BRINGING IT HOME

A synopsis of Nolan Ryan's five-year career with the Rangers might be a diagram of the 1991 season: great expectations, good offense, no defense, injuries, poor overall pitching, a disappointing finish.

And one near-perfect night.

Ryan's seventh no-hitter on May 1, in which he retired 27 of the 29 batters he faced and struck out 16, made up for many of the club' s shortcomings, as far as fans and management were concerned. Ryan, as managing general partner George W. Bush pointed out, was the primary reason fans kept coming, even when August burned into September and first place looked as far away as December.

The Rangers finished 85-77 in 1991, their best performance under Bobby Valentine since his first full season as manager, in 1986. But they finished third in the American League West, 10 games behind Minnesota.

They showed signs of a promising offense in 1991, with the development of Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer and Julio Franco's batting title. The team batted .270 and hit 177 home runs, 67 more than it hit the previous season.

The Rangers lost the point differential in pitching, where their 4.47 earned-run average was the third-highest in club history.

"It was a very talented ballclub that had some difficulties it just couldn't overcome," Ryan said. "Pitching and defense are the two biggest parts of the game. The Dodgers won a lot of years on that."

The Rangers have lost a lot because they had neither.

They got a team-leading 13 victories from Jose Guzman, and he wasn' t expected to pitch at all. The defense only got worse when the club traded its best defensive player, Steve Buechele, to Pittsburgh late in the season for two minor league pitchers.

The loss of Buechele, following the release the previous winter of pitcher Charlie Hough, was disappointing to Ryan. Hough and Buechele were his favorites. "I liked their approach to the game," he said. "I liked them as people."

There was a lot to like about the Rangers going into the 1991 season, as far as team officials were concerned. They thought themselves pitching-rich. They didn't need Hough, they figured. Besides Ryan, they had Bobby Witt, coming off a 17-victory season; Kevin Brown, who had won 12 games in each of his first two seasons; Kenny Rogers, a lefthander who had won 10 games in 1990 coming out of the bullpen and had impressed Valentine with two starts at the end of the season; and Scott Chiamparino, who had pitched 12 scoreless innings in his first two 1990 starts after being acquired from Oakland.

And that starting rotation was, on the whole, a disaster.

Brown had his worst year as a Ranger, going 9-12 with a 4.40 ERA. But at least he pitched 2102/3 innings. Witt, Rogers and Chiamparino combined for 2202/3. Chiamparino made five starts before elbow problems in effect ended his Rangers career. Witt's shoulder and elbow injuries limited him to his fewest innings as a Ranger. Rogers had a 13.11 ERA after three starts. By mid-June, he was back in the bullpen.

Eight Rangers pitchers went on the disabled list a total of 10 times in 1991. Valentine used 23 pitchers in all, 13 of them starters.

Only Guzman's return in May after a two-year absence rescued the rotation.

And there was Ryan, of course.

He won 12 games and held opponents to a league-low .243 on-base percentage. But he continued to have health problems. He went on the disabled list twice with shoulder problems. His back often hurt, as it had in 1990.

He felt so bad before his fifth start in 1991 that he commented on it to pitching coach Tom House in pre-game warm-ups.

Ryan asked House, another 44-year-old, if he ever felt his age. "I feel old," Ryan told him. He told House he had been taking pain relievers since noon. His back hurt. His shoulder hurt.

His fingers hurt.

He felt terrible right up to the moment he threw his first pitch against Toronto.

"It kicked in in the first inning," Ryan said of his rhythm and power, "and it went better as the game went along."

Ryan had come close to throwing a no-hitter against the Blue Jays before. He made it hitless through 81/3 innings in a 1989 start before giving up Nelson Liriano's triple.

Blue Jays third baseman Kelly Gruber thought Ryan was more imposing in the 1989 near-no-hitter. But the evidence would indicate otherwise. In 1991, Ryan struck out 16, his second-most in a no-hitter. He gave up only two walks, both on full counts.

The closest Toronto came to a hit was Manuel Lee's one-out flare to center field in the sixth inning, caught by Gary Pettis at his knees, on the run.

"They were overmatched, and it was no fault of theirs," Rangers shortstop Jeff Huson said. "They just got in the way of a train."

Buechele compared it to Ryan's sixth no-hitter, the previous season, and said it wasn't even close. The 1990 no-hitter against Oakland wrung everything out of Ryan's teammates because of his laborious, pain-wracked approach.

"This," Buechele said, referring to 1991, "was like being a spectator, he was so dominant."

Ryan's last pitch, his 122nd, was a 93-mph strike past Toronto second baseman Roberto Alomar. The confrontation was poignant. Alomar' s father, Sandy, played second base for California on Ryan's first two no-hitters.

The Blue Jays were properly impressed.

Toronto manager Cito Gaston had complained in the 1990 season opener that Ryan scuffed the ball. He had no complaints after the no-hitter.

"It was one of the best performances I've seen," he said. "It was amazing."

Even with the distance of two years' perspective, Ryan is unsure how to rate his last no-hitter. He used to say he likely would appreciate his records when he was older and out of baseball. But it seems unlikely, given his forgetfulness.

He knows at least that it was better than his sixth, because the Blue Jays were better hitters than the Oakland team he faced in 1990.

He believes some other Ranger may have potential for another in Arlington. The staff will be even younger in 1994 than it was in 1991.

But Ryan believes it has great promise, even without him.

"You've got to feel good about (Roger) Pavlik, (Kevin) Brown, (Kenny) Rogers, and (Brian) Bohanon," Ryan said. "Those are four legitimate guys. Then you've got (Rick) Helling, who's got potential to be a starter.

"If they don't all come together next year, they will at some point in the future."

A future without Nolan Ryan.