IN A STRIKE ZONE

By 1981, Ryan had yet to realize that he would last longer than any other power pitcher. He figured he was good for three more years, four at the most. His fastball would burn out by his late 30s, he thought. He would get out of the game before resorting to any trick pitches.

But his fastball had lost only a few miles per hour since his 1975 elbow operation. And when his curve was in the strike zone, he could be unhittable.

The proof came on Sept. 26, 1981, in Houston's Astrodome, in a game between his Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He threw his fifth no-hitter, breaking the record of his idol, Sandy Koufax. It also was his first in six years, what seemed like an eternity for someone who threw four from 1973-75.

But if he thought it odd to throw a no-hitter at 34, he was even more surprised to do it in a season like 1981.

The strike, called June 12, was over the differences between players and management over free-agent compensation. Players could move to other teams, as Ryan had done just the previous season. But the movement still was restricted by a number of factors the players resented.

More than 18 months of negotiations brought the sides no closer to an agreement. The players' representative, Marvin Miller, recommended strike, and the players backed him.

Baseball players had gone on strike in the previous decade. In 1972, the players cost management 86 total games when they sat out 13 days at the end of spring training. They sat out eight days of exhibition games in 1980, costing the owners another 92 games.

But nothing the players had done was as costly, or shocking, as their 1981 action. Players and management did not settle the strike until July 30. Games weren't resumed for another week.

The time off was unsettling to many players, including Ryan.

Baseball players, like most professional athletes, are unaccustomed to schedule interruptions in season.

The strike put them on their own.

The uncertainty of the last few days before Miller called the strike made for strange accommodations. The Astros went into New York in early June for a series with the Mets. But, because the strike was rumored imminent, the Cincinnati Reds hadn't left town yet.

Both visiting clubs stayed at the same hotel in New York. Players hung out in the lobby, waiting for word on what their actions would be. Ryan got in a conversation with Reds broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, a former Reds pitcher. Ryan told him how much he admired the change- up of the Reds' Mario Soto, who had the best change-up in baseball. Nuxhall showed Ryan how Soto threw the circle change, which several years later would become an effective addition to his fastball and curve.

The strike held off for a few more days. In the interim, the Astros went on to Philadelphia, where Ryan would become involved in one of the most memorable confrontations of his career.

The Phillies' Pete Rose needed two hits to break the National League record for hits, held by Stan Musial. Rose tied it in the first inning with a single.

"After he got that first hit," Ryan said, "I said, 'Uh-uh.' He was going to have to earn it against me."

In Rose's next three at-bats, he was a victim of what the Philadelphia Inquirer called "as awesome a demonstration of pitching as you will ever see." A couple of witnesses told a reporter, nine years later, that they have not seen a great hitter so overmatched since.

Rose struck out three times.

All the pitches, except for a third-strike curve on the second strikeout, were fastballs. The decision to throw fastballs was made for a couple of reasons. The first was that Rose was a great breaking- ball hitter.

The second was that Ryan wanted to blow him away.

"That," Ryan said, smiling at the memory, "was a true one-on-one confrontation."

Rose threw his bat down in disgust after the third strikeout but, upon reaching the dugout, turned and tipped his cap to his tormentor.

"Everybody I talked to in the dugout said he wasn't throwing the same to me as he was to everybody else," Rose told reporters at the time. "I couldn't believe how hard he was throwing.

"If every pitcher pitched me like he pitched me tonight, I'd be going after my 1,000th hit instead of 3,631."

The thrill for Ryan had to last for nearly two more months when the players went on strike two days later. Ryan went home to Alvin. He hadn't been home in the summer for more than a few days since he was a teen-ager.

He painted his fence, a considerable chore on a ranch. He worked out as always.

"But your dedication to staying in shape really began to dwindle after a while," he said. "Each week that went by, I got more depressed about the strike.'

He didn't throw at all the last two weeks of the strike, convinced that the season was over. His record showed he had no trouble picking it up once he got back, though.

He went 11-5 in 1981 with a league-leading 1.69 earned-run average, the best of his career.

He apparently had adjusted to the lower strike zone of the National League, a problem in his first year with the Astros.

"If Nolan was getting his curve over for strikes," Houston reliever Joe Sambito said, "we felt he was capable of anything. The hitters' knees would be buckling when he did. If he couldn't get his curve over, guys could eventually catch up to his fastball.

"I don't know if you ever think a no-hitter. But when that curve was working . . . "

He didn't seem all that sharp those first few innings against the Dodgers on Sept. 25. He didn't yet use the circle change. His fastball was off a little, his control erratic. He walked three batters in the first three innings. On top of that, his back felt terrible.

But his curve was terrific.

He got into the seventh without any real trouble. Then Mike Scioscia hit a line drive into the right-field power alley for what seemed like a double.

But Tony Scott, the Astros' center fielder, had told right fielder Terry Puhl a few pitches earlier to move closer to center because no one was getting around on Ryan's improving fastball. Puhl slowed from his gallop the last few steps to make the catch, and Ryan believed he had a shot at his no-hitter.

Joe Garagiola was broadcasting the game for NBC. The longer the game went, the less Garagiola said. All he did in the ninth was announce the hitters, Reggie Smith, Ken Landreaux and Dusty Baker. His only comment was that Baker was considered by many to be the toughest out in the lineup.

Ryan struck out Smith on three fastballs and got Landreaux and Baker on groundouts.

The Dodgers got their revenge in the best-of-five divisional playoffs, used to determine divisional winners in the split season. Ryan beat the Dodgers in the first game, 3-1. But, in the fifth game, Ryan went six innings of a 4-0 loss. For the second consecutive year, the Astros went the limit in a playoff series, only to suffer a bitter loss.

Once again, Ryan found something else to sustain him.

"The really odd thing was that the family was going out to dinner after the game," he said, recalling the no-hitter. "My mother was there. Ruth's mother was there, and she almost never goes to a game. Ruth's sister went, and she's about as big a fan as . . . somebody in Russia. They were all there, and that made it special.

"It wasn't my best stuff, but it was the most meaningful, probably. I was home."