FanHouse TomHicks

Former President George W. Bush will be kick-starting the Texas Rangers season from the pitcher's mound. When the Rangers square off against the Cleveland Indians on April 6, our country's former leader will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

It will be interesting to see how much Dubya has regressed since his last outing. You might recall him bringing a strike with decent velocity in Yankee Stadium back in the 2001 World Series. Last time we saw him throw, however, the results weren't nearly as pretty. He almost threw a wild pitch last season in the Nationals' opener.

Although it looks like Josh Hamilton isn't totally ready to stake his future in the Texas Rangers, that doesn't mean team owner Tom Hicks is going to stop his search for somebody to take some of the team off of his hands. While Hicks, who also owns the NHL's Dallas Stars and 50 percent of the English Premier League's Liverpool FC, isn't exactly bleeding money at the moment, he does see selling some of his share during these times to be prudent.

Hicks says that during times like these you want to "reduce your debt and diversify your investments" and there's no better way to do that than by finding somebody who is looking to take on debt while diversifying their investments during times like these.

Caveat emptor. I'm sure Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks was aware of the phrase prior to his signing of Sean Avery this past summer, and if he wasn't, he most certainly is now.

Avery, the NHL's super-pest, never seemed to fit in the Stars locker room after signing a four-year, $15.5 million deal, clashing with veterans and failing to produce much of anything on the ice in his brief, 23-game tenure in Dallas. Then came December 2, 2008, when the Stars visited Dion Phaneuf and the Calgary Flames.

There's not a lineup in the game that wouldn't benefit from the addition of Manny Ramirez. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of teams that could absorb his payroll, and even fewer clubhouses that could withstand his potential to rock the boat.

As such, the market for him has yet to completely develop. The Giants appear to be front-runners, and now that they're close to ridding themselves of Andruw Jones, the Dodgers seem ready to resume their pursuit. But according to SI's Jon Heyman, another team might join the mix: the Texas Rangers.

Before the rumor mill spins out of control, bear in mind that Heyman has merely stated that the Rangers "are considering a pursuit" of Manny, not that they've actually entered the race. Smart move by Heyman to hedge -- Rangers GM Jon Daniels told MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan "we're not pursuing Manny at this time," and a team source told Yahoo's Tim Brown that signing Ramirez was "unlikely."

Over at The Politico, reporters Ken Vogel and Matt Lindsey did plenty of scout work to determine that when it comes to owners of major league sports franchises, Republican Senator and presumptive GOP Presidential nominee John McCain is doing far better than his Democratic Party counterpart Barack Obama in the fundraising department:

Through the end of June, team owners in the four major sports and their families have given to or raised as much or more than $3.2 million for McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, compared with as much as $615,000 for his Democratic rival Obama, according to a Politico analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission, the campaigns and interviews.

Not only did McCain raise more than Obama from the owners in each of the four major professional sports leagues analyzed, but McCain even raised six times more from the owners of teams in Obama's hometown of Chicago.

As you might expect, there are a lot of familiar names thrown about here. But the most stunning revelation isn't revealed until far deeper into the piece -- apparently, most of the team owners who were big donors to the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, have yet to make a contribution to the Obama campaign, perhaps an indication of some lingering resentment after a bruising primary season. Just one example is New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who donated $2,300 to Clinton's primary campaign, but has since made donations to McCain's join presidential campaign committee.

One notable exception to that seems to be Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson, who donated the $2,300 maximum to Clinton's campaign while "bundling" another $100,000 in contributions -- efforts that Johnson has since matched and then exceeded on behalf of the Obama campaign. And for those of you who might be wondering, Bobcats minority owner Michael Jordan donated $2,100 to Obama's primary campaign, but has yet to make a contribution to his general election bid.

The Rangers made a big move on Wednesday, signing one of the best pitchers of all-time. Will this finally turn around their woebegone rotation? Umm ... no. They signed Nolan Ryan to join their front office. We first heard that this was a possibility last month and it's expected to be officially announced later this afternoon.

Ryan had been "working" with the Houston Astros as a special assistant, a figurehead of a title that most likely means he showed up at various functions and made season ticket holders feel special. Does that make him qualified to run a team?

It may not actually matter, because no matter how prestigious "team president" sounds, it's not necessarily higher on the totem pole than GM Jon Daniels. As Evan Grant explains in the Dallas Morning News, owner Tom Hicks has both the president and general manager report directly to him. That's not to say that Ryan will continue being little more than a figurehead, but he'll certainly have a bit of cushion to learn the ropes as he goes along.

Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks may be pissing off a lot of people in England, but back here in his own country, Texas, Hicks is working on a deal that would be sure to please Rangers fans.

