The Round Rock Express are a class Triple-A Pacific Coast League minor league baseball team in Round Rock, Texas, owned by RSR Sports (Nolan Ryan, Don Sanders, Reid Ryan) and founded by Reid Ryan, son of Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. The team is currently affiliated with the Texas Rangers. Home games for the Round Rock Express are played at the Dell Diamond, a facility that is owned by the City of Round Rock and leased long-term to RSR Sports, who run and maintain the facility. The team is named after the senior Ryan's pitcher nickname, "The Ryan Express".
Video Round Rock Express
Franchise
The ownership group led by Nolan Ryan and Don Sanders began its operations in Round Rock in 2000 as the Dell Diamond opened, moving the Double-A Texas League's Jackson Generals to the new park, affiliating with the Houston Astros and setting attendance records for the Double-A level. By 2003 Corpus Christi had offered the Ryan-Sanders group $20 million to build a stadium and move a professional franchise there, and the ownership group was convinced Round Rock could support Triple-A baseball.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Coast League's Edmonton Trappers franchise, left isolated by the departure of the Calgary Cannons after the 2002 season for Albuquerque, was under pressure from the rest of the league to relocate to the United States. After the 2003 season, the Ryan group purchased the Trappers franchise with plans to relocate that franchise to Round Rock for 2005, once the Corpus Christi stadium would be ready for the Double-A franchise. The Triple-A club would carry on the Round Rock Express identity; the Double-A club would become the Corpus Christi Hooks, and the Ryan group was able to negotiate an affiliation swap with the New Orleans Zephyrs to obtain the Astros' Triple-A affiliation for the newly-arriving PCL club.
In 2006, two seasons after moving from Edmonton, the PCL Round Rock Express clinched the Southern Division of the league's American Conference with a win-loss record of 85-59. After defeating the Nashville Sounds in five games to take the American Conference championship, they advanced to the PCL Championship Series, but lost to the Tucson Sidewinders in three straight games.
In 2011, after 6 seasons of serving as the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, and 11 seasons of being affiliated with the Astros overall, the Express became the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Through the end of the 2017 season, attendance figures have dropped around 10% since changing affiliations from Houston to Texas (see table below). Each of the top 10 season attendances all occurred in the 11 seasons the team was affiliated with Houston.
In 2016, Forbes listed the Express as the sixth-most valuable Minor League Baseball team with a value of $40 million.
Maps Round Rock Express
Year-by-year win-loss records
Dell Diamond attendance
- Season average attendance
- Attendance ranking by affiliation (through 2017)
Notable alumni
- Josh Banks, MLB pitcher
- Jason Hirsh, MLB pitcher
- Roy Oswalt, MLB pitcher
- John Buck, MLB catcher
- Humberto Quintero, MLB catcher
- Taylor Teagarden, MLB catcher
- Hunter Pence, MLB outfielder
- Craig Gentry, MLB outfielder
- Willy Taveras, MLB outfielder
- Chris Davis, MLB first baseman
- Morgan Ensberg, MLB third baseman
- Roger Clemens, MLB pitcher
Roster
On camera
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- A majority of scenes from the 2002 Disney film The Rookie, directed by John Lee Hancock, starring Dennis Quaid and Rachel Griffiths were shot around and inside the Dell Diamond in Round Rock. It is inspired by the true story of Jim Morris, who had a brief but famous Major League Baseball career.
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- The Simple Life is a reality television series that was broadcast from December 2, 2003 to August 5, 2007. The first three seasons aired on Fox, and the final two on E!. The comedic show depicts two wealthy young socialites (Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie) as they struggle to do manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, doing farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants and working as camp counselors. Season 2, Episode 15 took place during a Round Rock Express baseball game.
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- The team made headlines in 2010 when it "signed" Billy Ray "Rojo" Johnson, described in a press release as an East Texan who grew up in Venezuela and had run-ins with the law. In reality, Johnson was actor Will Ferrell, who briefly took the mound at Dell Diamond to promote his nearby charity golf tournament.
References
External links
- Official Round Rock Express website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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