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Mound of memories Ryan's contemporaries reflect on his career and what made him great 07/25/99
Henry Aaron's durability and work ethic made him Alvin High School student Nolan Ryan's favorite ballplayer. Hammerin' Hank was 32 in 1966, when the 19-year-old Ryan made his major league debut for the New York Mets against Aaron's Atlanta Braves. Ryan got Aaron to pop up to the first baseman in their initial confrontation. Ryan struck out Aaron four times in his career, while baseball's all-time home run king took Ryan deep twice. Aaron victimized the Mets' Ryan for home run No. 606 (May 21, 1971), and the Angels' Ryan for No. 740 (June 14, 1975). "When I first faced Nolan Ryan, if you stepped to the plate, you knew you were going to get a walk. He might throw fastballs 120 mph, but you'd just be careful he didn't throw it behind you. I think the best thing that happened to Nolan Ryan was when he was traded to the American League, and he was able to get that high strike. Then he learned how to pitch, and I'm telling you, he was unhittable. "And the thing that was so terrific about Nolan Ryan was that he could go out and pitch a no-hitter, and then go in the clubhouse and ride the bike for 40 minutes. I mean, he didn't have enough. He kept himself in excellent shape, and you have to appreciate someone like that. "He was truly one of the few pitchers that, when he walked out on the mound, if he had great stuff, just consider yourself lucky that he didn't pitch a no-hitter." - Ken Daley "Any man to have longevity as he had it - and I'm not talking about in the last five years dew-dropping the ball or cutting the ball or throwing split-fingers to get by - I don't know how he ever did it. But he legitimately stayed a complete power pitcher for his whole career. Any man who could strike out over 5,000 hitters, I don't even think he should be questioned. "My God, I can't even imagine what this man's done and how he did it. And to look the same the day he retired, almost, as the day he started. He is living proof, to me, that if you take care of yourself and your work habits are extremely good, you can go almost to eternity. He proved that. He was a better pitcher when he retired than a whole bunch of them. "One time in Texas, I heard him grunt, which he used to do a lot. He had two strikes, and I can't remember the particular hitter, but that ball was in the mitt when he started his movement to hit. And that was with Texas, and he still had that type of velocity? I don't believe, truthfully, that we'll ever see another guy come down the pike that has that type of longevity and be that type of a power pitcher." - Ken Daley "Well, I only had him for two years, but he was a great pitcher. No doubt about it in my mind. Although his record was below .500 with me (Ryan was 26-27 for the Angels in 1978-79), he and Sandy Koufax were the two best pitchers I ever had. I'd put him in the same category as Sandy, which is a pretty high category. "He took care of himself, No. 1. No. 2, he wasn't a roustabout. He exercised and he set a program, which very few players do today. They know they have to work three hours a day, and that's it. I think Nolan probably worked six hours a day. "Some of my people told me we didn't draw as many people when he pitched as we did on an average gate. We'd average 33,000 all year, he was about 31,000. But you know why? We didn't have to give any hats away, any balls away, bats away, gloves away. We just had to give Nolan away; that was it. Publicity men didn't realize that until you told them about it. "It was a matter of money [when Ryan left the Angels]. I'm not so sure that Nolan knew why [Angels owner] Gene Autry and I couldn't take advantage of his abilities. His agent sent me a letter dated March 12, and he wanted an answer by March 15. Well, now, there was no way I could do that in two days. And there were a lot of incentives. The salary was fine. He didn't ask for an elaborate salary, but with the incentives and the insurance policy . . . well, if it was just a matter of salary it wouldn't have been a problem. But there were two pages of incentives and the insurance policy that Mr. Autry couldn't grant him. "I will say this: It was a hard decision to make, because Nolan was Autry's favorite player, without a doubt. I wasn't too close to Nolan, but Gene was. I think it was the hardest thing for Gene to do, and it was the saddest thing when we didn't sign him. The salary was below a million, but after the incentives it went over a million. And Gene, although he had money and wasn't destitute by any means - he looked at it from a business standpoint. And what happens to the other fellows? We had some youngsters coming up who were having pretty good years. Gene, like me, believed in one thing: Never go to a bank to borrow money to pay a ballplayer. "Listen, we all