Rusty Rose, former Texas Rangers owner, dies at age 74

Rusty Rose, former owner of the Texas Rangers, died Friday at the age of 74, per multiple reports.

Rusty Rose and Richard Rainwater were the big money men in the ownership group headed up by George W. Bush that purchased the Texas Rangers in 1989 from Eddie Chiles.  Chiles had originally agreed in 1988 to sell the team to a Tampa group that had designs on moving the Rangers to the Tampa-St. Pete area.  Minority owner Eddie Gaylord, however, exercised his option to match the deal, displacing the Tampa group as the purchaser; Gaylord's purchase was vetoed by MLB owners, however, due to fears that he would use his ownership of Channel 11 in D/FW to televise Rangers games as part of a Channel 11 superstation, much like WGN and WTBS were with the Cubs and the Braves.

This opened the door for Bush's group to purchase the team in April, 1989.  Rose and Rainwater were the Ray Davis and Bob Simpson to G.W.'s Chuck Greenberg, and under their ownership, the team made its first ever playoff appearances and moved out of the antiquated (and seemingly antebellum, possibly antediluvian) Arlington Stadium, getting fancy new digs with the Ballpark in Arlington.

The Rose/Rainwater group sold the team to Tom Hicks in 1998.