What’s more, the Rangers had to plunder their minor-league system to get Lee — who will himself almost certainly be pitching somewhere else next season.

WHEN I MET Greenberg in his office at the ballpark one afternoon in late August, he navigated his way through a thicket of congratulatory gift baskets and Champagne bottles and fished out a large framed photograph. It was a picture of Ryan and Ventura during their famous fight, a photo that can be found just about any place that sells baseball memorabilia. (For a little extra money, you can get one autographed by Ryan.) Only it had been slightly doctored: the back of the uniform of the player Ryan was pummeling didn’t read "Ventura." It read "Cuban."

What he is seeking to do now as an owner of the team will be considerably more difficult: he wants to transform the Rangers into a baseball anomaly — a profitable, consistently competitive club in a medium-size market.

DFW is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. The Ballpark is situated in the geographic center of it. It took a truly stunning effort of mismanagement by Tom Hicks NOT to turn a profit here.