The Pecan Park Eagle

Nolan Ryan
~ wearing the right colors again ~

As an Astros fan, it still galls me that we lost Nolan Ryan to the Texas Rangers for the last incredible five seasons of his career – and that it happened because club owner John McMullen of Montclair, New Jersey had asked “free agent” Ryan to sign for less money to remain with the Astros. Nolan then did what you might expect him to do. He took his talents north to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and signed for more money with the Texas Rangers. And, of course, as we say from here to cliché’, “the rest was history.” Ryan pitched five more seasons (1989-93), won 51 more games, left a memorable collection of noogies on the head of Robin Ventura, and pitched the 6th and 7th n0-hitters of his career, while also becoming the 1st big league pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts and retiring with a total of 5,714 “K”s.

Nolan Ryan went into the Hall of Fame adorned as a Texas Ranger. No telling what he might have achieved on the way to the Hall had he finished those last five seasons as a Houston Astro, but my guess is that it would have been positive in its own right, that Nolie would have still gone into the Hall – and that he would have been inducted as the first Astro to have been inducted with Houston selected as his major MLB identity.

During his nine seasons as an Astro pitcher (1980-88), Nolan Ryan pitched his 5th career no-hitter and also became the first pitcher to pass the 50-plus years career strikeout leader, Walter Johnson, in an April 27. 1983 game at Montreal when he struck out Expos pinch hitter (and future Astros manager) Brad Mills for the 3,509th “K” of his career.

Ryan passed Walter Johnson in career strikeouts on April 27, 1983. Since that time, seven others from recent baseball history have done the same – and most of them have membership in the Hall of Fame in common. Only the current # 2 man, Randy Johnson, and the # 3  guy, Roger Clemens, are not in the Hall. 2015 will be Randy Johnson’s first year of eligibility for the Hall vote and he is widely expected to go in on the first ballot. Roger Clemens, on the other hand, has done poorly in his two ballot years because of his association with the PED abuse era and hardly anyone expects that condition to change anytime soon, if at all.

Greg Maddux is the # 10 man on the career “K’ list, right behind # 9 man Walter Johnson. Maddux’s 2014 selection for the HOF elevates the percentage of HOF members among the Top 10 to 80%.

Here’s the list, And thanks again for the memories, Nolan Ryan. Some of us will always think of you as a former Astro, anyway, even if you did finish your brilliant career in North Texas and go into the HOF as a Ranger. Our loss of you will always be on the New Jersey owner who never really was a part of or got to know the fans of Houston.

Here are the strikeout totals for the Top Ten Career Strikeout Leaders: