The fact that he threw 2 no-hitters after turning 40 might be his most impressive feat, and there are a lot to pick from. I'm 39 and I don't even like walking up stairs.
The guy was one of the hardest throwers in the game and was still pitching 7 innings per outing in his 40's. If his manager would have tried to put him on a pitch count, Ryan probably would have punched him.
Frankly, I believe the most impressive thing about Nolan is despite ALL of his MLB accolades, he remained a humble, quiet rancher at heart! He's a very nice, approachable and decent man!! I was fortunate enough to be able to watch several TCU games with both Nolan and Tom Grieve when their sons were both pitching for the Horned Frogs in the 90s. I had recently separated from the Navy and was working at TCU. They didn't pay overtime so any extra work I did was compensated with time off. I saved that time for watching baseball in the spring. As a lifelong baseball fanatic and also a huge Nolan Ryan fan, I immediately recognized both of them during one afternoon game on campus. I meekly approached 2 famous and accomplished former athletes just to tell them how much I appreciated their play. Instead of stating that I was undoubtedly disturbing them, I was invited to sit with them and talk baseball! They were seemingly just fathers watching their sons play baseball, and boy could they talk baseball!! Eventually Nolan was hired as a restricted-earnings coach so he didn't have to remain in the stands. Still it was an incredibly enjoyable experience while it lasted and it just made me that much of a bigger Nolan Ryan fan. Oh, and Tom Grieve was a pretty cool guy at the time, too.
What a tremendous candid story of these two baseball fathers! I was a referee who told recruits, "If you want to hear the best human interest stories off-the-cuff, go to a high school game and ask one of the parents in the stands which boy is theirs." You got a double portion!
this man was my childhood idol when I was a kid in the 80s. I'm from Toronto Ontario Canada and every summer my parents made me go live with my aunt who was my mother's older sister in Houston for the whole summer. her and her husband use to take me to watch the Astros at the old Astro Dome. great memories I was excited every time I seen Nolan Ryan and say to myself that's me when I play baseball against my fellow classmates playing baseball. I was the only kid in class picture with a Astros shirt and the rest had Blue Jays sweaters or shirts lol. thanks for this video made my day even brighter and made me feel young again.
April 8th, 1986...Houston Astrodome. Nolan Ryan facing a fresh faced rookie Will Clark and starts him off with that diving curveball. You can see Will smile. 2 pitches later, he got the Express and got all of it sending it over the centerfield wall and his first at bat vs the greatest righty of the time culminated in a homerun. He pointed to his parents, and sat down in the dugout next to Chili Davis. He noticed that the dugout was kind of quiet considering, so he figured straight away....turned to Chili and asked "He's going to hit me next at-bat, isn't he..." Chili just replied "Oh yes, yes he is."
Is this story true? I know Clark homered off Ryan is his first MLB at bat, but I haven’t heard the dugout story before. Will the Thrill and Ryan were my two favorites in the early 90s.
Nolan Ryan should have only won the award twice in 1981 and 1987. In 1981 although he definitely should have won his low inning count might have prevented him from winning. In 1987 he also should’ve won but it’s not like him losing was some huge robbery or anything. Ryan definitely did not put up historic seasons every year.
Not really…lost too many games wasting pitches and being wild. Conversely, look up Greg Maddux’ numbers or Roger Clemens even. Neither came close to losing 300 games like Ryan. No knock on Ryan, but baseball is about numbers
@@mickeywhite7878 Wins are a meaningless stat and while I think Nolan Ryan is extremely overrated and I agree that Clemens and Maddux are way better it’s not Ryan’s loss record that makes this the case.