make mistakes in life, and that's one mistake I think we made. Absolutely. I think of all the people going in the Hall of Fame this time - he's No. 1 on my list. And that's tough for me to say, because I don't like giving Hall of Famers away." - Ken Daley "The thing that stands out in my mind was when he was pitching for Houston. Pete Rose was going for Stan Musial's record for hits in the National League [3,630 in 1981]. He tied it the first time up, and Nolan looked at him and said, 'You're not going to break it.' And Nolan struck him out three times in a row after that. Then we went into the strike for 60 days, and Pete always said, 'That's the longest I ever went without a hit.' Not only did he get him out, he struck him out three times. "Stuff-wise, he was as good as anybody I've ever seen. And he had that mental toughness that they just don't have now. [Roger] Clemens might have it, but that's about it. You knew, every now and then, you were going to have one up and in. "I also remember facing him in my first minor league game [in 1966] - four punchouts. I was playing for Spartanburg [S.C.], and he was with Greenville [S.C.]. I was hitting all one way, right-handed. I think that's what made me go to switch-hitting." - Ken Daley "Nolan Ryan is as Texan as it gets - determined, hard-working. He loves his family, and he's blessed with a can-do spirit that absolutely refuses to let obstacles stand in his way of his dreams. "He is a credit not only to sport but to society as a whole. On the field and off, he has shown by example that true greatness requires more than just talent and skill. It also takes character." � Tony Plohetski "There were many times I would've loved to have gone up just to shake his hand, and I was intimidated to do it. Especially as a younger pitcher. He commands so much respect. And it seemed like, toward the end of his career, he was in such high demand for autographs. That's opposing teams' players wanting autographs, much less the fans. He was inundated with requests for autographs from opposing players. I was overwhelmed by that. "I was too intimidated to even go up and shake his hand and introduce myself. I wish I would have, but I never did it. That's the kind of presence he had. You'd love to meet him, and you admire him so much, but it was like, 'Nah, I don't want to bother him.' "I really wish I would have." - Ken Daley "The only thing I remember is that when he started, a lot of guys didn't play. A lot of the older guys sat out. It wasn't any fun facing him. You didn't really want to face him, but it was a challenge. Especially for me. I grew up in California, where he pitched for the Angels many years. I think I had more of a thrill facing Tom Seaver than Nolan Ryan, though, because Tom Seaver was just 'The Guy' to me, at the time. But Nolan definitely was no day at the beach. "I remember the first time I faced him. We'd played some games and were coming home to face Houston and Cincinnati, and Nolan was pitching the first day of the series. I remember Enos Cabell and Reggie Smith and all these guys saying, 'Young man, you've been facing these . . . these pitchers. But tomorrow, you face The Express. Tomorrow, tune it up.' We were on the plane, and now I'm all psyched out, trying not to think about it. And John LeMaster says, 'Ah, don't worry about him, young man. You hit all the other ones. You'll hit him, too.' "That game, I think I hit a single and a home run to left field off him. And I got drilled the third time up." - Ken Daley "When he first came over here, I said, 'This guy couldn't be that good, because I hit a home run off of him.' Nobody believed me, but I got the proof. Later on, after he got his 300th win, everybody came around saying, 'What did it feel like to be the first pitcher to lose to Nolan Ryan?' It's kind of funny what you remember and what you forget. If I had known he was going to be Nolan Ryan, I would have remembered being the first losing pitcher against him. "They said you used to be able to hear Ted Williams when he was on deck, because he'd get the rosin and pine tar and start grinding his hands on the bat. The pitcher would look over, and it was kind of scary. It was like that with Nolan. Everybody knows how hard he throws, but you'd hear those grunts on every pitch. "We were playing the Pirates one time, and he was facing Jason Thompson. He had a 3-2 count, and he'd thrown about four straight fastballs and Thompson kept fouling them to the screen. Finally, he threw him a changeup. Thompson swung in front of it so much, he threw his bat into the first-base dugout. After the game, I was talking to the guy that runs our radar gun. He said, 'Guess how hard that changeup was that got Jason Thompson?' I said, 'I don't know.' He says, 'Eighty-nine miles an hour.' "He was throwing it about as hard as everybody else throws their fastball, and the guy was swinging so