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Nolan Ryan

Nolan Ryan
Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, 1999
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 33 of 1218 players
Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan
Born: January 31, 1947 at Refugio, Tex.
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 6.02 Weight: 195

Nolan Ryan has been the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup 40 times, most recently on June 18, 2023.

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First Mets game: September 11, 1966
Last Mets game: September 28, 1971

Share your memories of Nolan Ryan

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Richard Kissel
March 30, 2001
It wasn't just that we traded this Hall of Famer for a washed up shortstop who we wanted to put on third base. It is the three other players we also gave up.

Coach HoJo 20
April 20, 2001
The Ryan Express was in my opinion the greatest pitcher of all time. There are some people in baseball that you just need to see. Ryan is one of those guys.

Coach HoJo 20
April 25, 2001
This memory is from Ventura's days as a ChiSox and Ryan's days as a Ranger.

Does anybody remember when Ventura charged the mound when Ryan hit him with a pitch? I bet Ventura didn't expect to be humiliated by an "old timer." Ventura charged the mound, Ryan gets him in a headlock and pounds on his head and then boom he hits him with a powerful forearm shot.

Pretty embarrassing for Ventura. Just goes to show that you should never underestimate your opponent.

Mike Tenenbaum
August 3, 2001
In the third game of the 1969 NLCS, Hodges went to the bullpen with go-ahead runs on base for the Braves. The hitter was Hank Aaron.

Ryan struck out the Hammer and ended the threat.

"Ryan is the only pitcher who could have done that to me," Aaron later said.

Another thing I remember was that Ryan's fingers were always blistered. His solution was to soak his fingers in pickle juice.

Mr. Sparkle
September 27, 2001
Ryan pitched for the Mets so long ago and really wasn't a major factor for them in those days. Obviously he had potential but the numbers he put up for us were never all that special. It's hard to think of him as a Met since he was with the Angels, Astros and Rangers for seemingly ever. When with the Mets he really wasn't a regular starter and didn't even have a winning record. I don't consider him a great Met but rather he's one that got away. If he were around today with the numbers he had then, I could see trading him for some offense. Obviously it would be a bad trade but you wouldn't know that until it were too late.

Jim Snedeker
November 19, 2001
I agree with Mr. Sparkle, it wasn't a big deal for us to trade away Nolan Ryan when we did. I remember being extremely happy when I heard the news. Fact is, back then, he had no control. It was like getting Doug Sisk for nine innings.

Charlie
December 14, 2001
Here's the thing...

I have a friend (slightly older than myself) who remembers the time of the trade vividly, and he says that the reports were that if Ryan weren't traded, he was going to retire.

I always liked Jack Lang's memory of this. For weeks beforehand, he wrote complaining because the Mets weren't doing anything on the trade front.

When the Ryan trade was announced, he confronted M. Donald (Duck) Grant in the lobby of the hotel and asked how on Earth he could deal Ryan.

Grant said "You know? You're never satisfied. For weeks you've saying we should make a trade."

Lang: "Yeah, but I never said to make THAT trade!"

Charles
January 31, 2002
I just KNOW I'm going to be in the minority on this one...as I have been every time I've made this statement. But--I was in favor of the Fregosi/Ryan trade.

You've gotta remember; Ryan had been with the Mets a little while. And just about every time he went out there, he was wild--look at his walks per innings pitched. Back then, the NL was thought of as a "low-ball league," where the umps called the strikes low. The American League was popularly thought of as giving you the "high strike." The problem for Ryan with the Mets was, because of how hard he threw, the ball often sailed high when he was with the Mets. And to this day, NO one can tell me that this fact made him a MUCH more effective pitcher in the American League. I'd venture to say that if he had been traded to a NL team instead of the Angels, he'd have nowhere near a Hall of Fame career.

Of course, the fact that Fregosi had a horrible year didn't help. The Mets tried to make him a 3B; I always knew him as a SS prior to then. Sometimes, learning a new position can affect other parts of your game.

Michael
March 18, 2002
When people criticize the Nolan Ryan/Jim Fregosi trade, keep in mind that Ryan forced the Mets hand. He wanted out of New York, his wife hated New York, and he was going to retire if he wasn't traded. Of course, if this happened in the present era, Ryan would have simply become a free agent and headed of to either one of the Texas clubs, no matter what the Mets offered.

Gary fro Chesapeake
May 4, 2002
My favorite memory of Nolan Ryan is hearing Lindsay Nelson call a pitch of his on radio: "Past the batter, past the catcher, past the umpire. All the way back to the wall..... a ball." And his voice was just so matter-of-fact!

Michael
October 16, 2002
C'mon, Mets fans. Be realistic. How many of you actually think that Nolan Ryan would have been a Met his entire career?

Shari
October 17, 2002
Michael-I don't know how long you've been a Met fan, but I've been one long enough to know that had Nolan stayed a Met he would have ended up being affected by the Flushing curse, ended up sucking big time and we fans would have crowned him Komiyama the first. Only the 1969, 1973, 1986 & 1988 & maybe the 2000 because I believe they got in on a fluke (beautiful as it was) teams have eluded the curse. It's almost like the curse of the Bambino in Boston, and the 54 year curse of the NY Rangers. We should only find out what the secret of the a formentioned teams were so we can end it once and for all.

Mike
November 28, 2002
One thing about Ryan, he wanted to be traded. I recall him saying that he would not really like raising his kids in NY. Well, guess what. Only WS ring he ever got he got in NY.

