We all know that Chuck Greenberg is Managing Partner and CEO of the group casually known as GnR, with the "R" being Nolan Ryan, the Team President.  We also know the group bought the team for a total value of $590 Million, an all-time high valuation of an MLB franchise.

But, here is a spotlight on the two moneybags behind them:

Bob Simpson (61 years old) - founder and Chairman of the Board of the Ft. Worth-based XTO Energy, a natural gas company and subsidiary of ExxonMobile.  XTO Energy was 289th on the Forbes Global 2000 in 2010.  The native Texan grew up in Cisco and attended Baylor University, where he earned a BBA degree in Accounting with honors and then an MBA.

He's rich.  In 2007, he earned $47.4 million as CEO of XTO.

In 2008, Forbes says he earned about $65.5 million dollars of total compensation from XTO in 2008.

However, this story by Forbes reported that he was the 7th most highly compensated CEO in the country in 2008 at $103,485,972.  He stepped down as CEO in November of 08.  I'm not really sure why there are conflicting figures.

In June 2010, ExxonMobile bought XTO for $30 Billion.  Who knows how much Bob earned because of the sale, but regardless...that's a lotta cheddah.

Here is a good interview with him about his family and career.

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Ray Davis (68 years old) - former co-CEO and co-Chairman of the Board of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., an oil and gas pipeline company.  He recently retired in 2007.

Forbes estimates his networth at $1.2 billion and ranks him the 828th richest person in the world.

This story  notes that he is press-shy.  He apparently helped form a gas pipeline company in 1993, then sold it in 1996 for $115 million.  I want to do that.  Also, he helped form Energy Transfer, and when he retired, he sold some of his stock in the company for $600 million.  By the way, he still owns nearly 19 million shares. 

And, I don't know if he's ugly or what, but I cannot find a picture of the guy anywhere.

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So thank you, Mr. Bob Simpson and Mr. Ray Davis, for guaranteeing that Nolan, JD, et al, stick around.  And here's to the reopening of Latin American academies; the signing of Luke Jackson, Grimm, and maybe more; the increased spending in amateur drafts, ballpark upgrades, and free agency; and most importantly, the departure of Tom Hicks, aka the crusher of dreams.