far in front he couldn't hold onto his bat." - Ken Daley "Players everywhere knew you're not supposed to charge the mound on Nolan Ryan, that's for sure. But, he's got guts, charging the mound on him, especially in Texas. Maybe the heat of the day or night got the best of him. "You just remember that incident because Nolan Ryan was in a class of his own. He used to brush people back or come inside and hit someone. Everybody used to just talk about - 'Don't do that [expletive] again.' But nobody had ever charged the mound on him [since Dave Winfield in 1980]. I guess Robin just had enough. "Don't mess with them boys from Texas. He [Ryan] is strong. He's used to wrestling them steer down. I'm sure Robin will live the rest of his life remembered for charging Nolan Ryan." - Ken Daley "They might cry for the first time in their lives. "Nolan Ryan didn't pitch against me that much. He was a rookie when I was just about ready to go south. But a pretty good pitcher. What else can you say? Good pitcher." - Ken Daley "Not fun. It's just like anybody that throws 98, 99 mph: You never feel comfortable up there against him. "I actually got to the point where I felt like I had a chance. But he had three pitches, and if any of them were on, forget it. Fastball, curveball, change - all way above average. All. And when you're facing Nolan Ryan, you can't sit on a change. You've got to look for the heater and try to adjust. And I know he struck me out more than anybody. But Randy [Johnson] is closing the gap real quick. "That first [Hall of Fame class] might be the greatest of all time. But this one's certainly one of the best. Really great people in this class going in - Nolan Ryan, Brett, Yount, Orlando Cepeda, great people. I'm really happy for all of them." "My rookie year, Nolan was pitching for the Angels. And for whatever reason, Lord knows why, I tried to bunt off of Nolan. Here's a guy who throws 97, 98, can hit 100 [mph], has a nasty curveball, and I've got to try to find some way to get on base. "I tried to bunt - it was almost a good bunt - and the next two pitches were right at my chest. I mean, I went over backward, screaming on the way down, because I thought I was dead. I got up after the second one and looked at him and said, 'You proved your point. I got the message. No more, you win. I can't bunt anyway.' "I played with Clyde Wright [on the 1975 Rangers], and the Angels came into town one time. Nolan always used to go around and check the ground out in front of the mound. So Clyde Wright took little plastic spiders and snakes and snuck them out around the mound. Nolan found them. He didn't laugh. I thought it was hilarious. Nolan didn't think it was funny. "I'm sure Nolan probably laughed about it some other time, but he had his game face on, and that was not funny to Nolan then." - Ken Daley "The type of player I've always been, I was willing to accept the challenge of whatever comes. Nolan Ryan was a pitcher that, to me, was willing to take the challenge himself. That's what made it exciting, and that's what made me respect Nolan Ryan. If he got beat, he got beat. If you hit him, you hit him. If you don't, he did his job. He was a great pitcher and a great person, and I really don't like any pitchers. But he was a good man to me. "I think he put a fear in young guys because he was so dominant. He was the strikeout king already, and you had to be prepared to get him. And if you had any fear, he was going to bring the fear out of you. Nolan would pitch on both sides of the plate, and if he felt he needed to get inside or knock you down to put fear in you, then he was going to do that and make his game stronger. But if he knocked you down and you got back on your feet and got back in there and battled, then he was going to go to battle with you and you could have fun with it. "It was a little tougher for him to strike me out than it was for most of the guys on my team. I knew I wasn't gonna be the 5,000th strikeout. I wasn't gonna be nowhere near that, because I had already gotten two hits off him. And then Walt Weiss got two strikes on him and he bunted, because he didn't want to be the 5,000th strikeout. So I was the next guy up. Now, even though I knew I wasn't going to strike out, I went up and told the catcher [Chad Kreuter] and the umpire [Larry Young], 'If you call strike three on me, can I take the ball and give it to him?' And the catcher said, 'No, I want the glory to give it to him.' So now I'm up there thinking, 'I can't let you strike me out now.' "But the pitch he struck me out on, it was the hardest pitch that he threw that day, and he painted the outside corner. We competed, and I was a man about it. The next day, I went to lunch. Everybody's talking about it. I bought a bunch of newspapers because I'm in the headlines and pictures and in the record book with him. And I went to the Blackeyed Pea, and guess who I