(Tom Hicks and Nolan Ryan, shown in happier days, ie. before the former began sleeping in his car)

Before the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jennifer Floyd Engel is accused of trolling ala Mike De Silva, she’d like to point out “Rangers fans have been paying for fireworks and dollar hot dog night for nearly a decade. And now they finally have a season that genuinely generates legit hope for next season and they have no idea where this team is going.”  To wit, the notion the financially hamstrung Texas Rangers might soon be under the control of Major League Baseball ala the final days of the Montreal Expos, continues to gain traction, and Ms. Floyd-Engel merely asked someone at MLB’s office who was in charge of the ballclub.  The reply? “Pat Courtney”

After exhaustive Google research, I learned that Pat Courtney is Major League Baseball™s vice president of public relations. This obviously is an important man and certainly he™d have answers for scared and confused Rangers fans desperately wanting to know what this off-season may bring for this team.

Tom Hicks is normally the man to call on such matters, but what is the point nowadays? Everybody knows The Texas Rangers are at least partially funded by and possibly run by MLB, with someone named Pat Courtney apparently being a go-to guy.

Mr. Courtney never called back Monday, likely gagged like everybody else about this Rangers business. All joking aside, though, what I want to ask Courtney, and his boss, is who is running the Texas Rangers and thereby in charge of big decisions facing them?

Who sets the Rangers™ budget for 2010? Who decides what free agents the Rangers can or cannot pursue? Who decides whether ticket prices will be increased?

Are the Rangers going to try to re-sign Marlon Byrd? Who makes the call about an extension on Josh Hamilton? Is there an MLB-imposed ceiling on this like there apparently was for Matt Purke?