Young Gun TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD GM TAKES THE REINS IN TEXAS

tHOUGH HE IS KNOWN, COWBOY-LIKE, as "JD" throughout the Texas Rangers organization, the team's general manager is really just a kid from Queens. So Jon Daniels '99 keeps some mementos on a shelf in his office at the Ballpark in Arlington, west of Dallas, in case he gets lonely for home: an "I love NY" coffee mug and a photo of ice skaters in Central Park. But when Daniels was hired last October, the fact that the new GM in the Big D was from that distant planet known as the Big Apple hardly made a ripple in the news media. No, the big story was his age.

Twenty-eight years and forty-one days old when named to his new post, Daniels became the youngest general manager in major league baseball history, about ten months younger than Theo Epstein was when he was hired by the Boston Red Sox in 2002. "BOY WONDER" proclaimed Sports Illustrated, while the Dallas Morning News tagged him "Doogie Howser, GM" and wondered if he might be "the first general manager in pro sports history still paying college loans."

But Daniels is less an anomaly and more an extension of a baseball trend. The days of the GM as an old-timer operating on instinct and coffee-stained scouting reports are nearly gone. Instead, some teams are opting for well-educated, computer-savvy, stat-spouting savants-- young men who are just as comfortable talking about regression analysis and proprietary metrics as RBIs and pitch counts. And where once the only ivy in the big leagues was on the outfield wall at Wrigley Field, more and more front offices are taking on an Ivy League look: Epstein (who resigned suddenly in late October and then returned,mysteriously, in January) is a graduate of Yale, Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro is a Princeton alumnus, and a pair of young Harvard graduates, Paul DePodesta of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Matthew Silverman of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, serve as GM and team president, respectively.

Daniels grew up in the Bayside area of Queens, where he was a third-generation New York Mets fan and, he says, a "decent athlete." But he knew his future was not on the playing field, and when the newspaper arrived, Daniels would turn immediately to the reports of the latest sports transactions. "It was definitely something I was fascinated with, the roster management side of the game," he says.

As a freshman, Daniels met classmate A. J. Preller, who would be his housemate for the next three years.When Preller took an ILR course called Arbitration in Sports, Daniels often tagged along to listen. After graduation, Preller landed a job in baseball commissioner Bud Selig's office while Daniels took his degree in applied economics and management to Boston, where he went to work for the wine-andfoods conglomerate Allied Domecq. But baseball was still on his mind. "I probably spent more time talking to AJ about his job," he says, "than focusing on mine."

In 2001, Daniels decided to follow his heart, taking a $275-a-week internship with the Colorado Rockies. He joined the Rangers as a baseball operations assistant in 2002, and owner Tom Hicks took note of his exceptional knowledge of the game: "He's a walking baseball encyclopedia," says Hicks. Daniels rose rapidly, becoming director of operations in 2003 and assistant general manager in 2004.When longtime GM John Hart stepped down following the 2005 season, Hicks tapped Daniels to replace him, telling reporters, "He's the same age I was when I made my first leveraged buyout."

Preller has rejoined his classmate, taking a position as manager of professional and international scouting for Texas. "Our offices are next to each other," says Daniels. "When he's not in the Dominican Republic, we see each other every day. But the reality is we never have time to sit back and reminisce."

Indeed, Daniels has been hard at work since his hiring. His first opportunity to prove himself came at baseball's winter meetings in December, during which he served notice that he wasn't afraid to make big moves: he traded All-Star second baseman Alfonso Soriano to the Washington Nationals, signed free-agent pitcher Kevin Millwood to a five-year contract, and completed a six-player trade with the San Diego Padres. But Daniels knows that his task isn't merely to make a mark--especially with a franchise that has existed for thirty-four years without ever reaching the World Series."My mission is the same as that of the twenty-nine other general managers," he says. "It's first and foremost to win."

-- Brad Herzog '90

Sports Shorts

TOP TACKLE  After becoming the first Cornell football player in seven years to be named a first-team All-American, Kevin Boothe '05 secured a spot in the annual East-West Shrine Game, played in San Antonio, Texas, on January 21. The 6-foot-4, 327-pound offensive lineman was named to the American Football Coaches Association All- America team and was a second-team selection on the Sports Network/Associated Press All- America team. Boothe also became the fourth Cornell player to earn first-team All-Ivy honors in three seasons, joining Ed Marinaro '72, Bob Lally '74, and Chad Levitt '97.

ALUMNI ON ICE  Defenseman Doug Murray '03 made his National Hockey League debut on December 2, when his San Jose Sharks beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-0. Murray recorded 64 hits in his first 16 games with the Sharks, which ranked second on the team at midseason. Former teammate Matt Underhill '02 was named the East Coast Hockey League's "Saver of the Month" for December. Underhill won seven straight games, including three shutouts, while helping the Alaska Aces to a 10-1-1 record for the month. And Ryan Vesce '04 earned a spot in the American Hockey League All-Star game after collecting 33 points in his first 37 games as a professional. Vesce was a finalist for AHL Rookie of the Month honors in November, when he scored six goals and had 12 assists in 14 games for the Springfield Falcons. Vesce joined the Falcons, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, after collecting 54 points in 43 games while playing in Sweden last season.

LAX ACE  Sean Greenhalgh '05 showed little difficulty in making the transition to professional lacrosse, sweeping Player of the Week, Offensive Player of the Week, and Rookie of the Week honors in his National Lacrosse League debut. Greenhalgh, who was the third overall pick in the 2005 NLL entry draft, had four goals and three assists to help lead the Philadelphia Wings to a 13-11 win over the Colorado Mammoth. All four of his goals, including the game-winner, came in the final 20 minutes, as Philadelphia scored six straight goals to overcome a 10-7 deficit.

Big Game

JANUARY 28, 2006

The men's basketball team capped a difficult week with an emotional 81-59 road win over Columbia, a squad that had defeated them with a last-second basket in their first meeting this season. During a practice earlier in the week, sophomore guard Khaliq Gant suffered a serious neck injury in a collision with teammates. Gant was subsequently airlifted to Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, where he had surgery to stabilize two dislocated vertebrae. At press time, his prognosis was still uncertain. Gant's teammates debated whether they should play the game against Columbia, but the injured player urged them to take the court. The Cornell players--all with Gant's number 21 embroidered on their uniforms--responded with one of their best games of the year. Freshman Adam Gore led the way with a career-best 28 points; junior Graham Dow added 19, and seniors Lenny Collins and Ryan Rourke chipped in 10 each.