saw? Nolan Ryan. So I went up and shook hands and talked about it. And he said, 'You know, out of everybody on that team, I'd have bet my house that you wouldn't have been the one.' "And I said, 'I'd have bet my house, too.' " - Ken Daley "Nollie never gave anyone any trouble, but he just didn't seem to have any drive at first. He never wanted to do his running or anything like that. Maybe it was because that coach he had in high school made them run all the time. "Nollie really started to blossom when he went to camp with the Mets. He watched how Tom Seaver did his job, and that changed him. That's when he really started putting it together. It wasn't me or Rube Walker or Gil Hodges. It was Seaver. Nolan idolized Tom, and he started working like Tom. "The general feeling with the Mets was Nolan would never be a great pitcher in New York City. I'll never forget when I got home one Saturday night and Bob Scheffing asked me to call Leroy Stanton to tell him we'd traded him to California for Jim Fregosi. "I wouldn't have traded Leroy for Fregosi. Scheffing didn't tell me that Nollie was in the deal, too. He never did explain that to me. "I really believe going to Anaheim was the best thing that happened to Nollie. He could be Nolan Ryan. There was no pressure. That team was a graveyard under lights. "Nolan really established himself at a pitcher then. Look at the numbers. Nobody's ever going to do the things he did then. I remember him pitching 15 innings against Boston on Monday and coming back on Friday to pitch a 1-0 shutout. He was incredible. "He never had a bullpen there, so he had to finish every game if he was going to win. Nollie never really played for great teams. The Mets couldn't score runs. The Angels couldn't score runs. Houston wasn't the '27 Yankees. The Rangers could score some runs, but they had other problems. I just wonder what Nollie could have done if he had ever played on a really good team. "When Buzzie [Bavasi] let him go from the Angels, he said we'll get two eight-game winners to replace Nollie. I don't think Buzzie knew how hard it was to win eight games with those Angels teams. "I was real fortunate. I got to be with Nollie and George Brett at an early stage of their careers, and now they're going into the Hall of Fame together. My time with them is something I'll always treasure." - Gerry Fraley "Nolan's academic achievements were uninspired, but it was unthinkable that any Ryan child would be a scholastic washout. He did all assigned work well enough to escape censure and stay eligible for athletics, but his heart was in tossing a baseball. Though he tolerated instruction amiably, I don't think I ever won his full attention. "By his junior year, however, he had acquired another top-priority interest, in the person of a beautiful and little freshman girl named Ruth Holdorff. Ruthie enjoyed academia and was a top student. She and Nolan became sweethearts. "When Nolan left for New York, Ruth still had two more years of high school. But Nolan was back home between seasons, enrolled in Alvin Junior College, and they remained a couple. I had moved to high school by this time, and in 1967, her senior year, Ruth returned to class after Christmas holiday. She drew me aside and, with a quiet, shy pride, showed me her engagement ring. Nolan and Ruthie were married in June." - Ken Daley "He was just a great teammate. There is no pitcher more competitive than he was. On game day, you knew it was his day to pitch, just by the look on his face. He had a tremendous work ethic. People don't realize how hard he prepared himself for games. Physically, he had the strongest set of legs on any pitcher I've ever seen, and yet he couldn't run a lick. But he could push off pretty good and drive with those legs, and he did a lot, obviously, that way. "I knew in the first inning whether he had no-hit stuff or not, and I judged it by his curveball. If he threw his curveball over [for strikes] in the first inning, he had a shot at throwing a no-hitter. If he bounced it a couple times in the first inning, that meant he didn't have command of it and it might take him a while to get it, so he was going to throw more fastballs. People know he had a great fastball, but even as great as his fastball was, if he didn't have his curveball working, he was hittable. But if he threw that curveball over in the first inning, the first thing that went through my mind was, 'This might be the night. It might be another one.' "That was how devastating his curveball was. And he had a way-above-average changeup that people don't even talk about. He had three pitches that almost any pitcher would give his eyeteeth for. And, on given nights when he had all three working, you might as well head for the house, because the game was over. "And what a competitor. He was all business when he was on that mound. I remember one night, I think it was the last