Houston Astros Owner Crane's Connections Run Deep in Central Missouri Athletics

Before he became the owner of the Houston Astros, Jim Crane was a record-holding pitcher at Central Missouri.

Author:
Kenny Van Doren
Publish date:
Nov 15, 2022 12:00 PM EST

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Houston Astros

Jim Crane wasn't always destined to own a two-time World Series champion franchise in the Houston Astros. His first step into baseball came on the mound where he excelled as a pitcher for Central Missouri University.

Crane was an honorable mention Division II All-American for the Mules, posting a 21-8 record and a 2.42 ERA in four seasons. The hurler held the second-best record for strikeouts per nine innings for many years, until current Astros prospect Jonathan Sprinkle passed him up.

"He gave me kind of a hard time about it whenever we saw them junior year whenever we always went down for the for the tournament there," Sprinkle said in an Oct. 17 interview.

During the 2020 season, Sprinkle struck out 16.1 batters per nine innings over 23.1 innings of work, passing Crane's best of 11.9 during the 1974 season. But Sprinkle isn't the only Astros with a tie to Central Missouri.

Minor league field coordinator Jason Bell has been with the Astros since 2017 when he was a coach for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He was a right-handed pitcher for the Mules but never received the call to play professionally.

Constructing a thesis on Houston's advancement in player development in 2014, Bell grabbed the attention of the Astros regarding knowledge in the sport. He has since filled in as a manager for all four Astros' affiliates the last two seasons.

Bell was appointed manager of the Tri-City ValleyCats the next season while the second youngest in organized baseball. He led a team of Bryan Abreu, Seth Beer, J. B. Bukauskas, Luis García, Nivaldo Rodriguez, Jeremy Peña and José Urquidy to the league championship.

Bell isn't the only coach from Central Missouri, molding the future of Houston's crop. Florida Complex League manager Ricky Rivera crossed paths with Bell as pitchers for the Mules in the early 2010s.

And while two coaches and a pitcher of the future reside in the Astros system, Crane has since funded the future of the school and program that not only kept his baseball career alive but also paved way for three other members of the organization.

"It was a pretty sweet to set up Jim had there for those guys," Truman State football coach Gregg Nesbitt said.

Nesbitt, the former defensive coordinator for the Central Missouri football team, admired the work Crane put into the facilities for the baseball team. Now dubbed Crane Stadium, the $1.2 million project was funded entirely Crane, finishing construction in 1998.

Since the stadium was built, Crane has returned to Warrensburg, Missouri, to fund the completion of additional facilities in 2003, the addition of permanent seat back chairs in 2006 and new grass instillation in 2013.

And just when Crane did enough for the advancement of Mules baseball program, he was primary donor to outfit the Tompkins Field with AstroTurf. The $2.1 million Crane Stadium Expansion Project was completed last fall along with the Sunderland Foundation helping fund it.