Bob R.
January 9, 2003
Trading Nolan Ryan was a good idea, but why did they have to trade him for washed-up Jim Fregosi? They could have done a lot better. Nolan was never comfortable playing in New York. Despite his many career strikeouts, Nolan wasn't in the same class as Tom Seaver or Jerry Koosman. As bad as this trade was, though, it wasn't as bad as the Amos Otis - Joe Foy fiasco.

Feat Fan
March 13, 2004
Ryan was so dominant that when Norm Cash came to the plate in the ninth inning after striking out three times previously, he stepped into the box with a piano leg instead of a bat. The umpire made him switch to a bat but it didn't help. Cash popped out to end the game. Amazing how the Mets STILL have not thrown a no hit game!

Jonathan Stern
November 17, 2005
Judging by his comments in Maury Allen's book on the 1969 Mets, you don't get the sense that Ryan felt much of a connection to the Mets. Not once does he express joy over the Miracle Year, nor pride over his outstanding postseason performances. Reportedly, the man just did not like New York. Either Ryan needed to distance himself from the NYC experiences that nearly ended his career before it really took fire, or he valued strikeouts and personal records more than winning - with the Mets or with any other team. A cold superstar, on the whole.

Figured prominently for the Astros in both of my two favorite playoff series: 1980 and 1986. In 1980, Tug's Phils came back to win the pennant when Ryan could not get anyone out in the eighth inning of Game 5 (he lost it at the worst possible time). Dealt nasty in '86 after several Mets were quoted as saying they thought he was over-the-hill. They were (extremely) wrong, but, thankfully, they prevailed in six.

Mike H
December 20, 2006
How could any Met fan fail to acknowledge how awesome Nolan was for us in the '69 postseason? He's one of the greatest pitchers of all time, people. Be proud that one of the greatest ever wore a Mets uniform first. Thanks for all the thrills, Nolan.

Larry Zappala
October 6, 2010
Ryan was so erratic with the Mets that they could no longer carry him. I remember his pitching motion as herky-jerky compared to the more compact delivery he acquired especially toward his later years. That's where the blame lies: not upper management for the trade but field management for failing to teach him the basics of pitching. Bullpen coach Joe Pignatano could've been more helpful overseeing Ryan's pitching mechanics than the progress of his tomatoes.

Hank Gutstop
March 23, 2011
The thing I remember being talked about, both before and after the Nolan Ryan trade, in the winter after the trade was made, was that Ryan and Gil Hodges didn't get along, and that Ryan wanted out of NY because of Hodges, and Hodges was glad to get rid of Ryan because he had run out of patience with him. This was in all the newspapers. I was only about 10 years old at the time, so it must have been pretty noisy talk if I still remember it.

The sad thing is that Hodges died in spring training that year (on Easter Sunday, if I remember correctly). I wonder if Ryan would have done better with the Mets if playing for the supposedly more patient Yogi Berra as manager.

Leonard Migliore
March 5, 2012
What I remember about Nolan Ryan on the Mets was that he was the reason I never thought of Seaver as a fastball pitcher; Seaver just threw the ball over the plate. Ryan was a fastball pitcher. Much later, I realized that Seaver threw the ball over the plate pretty hard.

Raymond Malcuit Jr.
November 13, 2019
A lot of people forget that Nolan Ryan wanted to be traded from the Mets.

stephen smith
June 8, 2021
I broke in with Nolan in 1965 with the Marion Mets, the Mets rookie league team. I played with him a short time as Jim McAndrew and myself were sent to Auburn in the NYP league after the first three weeks. Before the Marion season opened, we played our first full race intra-squad game and I was the lead-off hitter playing shortstop for the "visitors". The pitcher was a tall skinny kid from Alvin, Texas. The record book does not show it, but Nolan Ryan was the first pitcher I ever faced professionally, and I have the distinction of being the first professional hitter he ever faced professionally! (for the record, I flew out to right center.)

Larry’s Mets Memories
December 29, 2021
LNR!? This month is the 50th Anniversary of his departure. He was one of my favorites despite the bizarre & exasperating wildness. He simply wasn’t a fit for NYC, Mgr. Hodges or the starting rotation. He exposed IMO the overrated status of Pitching Coach Rube Walker & Bullpen Coach Joe Pignatano. They couldn’t see what was so plainly evident to the casual observer: Ryan’s unwieldy motion & mechanics. Either that or he was defiantly uncoachable - a homesick, headstrong, heart-aching Texan who wasn’t taking advice from “Brooklynites” like Walker, Hodges & actual native Pignatano (despite the fact that Rube is from NC & Jerry Grote - both catchers, ditto Piggy- is also a native Texan.)

So Nolie had the support system & the potential. Despite his glitches, I’m still perplexed that an athlete of his power, endurance & ideal size for a pitcher (6ft,180lbs) was accursed with control problems of that degree. Even two of his best Cal. yrs were marred by 200 BB - that I didn’t miss! Whatever the reasons, the memories are bittersweet: an indispensable part of the young pitching staff that made the Miracle of 1969 possible but who became a Hall of Famer starting (double meaning!) in his very first year (1972) away from the Mets.

What would’ve been if not for the trade? His struggles continue but with some improvements (12-12, 3-ERA, 200Ks.) Perhaps he’s converted into full-time relief, derivative of the ‘69 postseason. Then MDG trades LNR over $ and/or his impending free-agent status and/or the approaching 10&5 trade-veto privilege -and knowing Grant it’s an unequal deal. Like an accidental death, we’ll really never know.








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