@@commiehunter733 Me too! My favorite is his 1969 Topps card. It’s not a rookie card, but it’s his first individual card, which makes it better than his rookie card in my eyes. I have two of them, but they’re in rough shape lol
It's wild that Ryan never won a Cy Young, he had a solid case in '73 but barely lost to Palmer and was robbed in '87 because he had a losing record and played for a sub .500 Astros team despite him leading the league in ERA and strikeouts
I can't believe how many losses the poor guy had in seasons where he had a sub 3 ERA. He'd be so much more celebrated I'd he wasn't consistently on garbage teams
@Brah42 seriously, he was STILL dominant in the 90's, practically never gave up HRs, threw complete games in nearly half of his starts....it's wild to think of some of the random guys who have Cy Youngs instead of Ryan
I was able to meet him as just a neighbor when growing up in Friendswood as a teen. He lived one town over and you could always count on him and his family to support the community. Just a super nice guy and his wife and kids are terrific people.
I've been a White Sox fan since the mid '80s. I was 13 when that fight happened, and I was watching the game. Ventura was one of my favorite players around that time, because I also played third base.
Nolan Ryan's longevity alone affords him legend status. It is even more impressive when you consider that he was a starter, and was thoroughly utilized, through much of his career. He wasn't some guy who went from team to team, pitching a few innings here and there to any team who could use him. He was an institution unto himself. He threw A LOT of pitches.
When the other greats from his era like Steve Carlton just couldn’t hang on anymore…he just kept on trucking. I always think about the fact that he began his career before Johnny Bench, but Bench retired in 1983…ten years before Ryan! I know you can’t compare pitchers and catchers for longevity…but I just did lol
I'm 41. If I threw a baseball as hard as I could, it'd injure something from foot to neck and would likely clock in at 65 mph. This man's last pitch at 46 was 98 mph then an 85 mph zipper at 63 years old. Legend.
I was watching that game live on TV, I'm a die hard Mariners fan! In 1993 i was 15 yrs old, the hight of my baseball card collecting! When i found out Nolan Ryan was starting i was so excited!! Now my memory is not what it used to be, but if im remembering correctly, mike blowers hit a grand slam the batter before. I knew something was wrong, when Ryan was taken out of the game mid batter i was shocked/sad, then when he came out fir a curtain call the M's fans gave him a standing ovation, that brought me to tears, i had a feeling i just witnessed the end of a baseball Legend. Nolan Ryan is in my top 5 favorite players of all time! He has a ridiculous amount of records that will never be broken. And if he had any kind if run support in the 70's and early 80's he'd easily have over 400 wins!! The Ryan Express is My goat pitcher!
Dann Howitt was the M's batter who hit that grand slam off Ryan. As I recall, Dave Madigan followed with a single and Nolan walked off the mound to say goodbye before delivering a pitch to the next batter. Ryan went ahead to make his curtain call appearance on the road in Seattle, rather than to wait for a Ranger's home game. He had set out of the rotation to rest and rehab his arm for one more start. Of course we cried in Seattle to see the last ML pitch of a fireballing great HOF from Texas.
I seriously wondered if I wrote your comment and forgot about it. I watched that game live on TV at 15yo as well! I was BIG into card collecting too. During that time there were two cards I wanted to pull from a pack: Nolan and Griffey. The 1991 Upper Deck set was my favorite. Lots of good throwback cards of Ryan for all his teams.
You listened when I asked for an Albert Belle video 🙏. This time we need a video on the prime of Bernie Williams. Dude was a stud in an era of roided up sluggers .
I really appreciate that! I am extremely thankful to have such great supporters of this series, including yourself, so thank you for making these videos possible 😎
Nolan Ryan, what a tough and unforgettable hurler! He did the work of a starter, two high-leverage set up men and a closer for his whole career. He pitched himself out of his own jams; like a bulldog in a den of snakes. He was easy to manage because he was easy to trust... put the team on his shoulders then give him 3-4 runs.
I was blessed to get to see him pitch one time. August 1990, in Arlington, first game of a double header. He went 10 (game went I think 12), and in the 10th inning, sitting in cheap seats in CF, the first pitch we could hear pop all the way out there. The man was a legend, like some tall tale you'd share. Because the game has changed no one will get close to his marks. Pitchers are to valuable to throw 200+ pitches, or have 20 CG. But, he really existed and I got to see him. True gentleman and a real highlight. And come on, who were the dunces who looked at their HOF ballot and said, "nah, he's not a HOF player?"
