Facing Nolan

[Weatherman2020]

Looking forward to this coming out next week, one of my favorites. Was fortunate to live close to Anaheim stadium in the fun years.

Was pissed they traded Jim Fregosi for some guy named Nolan Ryan and a handful of other nobody's. That quickly changed.
He’d walk the bases loaded then fan the next 3 batters.
Was there when they used a new technology that could measure the speed of the baseball and it clocked him at 100.7. In the 8th inning when most pitchers are running on fumes.
Was there when he said he wanted to be the first to throw back to back no hitters and he went 7-1/3 before Hank Aaron slapped a clean single to center.
Saw him fan 18 in a game.
Saw him strike out Reggie Jackson in what I later learned was an at bat agreement in a meaningless game that Nolan would only throw fast balls during.

Many others. Going to Cooperstown in a few days, want to see his plaque.

 

[Meister]

He was incredible, saw many games with him pitching.
I remember Reggie Jackson in an interview was asked which pitcher he feared the most.
Reggie said it was Nolan. Nolan was just wild enough and had that super fast ball that
you had a fraction of a second to either swing or jump out of the way.

 

[BlindBoo]

Got to see his entire stent with the Astros.

 

[bluzman61]

THE strikeout king. What a pitcher he was. Thanks for the post.

 

[Harry Dresden]

seen both his no hitters at Angel stadium.....as well as dozens of his other games....

 

[Dragonlady]

Looking forward to this coming out next week, one of my favorites. Was fortunate to live close to Anaheim stadium in the fun years.

Was pissed they traded Jim Fregosi for some guy named Nolan Ryan and a handful of other nobody's. That quickly changed.
He’d walk the bases loaded then fan the next 3 batters.
Was there when they used a new technology that could measure the speed of the baseball and it clocked him at 100.7. In the 8th inning when most pitchers are running on fumes.
Was there when he said he wanted to be the first to throw back to back no hitters and he went 7-1/3 before Hank Aaron slapped a clean single to center.
Saw him fan 18 in a game.
Saw him strike out Reggie Jackson in what I later learned was an at bat agreement in a meaningless game that Nolan would only throw fast balls during.

Many others. Going to Cooperstown in a few days, want to see his plaque.

I remember meeting my friend to go to the Blue Jays game that night after work. We were playing the Texas Rangers. This was back in the Exhibition Stadium days in the early 1980’s.

I asked who was pitching for Texas. Nolan Ryan was the reply. “Overage power pitcher on the down side of his career” I replied.

Nolan Ryan no hit the Blue Jays for 9 2/3 innings. Tony Fernandez hit a little bloop single to short centre field to spoil the no hitter. Nolan Ryan went on to pitcher 4 real no hitters on the “downside of his career” and I never trash talked him again

 

[Papageorgio]

I saw Nolan pitch his last MLB game. It was at the Kingdome in Seattle September 22,1993, he blew out his arm.

 

[Harry Dresden]

THE strikeout king. What a pitcher he was. Thanks for the post.

when he was with the Angels i lost count of how many 1 run games he lost.....he lost 3 and 4 hitters.....if only Trout and Ohtani were there in those days....

 

[Weatherman2020]

Ron Luciano, an umpire of that era, admitted he never saw a few of Ryan’s fastballs. He told the catcher ‘that sounds like a strike’ and called a strike. Eye doc told him it’s because the eyes work like a camera, frames per second. Some things are too fast for the human eye to pick up.

 

[Weatherman2020]

In Cooperstown today.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

He was incredible, saw many games with him pitching.
I remember Reggie Jackson in an interview was asked which pitcher he feared the most.
Reggie said it was Nolan. Nolan was just wild enough and had that super fast ball that
you had a fraction of a second to either swing or jump out of the way.

That’s easy to believe.In the playoff game against the Phillies when the Astros played them,the first 9 hitters that came to bat only the great Pete rose was able to get a hit off of him.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Looking forward to this coming out next week, one of my favorites. Was fortunate to live close to Anaheim stadium in the fun years.

Was pissed they traded Jim Fregosi for some guy named Nolan Ryan and a handful of other nobody's. That quickly changed.
He’d walk the bases loaded then fan the next 3 batters.
Was there when they used a new technology that could measure the speed of the baseball and it clocked him at 100.7. In the 8th inning when most pitchers are running on fumes.
Was there when he said he wanted to be the first to throw back to back no hitters and he went 7-1/3 before Hank Aaron slapped a clean single to center.
Saw him fan 18 in a game.
Saw him strike out Reggie Jackson in what I later learned was an at bat agreement in a meaningless game that Nolan would only throw fast balls during.

Many others. Going to Cooperstown in a few days, want to see his plaque.

The most insane factoid about Nolan Ryan?

He never won a Cy Young award.

I'm not trying to troll and crap on Nolan Ryan, I think when you use modern standards and go back to the early 80's there was at least one year where Ryan should have won it. Back then, Cy Young voters cared FAR more about wins-losses and didn't care about advanced stats and ERA as much. As we all know, a pitchers win-loss record can be extremely misleading based on run support.