game of the year, we played Cincinnati. It didn't mean anything to either team. But Nolan kind of had this pet peeve about guys bunting against him. He didn't like that. Well, they had a rookie catcher come up in the second or third inning. They had a guy on third and one out, and the other manager put a squeeze on; the kid was just doing what he was told. He squeezed, bunted the guy in, he scores. I was sitting on the bench and I just saw Nolan give this kid that glare, that Nolan Ryan look. And I told a few of my teammates, guys who were new to the team that had been called up, 'Watch what happens to this guy next time he comes up.' And, sure enough, Nolan buried a fastball in his ribs. The ball was about halfway to the plate, and the kid screamed. I mean, he let out a scream before the ball hit him, and he went down like somebody shot him. And I remember Nolan walked all the way to home plate, picked up the ball, and just walked back. They were helping the kid down to first base. I don't know if he actually told the kid, 'Don't ever bunt on me again,' but the message had been sent." - Ken Daley "I faced Nolan Ryan when I was 39 years old [Ryan was 27], and it wasn't very nice. He was a wild young stud, and he was overpowering to me at that stage of my life. I remember I was ready to retire, and I didn't want to get hit in the head. "He was a great pitcher, and it was amazing that he was able to maintain his fastball even to the day he retired. He was probably one of the better-conditioned athletes that we ever had in this game. "Bob Gibson could intimidate you. [Don] Drysdale could intimidate you. And Ryan. Guys really don't intimidate you as much today as they did. I mean, you see guys digging in at the plate [today], and you would never do that against those guys or they would knock you down just because they'd think you were showing them up. Most pitchers today don't even look at it that way. But with those guys, if you took a hard swing and fell down, you were going to go down again on the next pitch. "The game has changed. Nobody wants to hurt anybody. Nolan could have hurt somebody, as hard as he threw. With Early Wynn, if you hit a ball back up the middle, you would be on your back the next time he saw you. It's pretty much an unwritten law that you just don't go after anybody anymore." - Ken Daley "What I remember about Nolan more than anything is his breaking ball. When he had it going, he was unhittable. Everybody knows about his fastball, but he had such a great curveball. It was like a 12-6 [hands on a clock], going straight down. Any hitter will tell you that that's one of the tougher pitches to hit, a pitch that's going straight down like that. And then he was just wild enough to keep you honest. That's what made him even tougher. "In that last game, the guy in front of me, Dann Howitt, hit a grand slam. And, having faced Nolan before when he was still throwing the ball well, it didn't seem like he was throwing that hard. I came up and he went 2-0 on me, and you could tell he was throwing about 80 mph and was really laboring. I don't think so much that he was in pain, but he didn't have the normal arm speed he did. Something was wrong. He wasn't throwing very hard. You could tell something was the matter. "He threw me a strike to go 2-1, then he shut it down. They brought in another pitcher, and I ended up walking. "It was sad. He was in phenomenal shape, and to see a man that had gone so many years being healthy go out that way, it was really sad. He was obviously one of the best. It's an honor [being the last batter that Ryan faced]. I can tell my grandkids I faced Nolan Ryan, one of the greatest pitchers of all time. It's nice to say that." - Ken Daley "I don't know how many years ago, but about a year or so into being a minor league pitching coach, I saw Nolan warm up in spring training. And I said I would pay $100 just to go watch Nolan Ryan warm up, just because of mechanics. He had a great arm and threw hard, but the reason that he threw so hard for that long is because his mechanics were just unbelievable, just beautiful. All the things that you teach: a nice, slow backstep; spend time on it until your hands get to a certain point; get a good turn; drive to the plate; follow through straight up. He was perfection to watch. "I've been in pro ball since 1963, and I don't have a lot of idols, but in the top five is Nolan Ryan. His demeanor on the mound, his persona. I've seen him absolutely terrify young kids on deck, with just a glance. The count is 2-2, and some kid hit a home run off of him the last time up or something. The kid will be over putting pine tar on the bat, and he'll turn to the mound and see Nolan just rubbing the ball, looking at him, then stepping back up to pitch. And you just see the kid on deck, going, 'Oh, [expletive].' "Glenn Wilson was a friend of his, a pretty good outfielder who