If you're ever visiting Cooperstown to see the Hall-of-Fame and come across Nolan Ryan's plaque, you'll see that he's donning a Texas Rangers cap. For the last few years though, Nolan has been working with the Houston Astros. Hicks would like to see that change, and recently met with Ryan to see if he'd be interested in the Rangers' vacant club president position.

Rangers owner Tom Hicks met with Nolan Ryan over lunch in Georgetown on Friday and might be trying to lure him away from the Houston Astros and back to the Rangers.

The bait might be the club presidency.

Said Ryan of the meeting,

"I would think, if the Rangers offered me a position that's a promotion, I would certainly visit with them," Ryan said.

"[The club presidency] didn't come up in exact terms," said Ryan, who just began the last year of a contract as a special assistant to the general manager with the Astros. "It was discussed that they were doing a search [for a new club president]."

A potential roadblock to any deal between Ryan and the Rangers though would be the fact that the two minor-league teams Nolan owns, Round Rock and Corpus Christi, are both Astros affiliates.

If you thought trading for Orlando Cabrera would be Kenny Williams' crown jewel of the offseason, think again. In fact, he may trump that move in less than a week. From Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Sources both in the Sox organization and the camp of free-agent outfielder Torii Hunter have told the Sun-Times that the two sides could be signing a contract within the week.
...
According to one source, Hunter had met with the Sox twice in the last two weeks, getting the financial details of what was being offered in that second meeting. While an agreement had not been reached as of Monday afternoon, the source said that "the climate'' was there for a deal to be announced soon, unless another team comes in at the last second and blows Hunter away with an offer.

Good vibes are one thing, cold hard cash is another, so White Sox fans probably shouldn't get ahead of themselves and think this is the bag just yet. After all, Rangers owner Tom Hicks had Hunter and his agent over to his house for dinner last night, and Hunter has indicated in the past that he'd like to play near Dallas, where he lives during the offseason. That said, the Rangers are definitely still in a rebuilding mode, while Kenny Williams has proclaimed that his top priority is winning another World Series in 2008. Stay tuned, because this could get interesting.

Kenny Rogers still hasn't decided where he wants to play next season. Is he going to return to the Detroit Tigers, where he helped turn a losing team into American League champions in 2006? Or is he going to go back to his old flame, the Texas Rangers, for a fourth time.

It's as if the Rangers and Rogers are like that dysfunctional couple you know who constantly fight, and then break up, but when you see them at that party the next Friday they're making out in the corner again.

So is Kenny going to make out with the Rangers some more? Not if he doesn't tell them he's sorry first.

Like his general manager did a day earlier,Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks said Wednesday that under "certain circumstances," he would welcome a fourth marriage between the club and free agent pitcher Kenny Rogers.

Hicks also made clear what those "certain circumstances" would entail: Some degree of a public apology from Rogers for the way his last tour with the Rangers ended in 2005.

"He's got to take care of some unfinished business," Hicks said. "He's got to apologize."

In case you forgot, Rogers didn't leave the Rangers under the best of circumstances last time around. There was talk that Rogers had told the Rangers he'd retire if they didn't give him a contract extension, another report from somebody within the organization saying Rogers was faking an injury, and it all culminated in Kenny attacking that cameraman.

He later apologized to both the cameraman, and the fans, but he never apologized to the Rangers.

In other news, Tom Hicks also told Jarrod Saltalamacchia that he can't bring any more chewing gum to batting practice if he doesn't bring enough for the whole team.

Were it not for Kevin Garnett and the assorted NBA explosion yesterday, poor Mark Teixeira would have been the single biggest trade of the day, and perhaps the week. In any case, the Teixeira deal to the Braves remains the biggest of MLB's deadline, maybe -- maybe -- excepting Eric Gagne's last second move to Boston.

But it almost wasn't: Rangers owner Tom Hicks said he offered Teixeira a full-sized, eight year deal for $140 million. It included Teixeira's arbitration number for one year, and then seven years at $18 million per. Teixeira turned it down, and that was that:

"I've always loved Tex as a player," Hicks said Tuesday by phone from California. "I was personally involved in signing him and I wanted him to be a face of this organization, along with Michael Young, for the long term.

"I thought we made enough of an offer to keep him a Ranger for life. I'm disappointed he turned it down, but I think we did everything we could to keep him. Now, we've got some very good young players coming here and I feel with some good moves and free-agent signings, we can be a championship team."

This announcement isn't going to endear Teixeira to Rangers fans; whether they like Hicks or not (and most don't), it's hard to see how Marky Mark could get a better offer on the open market than $18 million a year. Maybe he will, I don't know, but more than anything it makes clear that Teixeira had very little loyalty to the Rangers, nor any inclination to cut them a slight break in any extension.Sorry, No Photos