If I’m picking a pitcher for one game with my life on the line, I’m taking prime Bob Gibson. If I’m talking one pitcher to start my franchise, I’d pick Nolan Ryan.
I can only speak for me. But, Ted Williams, Paul Molitor, Curt Schilling, Rod Carew, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker in one video, Gary Carter, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and Roger Clemons among others would make great videos in my opinion. Love this series and hope to see it continue!
If Cam23 makes a video about Johnny Bench, I hope he finds some way to bring up the kids' TV show that Bench did while he was playing as well as the story of how Bench perfected his penmanship
I just arrived in Chicago after the 13 hour all day drive. I sat down and turned the hotel TV on and at that moment, Ryan just plunked Robin Ventura. Ventura charged the mound and took a beating the Chicago mob woulda been proud of. Welcome to Chicago!!! Life moves pretty fast...
How did I not ask for this, Great video, Ryan was awesome. I only caught the tail end of his career but he got 2 no hitters and made the 5k club, and i got to enjoy watching hit do that and beat the crap out of ventura.
Glad you enjoyed the video! I apologize if I missed your comment I have a search filter and sometimes it doesn't correctly pull up every comment that mentions Nolan Ryan
Absolutely the most electric stuff of all time... and it's not really close. Had he been able to control it better and developed a change ... he would have been the most unhittable pitcher of all time by far.
We will never see another man like Nolan Ryan in baseball again. Why? 1. There aren't "real men" like Nolan vying for a pitching position. 2. They have ruined my beloved game with making it a hitters game. All a pitcher is now is a server, you have to mix up the meal just right in order to get a win, and there are no complete games now. 3. If a pitcher gets a mismanicured nail, he is considered "injured". It's sad what they get paid now versus what they have to actually do. 4. Hitters are conditioned to hit 100mph fastballs right down the middle. A pitcher would have to throw 110mph+ to be dominant. Then figure out how to be pinpoint perfect to deal with the shi*ty umpiring like Angel Hernandez. I could go on and on....keep 'em coming.
I’ll never forget, as a kid growing up in the early 90s, we were watching Ryan on TV and my dad made a crazy observation: Nolan Ryan pitched in the major leagues two years before man walked on the moon. That completely blew my mind! In my mind, the moon landings were like ancient history at that point. Turns out he actually pitched 3 years before the moon landing of 1969 lol
This is crazy me and my co worker who plays college baseball were just talking about nolan on thursday. Like he played for so long at at such a high level.
@@mickeywhite7878 Is that a real question lol? Pitching 26 seasons, Pitching for bad teams and not getting run support for extended periods of time during his career. 26 season's, 300 wins, 5700 SO's and an 81.3 WAR. Getting to 300 wins isn't happening anymore and no one is beating his 5700 SO's and 7 No No's. His career numbers are absurd. Wins and losses is the least important stat and luckily we finally figured that out. Look at deGroms 2 Cy Young seasons. Win / Loss record alone and it looks like he sucked
Back around 1974, as a kid who love only basketball, and played in our school league..I didn't follow any other sport, but I definitely knew who Nolan Ryan was, even tho I never watch a single second of an MLB games lol
Gotta make a video on another all time great pitcher, Pedro Martinez! Love your content as always man, keep grinding Of all the absurd stats for Ryan, im completely floored by the career .204 BAA, what a legend
At the age of 38, I threw a softball across the diamond in a bang bang play that the first baseman dropped. I was furious. I yelled over to him after he retrieved the ball that almost took his face off, "How did you not catch that? It was right into your mitt!" He came over to me with his glove and said "because of this." The mitt pocket was completely blasted out, the leather strings snapped. I was proud of myself....and we figured that throw was about 75mph with a softball. 10 years later, my arm is ruined, I'll never throw a ball again....and I never even came close to what Nolan threw at 44 years old when I was firing at 38. He is a legend....
(0:39) Uh? What? I'm pretty sure Nolan Ryan is legendary among people who know and understand baseball. It's an added bonus that he is also famous for winning a fight after a kid charged him on the mound. I've never heard anyone suggesting Nolan Ryan isn't well know and I'm very confused.