grew up in Texas, worked out with [Ryan] in the winter time. I remember one time toward the end of spring camp, the wind was blowing out like hell to left field there in Port Charlotte. The bases were loaded, and Glenn just hit a bomb off of Nolan for a grand slam. We [the Pittsburgh Pirates] had three kids on base, so they ran pretty good. But Glenn went around the bases like 8,000 mph. "At home plate, everybody was standing there to high-five him, but Glenn hit the plate and ran right by them, right by everybody, straight to the dugout. And he sat down and covered his head and said, 'Is he looking?' And everybody said, 'Yeah, he's staring.' And Glenn said, 'Oh, [expletive]. I'm gonna get the bow tie.' I guess that was Nolan's thing, everybody needs a bow tie, and it needs to be loosened up a little bit." - Ken Daley "He was overpowering, with a big heart and a great work ethic. How can you relate to him when he had such an abundance of talent? We competed for the playoffs, the Cy Young award, for notoriety. He always had tremendous poise and composure. And stubborn? Yeah. "Maybe the greatest thing about Nolan was that you came to the ballpark not knowing if you were going to see 16 to 19 strikeouts. You'd come to the ballpark when he pitched knowing that anything was possible." - Ken Daley "He probably took more no-hitters into the seventh inning than anybody I've ever faced. He was probably the most-feared guy to face. If you took a consensus of everybody on the ballclub, he'd be the last guy you'd want to face, especially if you were right-handed. "He was intimidating. He'd stand out there and look at you like, 'You'd better watch out.' I never had any success against him. I think I hit one home run off him in my career, and that was by accident. I swung late and happened to catch it good enough to hit it out to right field in Texas. Other than that, he pretty well dominated me. "I usually considered it a moral victory if I just made contact." - Ken Daley "He was one of a kind. In the era that he played, he was the most dominant power pitcher for roughly 20 years. When he was on his game, he simply overpowered the hitters. And when he was getting his curveball over, he'd overpower the hitters and embarrass you at the same time. "A lot of people didn't like to play against Nolan. I never asked out of the lineup, but I was hoping the manager would give me the day off. Of all the pitchers I faced in that 17-year span that I played, he was the only one that I could honestly tell you I really didn't have a good chance against at all. That day, I had to make a good defensive play to help my team." - Ken Daley "When I was with the Kansas City Royals [in 1992], we were facing Nolan Ryan with the Rangers at their old stadium. I was leading off, and I'm in the batter's box and he's walking around the mound, stomping on the grass in front of the pitcher's mound. And I'm like, 'What is he doing?' And the catcher [Geno Petralli] said, 'He's trying to tell the hitters not to bunt.' "I say, 'He's not going to tell me I can't bunt.' So, I tried to bunt. The next pitch was over my head. I stepped out and gave him a look. The next pitch, I took this huge swing. I fell in front of home plate. I was like, 'Yeah, you just try to hit me again. Just try it.' Anyway, I got to a 3-2 count, the ball was up here [above the letters] and I get called out. I started an argument and got kicked out of the game. I was just upset. "In Philadelphia, I had a little success against him. I remember one game was 0-0 into the bottom of the ninth. I bunted, stole second, somebody bunted me over, we hit a sacrifice fly and we beat him, 1-0. Ever since that day, I don't think he liked me much. But that bunting stuff, I didn't know about." - Ken Daley "The Ballpark may have been the vehicle that turned the franchise into a large-market team, but Nolan Ryan deserves a lot of the credit for getting The Ballpark built. When he arrived, he gave us the credibility that we didn't have before. And his performance while he was here got baseball on the front page, not just on the sports page. "He got people's attention. He helped us draw 2 million fans for the first time, and he gave us standing in the community we hadn't experienced before. People realized the franchise was different. He was an icon, and he was a good spokesman for us. He is the epitome of a Texan with that kind of 'Aw, shucks' attitude. "If there is one memory of him that stands out, it has to be the seventh no-hitter. I don't think anybody who saw that will forget it. It was just electric throughout the entire ballpark. What really struck me was after the game, I went down to the clubhouse to watch the scene. And he went through the same routine he always did. He iced down and then got on the stationary bike for 45 minutes. Here he was, 40-something years old and he had just accomplished an unbelievable