Timothy Gerard Purpura (born March 19, 1958 in

Oak Lawn, Illinois Oak Lawn is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 58,362 at the 2020 census. Oak Lawn is a suburb of Chicago, located southwest of the city. It shares borders with the city in two areas but is surrounded mostly b ...

) is an American baseball executive and former lawyer. He is the former General Manager of the Houston Astros

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

team. He was with the club from 2005 to 2007.

Biography

He graduated from

Oak Lawn Community High School Oak Lawn Community High School, is a public four-year high school in Oak Lawn, Illinois, in the Chicago metropolitan area. The name "Spartans" and the colors Kelly Green and White were chosen by a committee in tribute to the Michigan State U ...

in Illinois in 1976. Purpura received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago in 1983 and earned a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 1992. He was inducted into the Oak Lawn Community High School (Illinois) Hall of Fame in November 2005. He worked as an assistant in player development for the California Angels during spring training from 1990 to 1992 and headed special projects for the San Diego Padres minor league department in 1991. Purpura was the Houston Astros assistant farm director in 1994 and the Director of Major and Minor League Player Relations from 1995 to 1996. He was the assistant GM/Director of Player Development from 1997 to 2004 and was named General Manager of the Astros in November 2004, replacing Gerry Hunsicker. Under his tenure, the club made its first

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 World Series, 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The ...

appearance (against the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

) in 2005. It proved to be the highlight of his career as general manager. Trades to try and keep the Astros window open a bit longer with the twilight of the careers of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio brought the arrival of Carlos Lee in 2007 on a six-year $100 million deal (backloaded to pay more money in the last years). While Lee did have decent offensive numbers with the Astros in five seasons, the Astros could not stop the inevitable plunge;

Andy Pettite Andrew Eugene Pettitte (; born June 15, 1972) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the New York Yankees. He also pitched for the Houston Astros. Pettitte won fiv ...

and Roger Clemens each departed after the 2006 season. Acquisitions by Purpura such as Preston Wilson (signed in 2006 to provide a bat before being DFA'd in August), Woody Williams and Jason Jennings (as done by dealing Willy Taveras) did not pan out. With the Astros at 58-73 in 2007, Purpura and manager Phil Garner were fired by owner Drayton McLane on August 27, 2007. He replaced Purpura on September 20, 2007 with Ed Wade taking over as general manager. He was later executive vice president and chief operating office of Minor League Baseball (2008-2011), Texas Rangers senior director of player development (2011-2013), and adjunct professor in SMU's Graduate School of Sports Management (2014-2015). In September 2016, he was named President of the Texas League of Professional Baseball Clubs. Tim, his wife, Shari, daughter Brooke, and son Brennan, make their home in Bellaire, Texas.

References

External links

Texas League AnnouncementHigh School Hall of Fame bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purpura, Tim 1958 births Living people Houston Astros executives Major League Baseball executives Major League Baseball farm directors Major League Baseball general managers People from Oak Lawn, Illinois Western State University College of Law alumni