I was eluding to the fact he never won a Cy Young, not that no one ever recognized him as a great pitcher. People were well aware of Nolan being a freak of nature
For me it’s hard to pick best pitcher ever and even harder to justify Nolan as best pitcher ever because of how many walks and wild pitches he had. But looking at his stats once he left the Mets he never really had a bad season (except maybe his 93 seaeon) so I know like no one has him higher then the 11th best pitcher ever he is my pick for best pitcher ever and one thing he did that I loved he helped Randy Johnson fix his control issues I love that.
When I first saw him in the '69 Series, he impressed. He was up there with hero Roberto Clemente ad Bob Gibson. What competetor! I was laughed at when he went to the Angels and took the Angels as a team in my Strat-O-Matice league of six teams; two divisions, a 32 game season. He averaged a 1.22 ERA there!
I don't know what's more impressive 1)If he had a little more control, Ryan would probably have a few seasons with 400Ks 2)That he never won a Cy Young 3)The Angels wasting a Generational Talent is nothing new. 4)How this guy barely have any run support?
Great video. The fact that there fans who say that he's overrated is completely insane... There has never been another Nolan Ryan. The closest I've witnessed is Randy Johnson.
@@ToonTwist look at the teams he pitched for in the early 70s... Yeah he walked hitters but the fact he has the lowest hits per 9 in history speaks to how unhittable he was ... He was a different animal. He completed his starts, it was a source of pride.. As far as ERA plus...I think the fact that he pitched so long he certainly had some seasons bring that down.... Just like Mantle hanging around from 67 & 68 brought his career average below .300... But to do what he did for that long and excel is astounding .... We measure Pedro to be elite and rightly so but he didn't pitch the innings or the years that Ryan did but we don't discredit tht bc he was elite for the time he pitched and I would argue Pedro was a bulldog... Nolan came from a different era and sometimes WAR doesn't speak the whole career of a player.
@@grace1975kauf Nolan could throw eight innings and give up 2 hits all game. Dominant right? Well no, because those 2 hits were grand slams. His ERA+ was not affected by playing so long because through out his whole career he would have below or hear average ERA+ seasons basically every other year. Even his good ERA+ seasons weren’t that impressive compared to what other great pitchers were putting up. Pedro had the greatest prime and greatest pitching season in baseball history which is something Ryan cannot say. Pedro in his prominent years would average about 210 innings per year. Which was definitely a little less than others in the 90’s and 2000’s but it wasn’t a huge drop off. This is kinda the same with Ryan who in individual seasons wasn’t pitching as much as some other guys while still pitching a really good amount.
The one time I got to see Nolan Ryan pitch was one of his worst games. It was back in the 70's when he was with the Angels and they played Texas at Arlington Stadium. He went 1.1 IP, 7W and 3K. 40+ years later I still remember that game, lol.
Jeez, if Ryan had better support during his Angels career, all those high double digit loss seasons, he couldve had (or close to) 30 wins at least 5 times and overall a shot at 400 wins.
Nolan Ryan is my favorite pitcher of all time. He also has a beef company, simply called "Nolan Ryan Beef" that is sold at Kroger. It's really good beef, and their steaks are the only steaks I get nowadays, and I always put on baseball when I grill them up. Lol super random but wanted to share
I don't know about the 108 mph but even if just 100 was def more being was clocked there but dif bla bla. The fact that he did it for soooo long is crazy
NOLAN RYAN IS MY FAVORITE PITCHER OF ALL TIME, ANY TEAM I PLAYED FOR, WHETHER FOR LITTLE LEAGUE IN THE EARLY TO MID 90'S TO MIDDLE SCHOOL TO HIGH SCHOOL AND AMERICAN LEGION, I GOT TO WEAR #34, FOR ALL OF THEM, EVEN FOR ALLSTARS. I WAS ONLY 135LBS 5'5", THROWING 80MPH, BEING A RIGHTY. A FEW GAMES I DID GET TO PITCH LEFT HANDED AS WELL, I JUST DIDN'T HAVE AS MUCH CONTROL, THROWING UP TO 78 MPH.