feat, and he never varied from what he had always done. "It was the same thing the next morning. He was on every national morning talk show, and he still was down in the clubhouse at 8:30 to do his exercises. That, to me, summed him up. He never let fame get in the way of what he had to do." - Evan Grant "We were on a club where a lot of us threw hard. I threw hard, [Gary] Gentry threw hard, [Jerry] Koosman threw hard. And Nolan threw just that one amount harder. Everybody threw hard, but you knew when he was going to throw, it was one more foot on the fastball or whatever it was. "We were very good friends when we were together in New York. But it was just a matter of him maturing and getting into an environment where he was comfortable. And where they would give him the ball once every fourth or fifth day, which the California Angels did. That wasn't going to happen in New York, because you had Seaver and Koosman and Gentry, and . . . [Ryan] was wild. Are you going to give him the ball because he throws the ball 3 mph harder than Gentry or whatever it was? The other guys were pitching and winning and throwing strikes. He had to go to an environment where they said, 'You're pitching every fourth or fifth day no matter what, we don't care how many you walk.' "If . . . [the Hall induction] isn't very special for him, then he misses it. And if it's more special than anything else he's ever done, not in the sense of what you've done inside your industry on the field, but joining that kind of fraternity, it's got to be the special moment of any post-career accomplishment." - Ken Daley "I think either I'm lucky for him or he's just plain good, because I've been on two teams he's thrown no-hitters against [Los Angeles in 1981 and Oakland in 1990]. Maybe I'm lucky to be able to witness it. In the no-hitter against the Dodgers, he had as good of stuff in that last inning as he did in the first. We didn't have a chance. We knew in about the fourth inning of that game it was a done deal. "Nolan Ryan is probably the most awesome player that I've seen, from the time I started playing professionally in '75 to date, in 1999. That includes everyday players. Willie Mays, obviously, is my hero. Hank Aaron, those guys. But for guys that were in the period of time that I played, Nolan Ryan is probably the man. He could dominate so thoroughly. I never saw him have a bad game." - Ken Daley "I remember, in his early years before he became a pitcher, he was really just a thrower when he was with the Mets. He struggled with his command and control. He always had a tremendous arm and pretty good mechanics. Then I saw him years later when he was with Houston, and I think prior to that he became a really good pitcher. He quit trying to strike everybody out but just tried to get people out, and suddenly he was putting big wins on the board. And the strikeouts continued to come for him. He had great mechanics, used his legs a great deal, and was absolutely superhuman for the amount of time that he lasted being a power pitcher, which he still was right up until the end. "I was at the game at the Astrodome when he got his 4,000th strikeout [July 11, 1985], and it was Danny Heep. And, at that time, I remember that everyone was talking about how he was going to get his 4,000th strikeout and what a milestone that was. Then he went on to strike out almost a couple more thousand people, in excess of 5,000. I just remember what a huge milestone everybody thought that was when he struck out Danny Heep for his 4,000th. People were thinking he wasn't going to pitch very much longer. When I look back at it, it was a joke. I mean, 4,000 is a ton, it really is a milestone. But not for him." - Ken Daley "Being from Houston, I remember every time he took the mound there, pretty much all eyes would be on him. I saw quite a few of his games as a kid. It was just awesome to see that guy take the hill and see what he could do. It's too bad he never was really on a winning team. He accomplished a hell of a lot, but if he'd been on a winning team, like the Yankees or something, there's no telling what he could have done. "I had some of his books [on pitching]. He's a pretty fascinating guy. I've never gotten to meet him, but I'd love to." - Ken Daley "We did a book together, Nolan and I. He talked on pitching, and I talked on hitting. And I found out from reading his portion of it that I was the first one to hit a home run off of him. It was funny, because I didn't know that. I knew I hit a home run off him, but I didn't realize it was the first one ever hit off him. "Of course, I struck out my share, too [three times]. He stopped my longest hitting streak; I think it was 22 games. But my last RBI, the year I won the batting title and knocked in 137 runs [1971], he hit me or walked me with the bases loaded for my last RBI. Weird, how that all came together. "It's funny how he