Welcome! And thank you for joining us today on the Heroes and Icons podcast. I am your host, Greg Randolph.
We have another special guest today. If you are a baseball fan, especially of the Houston Astros and great minor league affiliates like the Round Rock Express and the San Antonio Missions, this gentleman needs no introduction. He was named the President of Business Operations for the Houston Astros in May 2013, becoming one of the youngest team presidents in baseball. His time in Houston included the best stretch of on-field success in franchise history, as the Astros captured the 2017 World Series title as well as the American League pennant in 2019, and the creation of the Astros Hall of Fame, among several other notable renovations and accomplishments which will forever be felt by Astros fans and Minute Maid Park visitors.
He grew up in the Astrodome as a bat boy for the Astros while his father and Hall of Famer Nolan pitched in the Astrodome in the 1980s. He later pitched collegiately at the University of Texas and Texas Christian University, winning two Southwest Conference titles. He pitched two seasons in the Texas Rangers organization after being drafted in the 17th round of the 1994 MLB Draft. He became the sixth member, and first executive, to be inducted into the Round Rock Express Hall of Fame on August 16, 2019. He was also the executive producer of the amazing and widely acclaimed baseball movie, Facing Nolan, which I personally recommend. Fantastic movie.
Presently he is the CEO of Ryan-Sanders Sports & Entertainment. Obviously, along with his brother Reese, he is one of Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan’s two sons. My guest today on the Heroes and icons podcast is of course, Reid Ryan!
Here we discuss present day happenings at Ryan-Sanders Sports and Entertainment, what makes a baseball organization run, the greatness of his dad Nolan Ryan, how critical his mom Ruth was to Nolan's career, the Astrodome, the meaning of baseball, how his faith in God has carried him through his stellar baseball career, and a whole lot more. Please sponsor the Nolan Ryan Foundation to help make a difference in the lives of youth with their education as well as community development in and around the Austin, TX area. Thank you for listening!
Listen to the full podcast by clicking the button below. Partial transcript follows:
GR: Do you have any memories of your first time in the Astrodome or attending a game or being in the stadium?
RR: Oh yeah, without a doubt. So, my first memories of baseball really had to do with being in spring training with the Angels and going to the games. You know, I loved to, kids will find this funny, but back then they had wax cups, and after the game I would want to go stack all the wax cups up and then step on them and try to pop them.
You know, it made like a, like, almost popping bubble wrap. And I'm sure that was a good form of entertainment, you know, for my mom to set me loose. But, I think the Astrodome, my earliest memories were just kind of the scale of it. It would just seem larger than life, you know, being the only dome stadium and coming in and looking at it.
Sundays were always a fun day because the team didn't take batting practice on the field. And Jose Cruz would always come out and hit us ground balls. Or my dad or Matt Galante pitched to us, we'd get to hit on the field and the gates would open up and fans would be in the stands and we'd be out in our little uniforms hitting and so that was a really, really cool memory I had as a, you know, kind of this eight, nine, 10-year-old back in the day.
GR: Absolutely. That sounds like it was just a great place to grow up and great environment and everything else.
RR: It was. It was a lot of fun.
GR: You spent all that time in the Astrodome and the Astrodome was, it was built in (19)65 and everything else. I have to tell you this. I want you to know you're in my personal hall of fame for securing the Astrodome's permanent Texas state landmark.
RR: Oh, cool. Very cool.
GR: Absolutely.
RR: And well, that really was Mike (Acosta), you know, but I helped sign off on it at the time in my role. Obviously, when you're the president of the Astros you've got a lot of gravitas. And so, it was something that I felt like the club should support and I'm glad we were able to do it.
GR: What does, what does the Astrodome mean to you personally from that standpoint?
RR: You know, it's super cool because outside of the Coliseum in Rome, It's one of the most iconic stadiums in the world because it was the first, and the vision was so grand and it was so Texas and I can remember as a kid going up in Judge Hofheinz’s private quarters and he had, you know, a tilted bar and he had a shooting gallery and he had a bowling alley and stuff that's in this stadium. That was his multi-level residence, you know out in the outfield. Only in Texas can you build that type of structure and have that kind of vision, bold leadership, game-changing, you know Just like NASA and some of the other things that really have established this state for many, many years. So, it's special.
It's interesting because where the Dome is today, it sits in the middle of this big complex that's utilized all the time. And, and so I'd love to see it be memorialized and be utilized. But when you're the first there's a lot of things that change over time and I went back in a couple of years ago and you just realize how small the concourses were and how few restrooms there were. I can remember those lines being 30 to 45 minutes long because you know there weren't things like potty parity back then you know and point of sale. Literally in the whole bottom section of the Dome, you know, lower bowl, there was like four concession stands. You know, Minute Maid Park, you know, we were measuring point of sale for every single fan and putting stuff all over the place.
So as much as the structure is literally intact as the day it was built, I mean, it is so over engineered. It is just literally a bomb shelter that is probably the best construction that was ever made with that roof. You go look at it. I don't know that there really is an answer to what you do with it other than try to preserve it and utilize it in some manner. But you know, who knows, who knows what's going to happen long term. But hopefully one of these days, you know, it'll still be around a hundred years from now.
GR: I think it will. And Mike Acosta is doing some great things. He has a project, a project called Astrodome Reimagined, and hopefully he's going to be able to really get some great renovations done and get the powers that be on board and those at NRG to sign on.
RR: Yeah, nobody loves the Astros or the Astrodome history more than Mike Acosta and maybe Dinn Mann. You know, those are the two guys. But the hard part is, you know, for somebody, and putting on my business hat, Literally, if somebody had a really good use, it would be like having, you know, one room in the middle of your house that somebody was wanting to try to rent out, monetize, redevelop because you have NRG that sits next door.
You've got the NRG arena. You've got all of the rodeo offices in the parking lots. It's just really tough that you can't pull all that other stuff out. And so. I really think until one day, if it ever happens, that the NFL team has another stadium somewhere and, you know, whether it's a developer or the rodeo or somebody takes over the whole complex and can sort of really make all of that stuff work together. It may be hard to ever see the visions that Mike and other people have because I just don't know the economics.
GR: That's certainly a fair point and I’m behind Mike 100 percent and I'm sure I’m sure you are as well with everything that he could possibly hope to achieve there, so I’m looking forward to great things happening there.
https://nolanryanfoundation.org/
Transforming your athletic field into a field of dreams. (rs3turf.com)
San Antonio Missions | MiLB.com
Round Rock Express | MiLB.com
Facing Nolan | Official Trailer | Utopia - YouTube
Watch Facing Nolan | Netflix