Nolan Ryan is with out question the greatest pitcher that ever took the mound,They should rename the Cy Young award to the Nolan Ryan award. 7 no hitters almost 6thousand strikeouts countless 1hitters,4 decades of baseball,know one will ever touch these records.
One unofficial record that I'm fairly certain Ryan holds, but is rarely talked about because there is no definitive way to confirm it, is highest lifetime pitch count. Cy Young threw nearly 2000 more innings and faced nearly 7000 more batters... BUT... Ryan is the career leader in both strikeouts and walks by wide margins. . It takes a minimum of three pitches to strike out a batter and a minimum of four to walk one. All other outcomes can be achieved with one pitch. So we can calculate the minimum number of pitches a pitcher has thrown with the simple formula of Batters Faced + 2 x Strikeouts + 3 x Bases on Balls. For Young that's 29565 + 2 x 2803K + 3 x 1217BB = 38822 pitches minimum. For Ryan we have 22575 + 2 x 5714K + 3 x 2795BB = 42388 pitches minimum. So that means for Young to have thrown more pitches than Ryan, Ryan has to have way more one pitch at-bats, and anyone who's ever watched Ryan pitch will tell you that is highly unlikely.
From 1988 through the end of his career we probably have exact numbers for the number of pitches that Ryan threw since 1988 is when exact pitch tracking data starts. That gives you six years of data to analyze and then extrapolate from. While it certainly isn't perfect as it doesn't encapsulate anywhere near his full career, you could probably use those numbers to calculate the average number of pitches that Ryan used per walk and per strikeout, to get closer to his true total. Personally, I would not be surprised if Ryan's total number of pitches thrown is closer to 50k
@@northstarjakobs Actually, I think it exceeds 60k and is probably closer to 70k. If we add just one extra pitch per batter faced, which I think is reasonable, we add 22k to the minimum 42k, which brings us to 64k.
@@northstarjakobs Thanks for the tip on pitch tracking data. I checked Baseball-Reference and it turns out that even my estimate severely lowballs him. From 1988-1993, Ryan faced 4385 batters and threw 17388 pitches. Projecting that rate of 3.97 pitches per batter over the total of 22575 batters he faced over his entire career gives him 89,517 pitches. And even this is probably low, as from 1988-93, his walk rate was 10.0%, before that it was 13.0%. His strikeout rate partially offsets that, as it went up from 25.0% to 26.6%, but I now am fairly confident that the man threw over 90k pitches (and very rarely took anything off of any of them.) EDIT: That's just regular season, it also appears that he threw 850-900 postseason pitches.
@@big8dog887 Glad to be of assistance! Kudos to you for actually looking at the numbers and running those calculations. It's hard to imagine doing over 90,000 of anything, let alone throwing fireball pitches.
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The fact that he threw 2 no-hitters after turning 40 might be his most impressive feat, and there are a lot to pick from. I'm 39 and I don't even like walking up stairs.
In 1973 he threw 26 complete games. 🍌s
That's too funny! 😂
Not close to his most impressive
@@bwink23
*"Not close to his most impressive"*
I can only assume you're not in your 40s, then. Probably not even your late 30s.
The guy was one of the hardest throwers in the game and was still pitching 7 innings per outing in his 40's. If his manager would have tried to put him on a pitch count, Ryan probably would have punched him.
Frankly, I believe the most impressive thing about Nolan is despite ALL of his MLB accolades, he remained a humble, quiet rancher at heart! He's a very nice, approachable and decent man!! I was fortunate enough to be able to watch several TCU games with both Nolan and Tom Grieve when their sons were both pitching for the Horned Frogs in the 90s. I had recently separated from the Navy and was working at TCU. They didn't pay overtime so any extra work I did was compensated with time off. I saved that time for watching baseball in the spring. As a lifelong baseball fanatic and also a huge Nolan Ryan fan, I immediately recognized both of them during one afternoon game on campus. I meekly approached 2 famous and accomplished former athletes just to tell them how much I appreciated their play. Instead of stating that I was undoubtedly disturbing them, I was invited to sit with them and talk baseball! They were seemingly just fathers watching their sons play baseball, and boy could they talk baseball!! Eventually Nolan was hired as a restricted-earnings coach so he didn't have to remain in the stands. Still it was an incredibly enjoyable experience while it lasted and it just made me that much of a bigger Nolan Ryan fan. Oh, and Tom Grieve was a pretty cool guy at the time, too.