left two teams [California and Houston] after he was supposedly through. I think he learned a lot. He came along at the same time as [Tom] Seaver, and Seaver was a good guy to pattern yourself after. He drove with the bottom half of his body, which really took a lot of the strain off the shoulder. I think Nolie did a lot of that, enabling him to be a power pitcher until the day he packed it in. Plus, he threw at you and made you uncomfortable. That's half the battle, making the hitter uncomfortable." - Ken Daley "The first time I ever saw him was in Anaheim Stadium, 1978. He struck out 16. We only got two hits; Aurelio Rodriguez got both of them. I was hitting ninth, and he got me 3-for-3 - three punchouts. I'd never seen anybody throw that hard, and I still haven't. "He was, by far, the hardest thrower I ever faced. I know there were hard throwers, but to me, he was in a class by himself. I mean, 16 punchouts. Everything I'd heard about was true. "You knew that when you faced him, it was no day at the beach. Basically, what you hoped for was that he fell behind you, so he'd have to throw a fastball. Because if he got ahead of you, his fastball was so good and his curveball was so good, there was nothing you could do. He threw harder than anybody I ever faced. The ball looked like a golf ball, to be honest with you, because of the velocity." - Ken Daley "Managing him was an honor. Watching him provided some of the greatest memories of my life. Knowing him was a blessing. "I played center field in his first no-hitter, and the reason I played center field the next day was because he threw a no-hitter. That was the day I broke my leg running into the wall, because I wasn't playing shortstop. We wanted to keep the same lineup. It was a one-day deal, but then the next day, as most of us do, we didn't want to switch a winner. "I remember a ninth inning with two outs [June 14, 1974, against Boston], and he had 18 strikeouts, which tied the major league record. I had a ball hit right to me but I booted it, and he got 19 to end the game. I remember Cecil Cooper in that 19-strikeout game, in about the eighth inning, do something I've never seen a baseball player do. With two strikes, he hit a high foul ball down the line that was curving toward the fans. And he's standing on home plate, waving it back into fair territory, so he could just be out. You don't see that very often. "Nolan was Nolan before Michael [Jordan] was Michael. Those of us who lived there in Texas at the time, we won't forget him. I also don't forget that we had to drive to the back entrances of some hotels on the road so we could get out without drawing considerable attention. I remember his signing sessions at spring training that would go on for hours on end with him signing things. I remember his work ethic, his lack of understanding of some situations that didn't meet with his desire for excellence. "In baseball, you never have the moment stand still. You never know when it's going to happen. Even with McGwire at 61, you don't know it's this at-bat for 62. . . . [Ryan] had a 3-and-2 count on Rickey [Henderson]. The next pitch is 5,000, if he strikes him out. We're in the old [Arlington] stadium, standing room only, packed like sardines. And he threw the pitch and the entire stadium became a flashbulb. I almost fell down in surprise from the flash, and Rickey fouled the ball off. I don't know how he did it. I have no clue how he put the bat on the ball. It was exhilarating. Amazing as the moment was, the flash was just as amazing. Everybody in the stadium had a camera. At least it seemed that way." - Ken Daley "He was all over the place with it, very wild. Nolan didn't have any idea where the ball was going. Those kids were so scared, they'd swing at anything just to get out of there. "Starting his senior year, we had lost our first two district ballgames. The next day at practice, the kids were thinking like they were out of the district play, so they were loafing. So I just ran them. All day long, we just ran and ran. They were throwing up, they were getting sick, and Nolan was right in with them; he wasn't exempt. "Well, that afternoon after practice, I went over to one of my J.V. games over at Texas City. [Mets scout] Red Murff was over there and said, 'Bing Devine [the Mets' general manager] is coming down tomorrow to see Nolan pitch.' I said, 'Red, Nolan's not pitching. Last time I saw him, he was . . . [ill]." Murff pressured Watson into letting Ryan start the next day, in front of Devine. Watson recalls the results were disastrous. "That's the worst I have ever seen the kid pitch in his life. He came out in the second inning, down, 6-0. They hit everything he threw. He was wild. Bing Devine came up and said, 'I'm going back to New York.' " - Ken Daley |
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Is Nolan Ryan one of the top 3 pitchers of all time?