Son of Former Rockies GM Starts for Texas Baseball in Opening Weekend

Dan O'Dowd served as the general manager for the Colorado Rockies from September 1999 to October 2014. He currently is an on-air analyst at MLB Network. Now, his son Jack has a chance to shine for the Texas Longhorns baseball team.

Dan O'Dowd served as the general manager for the Colorado Rockies from September 1999 to October 2014. He currently is an on-air analyst at MLB Network. Now, his son Jack has a chance to shine for the Texas Longhorns.

Over the weekend, Jack, a junior, started the first two games of the Longhorns' season at second base, collecting an RBI single in Saturday's 6-5 loss to Missouri. Jack also came in off the bench in Sunday's 12-2 loss to his former team, the Vanderbilt Commodores.

As a senior in high school, Jack was the top-ranked shortstop recruit in the state of Tennessee, for the class of 2020. After his freshman season, in which he played ten games for Vanderbilt, Jack transferred to the University of Texas.

Jack saw limited playing time his sophomore year, as he sat behind middle infielders Trey Faltine and Mitchell Daly. Faltine was Texas' primary shortstop, with Daly at second base. Faltine was selected in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Amateur Draft by the Cincinnati Reds. With Faltine out of the picture, Daly has moved over to shortstop, opening more time at second base.

Texas' season is off to a slow start. The club lost all three of its weekend games, to no. 8 Arkansas, Missouri and no. 10 Vanderbilt. It's still very early though. Texas will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tues., before the Indiana Hoosiers come to town next weekend. Texas will play a huge game in Austin Tues., Feb. 28 against the no. 1 ranked LSU Tigers.

Jack's father, Dan, and older brother, Chris, run a tech company out of Austin called Win Reality. Win Reality allows baseball and softball hitters a chance to train and improve their hitting via virtual reality. The company has grown quickly and has been running commercials on MLB Network.

Chris played baseball at Dartmouth, and was selected in the 23rd round of the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft. Chris played six years of minor league baseball, reaching Triple-A Charlotte with the Chicago White Sox organization in 2016 and 2017.

During his 15 years as the Rockies general manager, Dan's club won the 2007 National League Pennant and went to the World Series, falling to the Boston Red Sox.

Prior to being named the Rockies' GM, O'Dowd spent 12 years (1987 - 1998) as the assistant general manager of the Cleveland Indians, working under executive John Hart. During that time, the Indians won four American League Central division titles (1995 - 1998), making two World Series appearances, in 1995 and 1997.

Since turning down a contract extension to remain with the Rockies in 2014, O'Dowd has served as an analyst on MLB Network, appearing on popular shows such as MLB Tonight, MLB Central, High Heat, MLB Now and The Rundown.

Dan visited the Jack Vita Show last summer to discuss his time in baseball, and weigh in on roster construction from teams around Major League Baseball. He also shared which teams he thinks can improve significantly and surprise people in 2023.

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