Rangers president Nolan Ryan jokes about the thunder at Sunday night's game, discusses potential trades as the deadline approaches and much more.




On the thunder from Sunday night's game:

You know living in Texas we see a lot of strange weather things happen and that brought back some childhood memories when I was standing about 20 yards from a big live oak tree that was hit like that and that was as close as I'd been to a lightning strike last night since I was a youngster.

You know what I found amusing was how (Mike) Napoli broke and ran as soon as it happened and the umpire is looking around and then he decides he's going to follow Napoli. It was interesting just to be down close and see some of the reactions to that because you know it caught everybody off guard even though Chuck (Morgan) had made the announcement and we had seen that one lightning bolt outside the stadium in center field, but nobody was prepared for that.

How he feels about the team heading into the All-Star break:

I'm really happy with the way we finished up this first half before the break, and the guys showed a lot of spirit and kept battling and I think that's the style of baseball we've become accustomed to seeing with the Texas Rangers. So it was really kind of neat to see them break that out and come back in these last two games and go into the break with a lot of momentum, and they showed a lot of spirit and a lot of heart in the last couple games.

If the Rangers will be players before the trade deadline:

I think that Jon Daniels and his staff will be exploring any opportunities that are out there and seeing how we might better the ball club for the second half. Do I look for a blockbuster deal? I don't anticipate that but you never know what somebody might propose to you or through conversations what may come up, so we'll certainly be exploring any opportunities we have. But do I really look for us to make a trade of the magnitude of the Cliff Lee deal two years ago? I'd be rather surprised if we did.