Under Rusty Rose, Texas Rangers baseball franchise became relevant

Edward W. “Rusty” Rose, who with George W. Bush was co-general partner of the group that purchased the Texas Rangers in 1989 and steered the franchise toward baseball relevance, died Friday night at age 74.

Rose “lost his long battle with depression,” the family said in a statement.

The Rangers reached the postseason for the first time in 1996 under the Rose-Bush ownership group, which joined with the city of Arlington to build what is now Globe Life Park.

Though the Rangers have reached the postseason six more times since Mr. Rose’s group sold to Tom Hicks in June 1998 and since the current group of owners bought the club out of bankruptcy in 2010, the Rose-Bush group helped the franchise begin to reach its potential.

“We felt like it was a pretty sad-sack franchise when we acquired it,” said Rangers Hall of Famer Tom Schieffer, who was in the ownership group and became club president in 1991. “It was the most congenial group of partners that could be imagined. Nobody owned so much that they could tell anybody else what they could do.

“I didn’t know Rusty before that, George Bush didn’t know Rusty before that, and we all became just best friends. He was just such a great guy.”

Mr. Rose, who was from Dallas, dived into his role as co-managing partner after being brought into the group by Fort Worth businessman Richard Rainwater. Mr. Rose preferred to stay out of the spotlight and generally avoided the media, but Schieffer said that Rose was heavily involved in the construction of the ballpark and was a master with financial matters.

Schieffer was the architect of the ballpark, but all decisions had to be approved by Mr. Rose and Bush. The new ballpark, which replaced Arlington Stadium, changed the perception of the Rangers from a small-market franchise to a big-market club.

“He really came to love the Rangers,” Schieffer said. “He was as smart a man as I’ve ever met, especially with numbers. Inside baseball, when you’d go to owner meetings, people had the greatest respect for him because he could just analyze a financial situation better than anybody.”

The Rangers, in a statement, noted how the Rose-Bush group made a stronger financial commitment to scouting, player development and player acquisition that catapulted them to them to the American League West title in 1996 and in 1998 four months after selling to Hicks for $250 million.

The Rose-Bush group purchased the team from Eddie Chiles for $86 million.

“Mr. Rose provided strong and innovative leadership that allowed the Rangers to grow into one of Major League Baseball’s top franchises,” the club said.

In one of the few times Mr. Rose spoke to the media, he provided an endearing quote as to the role of the owner of the club, saying, “You can never really own a baseball team. All you can do is be a good steward for those who love the game.”

“I thought that just epitomized Rusty,” Schieffer said.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. Monday at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas. Mr. Rose is survived by his wife, Deedie; son, Will, of Dallas; daughter Lela of New York; and five grandchildren.

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Under Rusty Rose, Texas Rangers baseball franchise became relevant."