rangers led the AL West by 5½ games, but general manager Jon Daniels and president Ryan were potential lame ducks, working unofficially for an ownership group that was far from certain it would acquire the franchise.
“I had two thoughts when the trade was finalized,” recalled Chuck Greenberg, whose group had to wait another month to outbid the Mark Cuban-Jim Crane group at 1 a.m., Aug. 5, in a Fort Worth courtroom.
“The first thought was, ‘That’s tremendous.’ The second was, ‘Boy, that would really stink if someone else gets the team now.’
“We still weren’t sure there was even going to be a bidding process. Life was about to get rougher, but we had Cliff Lee, so we had that going for us.”
As they have each spring training, Daniels and his staff compiled a list of major league players who might become available during the season.
Lee was one of those players the Rangers monitored. Acquired by Seattle from Philadelphia last December, he spent the season’s first month on the disabled list with an abdominal strain.
By the time he made his first start on April 30, a 2-0, 12-inning home loss to Texas, the 11-11 Mariners were starting their plummet to a 101-loss season.
When word circulated that Lee might be available, Daniels instructed his scouts “to make sure they saw Lee more often.”
“In the first week of July, we entered more serious dialogue, internally and with Seattle,” Daniels said.
Naturally, the Yankees also knew of Lee’s availability and were all-too aware of his prowess, having twice lost to him in last year’s World Series.
As the first week of July neared its end and the July 12-14 All-Star break looming, the Rangers, according to Ryan, got the sense from Mariners officials “that something else was on their plate.”
Rumors that the Yankees were closing in on a deal for Lee merely added to a distressingly bizarre week for the Rangers.
On Tuesday night, July 6, a fan leaned over the second-deck railing at the Ballpark to catch a foul ball, flipped and fell some 30 feet, landing on his back as well as fans. On the same night, a sudden storm blew over a tree, injuring a Rangers parking lot attendant.
Meanwhile, Ryan and Greenberg spent most of their days at Fort Worth’s Federal Courthouse, where on July 8 they learned that bankruptcy restructuring officer William K. Snyder was leaning toward reopening the Rangers’ sale process.
It would be the latest in a string of setbacks since the Ryan-Greenberg group on Jan. 23 had reached a so-called “definitive agreement” to purchase the franchise from Tom Hicks.
“I don’t have a good feeling about things,” Ryan said over dinner, before the Rangers opened a four-game series against last-place Baltimore.
Earlier in the evening, Daniels, Ryan and four other Rangers officials gathered to reassess what the team might be willing to give up to acquire Lee. For the last month, they had told Seattle officials they would not part with anyone on the major league roster.
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ clubhouse was abuzz with news that the team was in the hunt for Lee.
“Who wouldn’t want him?” veteran third baseman Michael Young said. “Let’s just let the front office do their job.”
But at about 8 p.m. Dallas time, news broke that Seattle had agreed to send Lee to the Yankees for prospects Jesus Montero, a catcher; second baseman David Adams; and right-handed pitcher Zach McAllister.
“We had a deal in principle,” New York general manager Brian Cashman recalled during the ALCS. “All it depended on was the physicals.”
Ryan was driving home from the Rangers’ 6-4 loss to the Orioles when, at about 11 p.m., he got a call from Daniels, who had confirmed with Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik that the Mariners were “going in a different direction.”
When Ryan and Greenberg met the following morning, Friday, in the Fort Worth courthouse, the Yankees-Mariners deal still appeared to be imminent.
“Nolan said, ‘Well, it looks like the Yankees are going to get him,”’ Greenberg recalled. “We were really disappointed because we thought we had a shot at him.
“Nolan left court around noon. I stayed behind.”
Undeterred, Daniels had told Zduriencik that morning: “I’m going to assume the player is still available until I see a press conference announcing otherwise.”
In Seattle, Cliff Lee and wife Kristen were all but preparing for a move to New York.
Lee’s agent, Darek Braunecker, cautioned to them that the deal wasn’t done but that it appeared imminent.
It so happened that the Yankees were in Seattle. Lee was scheduled to start that night but had been informed by Mariners officials that they were, at best, postponing his start.
Cliff and Kristen even spoke that morning to Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and his wife, Amber, friends of the Lees from when the players were teammates in Cleveland.
The Lees were renting the house of former Mariner and current Philadelphia pitcher Jamie Moyer, who on the morning of the ninth returned home with his family for the All-Star break.
The Lees and Moyers adjourned to the backyard to relax and watch the Lees’ children, 9-year-old Jaxon and 7-year-old Maci, in the swimming pool. It was about 12:30 p.m. Seattle time, 2:30 in Dallas. They expected a call any moment confirming the Yankees trade.
Kristen was teasing Cliff because on each of the three other times he had been traded, she had to do most of the packing.
“I was like, ‘Ha, ha. You’re going to have to help me pack this time,”’ Kristen said.
What the Lees did not know was that the Yankees-Mariners deal had hit a snag. Adams had a right ankle injury that was thought to be sprained, but Seattle doctors took X-rays and thought there might be a break, which later proved to be the case.
The Yankees wanted to replace Adams with right-handed pitching prospect Adam Warren, but the Mariners balked.
At least one person close to the negotiations said he believes the reason the Mariners raised red flags on Adams was that, by then, Daniels had phoned to say that Texas would include first baseman Justin Smoak in the deal.
At about 1 p.m. Seattle time, agent Braunecker phoned the Lees to say that Cliff had, indeed, been traded — to Texas.
“We had a month’s worth of stuff in the house,” Kristen said. “We got the kids out of the pool, I packed in an hour and a half and we were off to Texas.
“My kids were all excited because it was the first time they’ve ever picked out their clothes and I didn’t care.”
Along with Lee, the Rangers received pitcher Mark Lowe and $2.25 million in exchange for Smoak and three prospects: pitchers Blake Beavan and Josh Lueke and second baseman Matt Lawson.
While the Lees were en route to Texas, the Rangers lost again to the Orioles. The following night, with Cliff on the mound, they fell again, on their way to a four-game sweep.
Bad losses to wind up a mostly horrendous week in Rangerland — except for the improbable trade that would change the course of the 50-year-old franchise’s history.
“It was the persistence of Jon Daniels, more than anything, that got the deal done,” Braunecker said. “I think that’s why Seattle left the door cracked.”
Late Friday night, Daniels stood in a hallway outside the Rangers’ clubhouse, talking to a small group of reporters.
The Rangers’ ALCS victory celebration had moved from the field to the clubhouse. The pungent smell of champagne filled the hallway.
Occasionally, a champagne-soaked player, trainer or scout emerged from the clubhouse and hugged dry-clothed Daniels. On a wall behind Daniels was a large photo of Ryan’s 1993 pounding of Ventura.
“I think that’s the image a lot of people have in their mind,” Daniels said. “I think that speaks to what he stands for, as far as pride and standing your ground and believing in yourself.
“But he’s a tremendous listener, a good people person,” said Daniels, adding that he and Ryan are so different, they are “like baseball’s Odd Couple. But I think we also complement each other in different ways.”
Daniels said Ryan was a strong, stabilizing presence for Rangers employees “in a period that was otherwise very unstable.”
Somehow, during one particularly bleak 24-hour period, the Rangers franchise dug deep and found hope.
“There were days when I thought, ‘Well, this thing’s going to blow up on us and it’s not going to work out,’ ” Ryan said.
“But you know what? Since this postseason started, that seems like years ago.”
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