Memories 🙌
What a tremendous candid story of these two baseball fathers!
I was a referee who told recruits, "If you want to hear the best human interest stories off-the-cuff, go to a high school game and ask one of the parents in the stands which boy is theirs."
You got a double portion!
And it is unfathomable that with his impressive numbers, he never won a Cy Young.
this man was my childhood idol when I was a kid
in the 80s. I'm from Toronto Ontario Canada and every summer my
parents made me go live with my aunt who was my
mother's older sister in Houston for the whole summer.
her and her husband use to take me to watch the Astros
at the old Astro Dome. great memories I was excited every
time I seen Nolan Ryan and say to myself that's me when
I play baseball against my fellow classmates playing
baseball. I was the only kid in class picture with a
Astros shirt and the rest had Blue Jays sweaters or shirts lol.
thanks for this video made my day even brighter and made me feel
young again.
April 8th, 1986...Houston Astrodome. Nolan Ryan facing a fresh faced rookie Will Clark and starts him off with that diving curveball. You can see Will smile. 2 pitches later, he got the Express and got all of it sending it over the centerfield wall and his first at bat vs the greatest righty of the time culminated in a homerun. He pointed to his parents, and sat down in the dugout next to Chili Davis. He noticed that the dugout was kind of quiet considering, so he figured straight away....turned to Chili and asked "He's going to hit me next at-bat, isn't he..." Chili just replied "Oh yes, yes he is."
Is this story true? I know Clark homered off Ryan is his first MLB at bat, but I haven’t heard the dugout story before. Will the Thrill and Ryan were my two favorites in the early 90s.
That 85 MPH first pitch at 63 years old is insane!
His arm must be made of steel 😂
I’d almost guarantee he had been training leading up to that first pitch lol if he just came off the couch thats fxcking wild 😂
@Cam23 do more pitchers please
@@Cam23Walter Johnson please
The fact that Nolan didnt get a single cy young even though he put historical numbers is the most criminal baseball thing to ever happen
lol
Nolan Ryan should have only won the award twice in 1981 and 1987. In 1981 although he definitely should have won his low inning count might have prevented him from winning. In 1987 he also should’ve won but it’s not like him losing was some huge robbery or anything. Ryan definitely did not put up historic seasons every year.
Not really…lost too many games wasting pitches and being wild. Conversely, look up Greg Maddux’ numbers or Roger Clemens even. Neither came close to losing 300 games like Ryan. No knock on Ryan, but baseball is about numbers
@@mickeywhite7878 Wins are a meaningless stat and while I think Nolan Ryan is extremely overrated and I agree that Clemens and Maddux are way better it’s not Ryan’s loss record that makes this the case.
@ToonTwist if anything he is perfectly fine
As an Astros fan, I really appreciated this footage. I saw Nolan pitch many times and it was always exciting and impressive. Thanks for the memories.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching!
Simply, he’s always been one of my two favorite players!
I still buy his baseball cards
@@commiehunter733 Me too! My favorite is his 1969 Topps card. It’s not a rookie card, but it’s his first individual card, which makes it better than his rookie card in my eyes. I have two of them, but they’re in rough shape lol
It's wild that Ryan never won a Cy Young, he had a solid case in '73 but barely lost to Palmer and was robbed in '87 because he had a losing record and played for a sub .500 Astros team despite him leading the league in ERA and strikeouts
I can't believe how many losses the poor guy had in seasons where he had a sub 3 ERA. He'd be so much more celebrated I'd he wasn't consistently on garbage teams
Most definitely
He should easily have 3
Deserves more
They were just far less informed voters and most fans knew even less way back then
What's crazy is not only how great he was that he never won a Cy Young but how great he was for so long and never won a Cy Young.