 

[DGS49]

As Bob Feller famously said about Mr. Ryan (I'm paraphrasing), he can not be called great because his winning percentage was mediocre (324/292).

And that is the biggest question about Ryan - not his failure to win a Cy Young award. Why did he have such a weak W-L record?

My own personal belief was the phenomenon had two causes: (1) He always was scheduled to pitch against the opponent's best pitcher, and (2) the opponents played extra-tough against Ryan because they assumed that it would be a low-scoring game, regardless.

Like Tim Wakefield (is this sacreligious?), he was a very popular pitcher whose record was not particularly impressive.

Just as important, he seemed to be a humble, no nonsense guy. Lord, we could use more of that sort today.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

As Bob Feller famously said about Mr. Ryan (I'm paraphrasing), he can not be called great because his winning percentage was mediocre (324/292).

And that is the biggest question about Ryan - not his failure to win a Cy Young award. Why did he have such a weak W-L record?

My own personal belief was the phenomenon had two causes: (1) He always was scheduled to pitch against the opponent's best pitcher, and (2) the opponents played extra-tough against Ryan because they assumed that it would be a low-scoring game, regardless.

Like Tim Wakefield (is this sacreligious?), he was a very popular pitcher whose record was not particularly impressive.

Just as important, he seemed to be a humble, no nonsense guy. Lord, we could use more of that sort today.

While I like Bob Feller (I have an autographed photo of him in my office to me, recieved from my grandfather who passed away who deeply loved baseball).. he clearly has an outdated view in his quote.

There are pitchers who have gone like 11-5 with a 5.56 ERA while other pitchers have gone 5-11 with a 2.96 ERA.

I'd want the latter of the two, and simply go about getting him the run support he needs.

 

[Weatherman2020]

The most insane factoid about Nolan Ryan?

He never won a Cy Young award.

I'm not trying to troll and crap on Nolan Ryan, I think when you use modern standards and go back to the early 80's there was at least one year where Ryan should have won it. Back then, Cy Young voters cared FAR more about wins-losses and didn't care about advanced stats and ERA as much. As we all know, a pitchers win-loss record can be extremely misleading based on run support.

Unfortunately they factor in how good your teammates are and your team standings. Tony Gwynn is another example. .338 lifetime average and no MVP.

 

[Weatherman2020]

As Bob Feller famously said about Mr. Ryan (I'm paraphrasing), he can not be called great because his winning percentage was mediocre (324/292).

And that is the biggest question about Ryan - not his failure to win a Cy Young award. Why did he have such a weak W-L record?

My own personal belief was the phenomenon had two causes: (1) He always was scheduled to pitch against the opponent's best pitcher, and (2) the opponents played extra-tough against Ryan because they assumed that it would be a low-scoring game, regardless.

Like Tim Wakefield (is this sacreligious?), he was a very popular pitcher whose record was not particularly impressive.

Just as important, he seemed to be a humble, no nonsense guy. Lord, we could use more of that sort today.

Simply because he was on crappy teams. Look at the Angel All Stars 73-79. Tannana, another pitcher, was their only real highlight.

 

[Weatherman2020]

While I like Bob Feller (I have an autographed photo of him in my office to me, recieved from my grandfather who passed away who deeply loved baseball).. he clearly has an outdated view in his quote.

There are pitchers who have gone like 11-5 with a 5.56 ERA while other pitchers have gone 5-11 with a 2.96 ERA.

I'd want the latter of the two, and simply go about getting him the run support he needs.

Don Drysdale had flown ahead of the team to get ready for his next game when Koufax threw one of his no-hitters. Drysdale was on the plane when that happened and was mobbed by reporters on what he thought.

Drysdale asked ‘Did we win?’ Dodgers hitting was not the best then.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Don Drysdale had flown ahead of the team to get ready for his next game when Koufax threw one of his no-hitters. Drysdale was on the plane when that happened and was mobbed by reporters on what he thought.

Drysdale asked ‘Did we win?’ Dodgers hitting was not the best then.

I never saw Koufax and Drysdale pitch... who was their 3rd and if applicable 4th in their rotation?

How did it match up with the Braves 90's rotation of Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine?

 

[Harry Dresden]

As Bob Feller famously said about Mr. Ryan (I'm paraphrasing), he can not be called great because his winning percentage was mediocre (324/292).

And that is the biggest question about Ryan - not his failure to win a Cy Young award. Why did he have such a weak W-L record?

My own personal belief was the phenomenon had two causes: (1) He always was scheduled to pitch against the opponent's best pitcher, and (2) the opponents played extra-tough against Ryan because they assumed that it would be a low-scoring game, regardless.

Like Tim Wakefield (is this sacreligious?), he was a very popular pitcher whose record was not particularly impressive.

Just as important, he seemed to be a humble, no nonsense guy. Lord, we could use more of that sort today.

did you see the team ryan was on in his prime years?...the guy lost a hell of a lot of 1 run games....he should have won 20 games at least 5-6 times with the angels....if he was on the Yankees back then he would have had a cy young....

 

[Weatherman2020]

Now on Netflix.