@Brah42 seriously, he was STILL dominant in the 90's, practically never gave up HRs, threw complete games in nearly half of his starts....it's wild to think of some of the random guys who have Cy Youngs instead of Ryan
@@CSDonohue11Which seasons would you say he should have won?
I was able to meet him as just a neighbor when growing up in Friendswood as a teen.
He lived one town over and you could always count on him and his family to support the community. Just a super nice guy and his wife and kids are terrific people.
Yes! My favorite power pitcher of all-time
Great content as a 44 year old life long ball fan I loved this breakdown of the big bull a true ace Nolan Ryan
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video it was a blast to learn more about Nolan Ryan
My favorite player of all time! Thanks for the content great video
Thank you for watching! Glad you enjoyed
Robin Ventura just left the chat
Ha.
Don't mess with the big guy from Texas. Ryan's fast ball was no joke
I've been a White Sox fan since the mid '80s. I was 13 when that fight happened, and I was watching the game. Ventura was one of my favorite players around that time, because I also played third base.
@@frocat5163I'll never forget that fight lol. He whooped that ass
He was a great testament for which players should aspire to in all aspects of playing pro ball.
Nolan Ryan's longevity alone affords him legend status. It is even more impressive when you consider that he was a starter, and was thoroughly utilized, through much of his career. He wasn't some guy who went from team to team, pitching a few innings here and there to any team who could use him. He was an institution unto himself. He threw A LOT of pitches.
When the other greats from his era like Steve Carlton just couldn’t hang on anymore…he just kept on trucking. I always think about the fact that he began his career before Johnny Bench, but Bench retired in 1983…ten years before Ryan!
I know you can’t compare pitchers and catchers for longevity…but I just did lol
Another gem of content generated buddy, great work as usual Cam!🎉
Nolan Ryans longevity was ridiculous!
Thank you Chris! Always appreciate you stopping by and supporting the channel. And you got that right, 27 years continues to baffle my brain 🤯
On August 4,1993 Nolan Ryan set the MLB record by hitting Robin Ventura 8 times in 1 at‐bat. Go Cubbies!!!!!
I'm 41. If I threw a baseball as hard as I could, it'd injure something from foot to neck and would likely clock in at 65 mph. This man's last pitch at 46 was 98 mph then an 85 mph zipper at 63 years old. Legend.
That 12 - 6 curveball was insane.
Hammer curve
Nolan lives just south of Houston in Alvin Texas and is still ranching and running several successful businesses.
True badass.
I was watching that game live on TV, I'm a die hard Mariners fan! In 1993 i was 15 yrs old, the hight of my baseball card collecting! When i found out Nolan Ryan was starting i was so excited!! Now my memory is not what it used to be, but if im remembering correctly, mike blowers hit a grand slam the batter before. I knew something was wrong, when Ryan was taken out of the game mid batter i was shocked/sad, then when he came out fir a curtain call the M's fans gave him a standing ovation, that brought me to tears, i had a feeling i just witnessed the end of a baseball Legend. Nolan Ryan is in my top 5 favorite players of all time! He has a ridiculous amount of records that will never be broken. And if he had any kind if run support in the 70's and early 80's he'd easily have over 400 wins!! The Ryan Express is My goat pitcher!
Dann Howitt was the M's batter who hit that grand slam off Ryan. As I recall, Dave Madigan followed with a single and Nolan walked off the mound to say goodbye before delivering a pitch to the next batter.
Ryan went ahead to make his curtain call appearance on the road in Seattle, rather than to wait for a Ranger's home game. He had set out of the rotation to rest and rehab his arm for one more start.
Of course we cried in Seattle to see the last ML pitch of a fireballing great HOF from Texas.
I seriously wondered if I wrote your comment and forgot about it. I watched that game live on TV at 15yo as well! I was BIG into card collecting too. During that time there were two cards I wanted to pull from a pack: Nolan and Griffey. The 1991 Upper Deck set was my favorite. Lots of good throwback cards of Ryan for all his teams.
You listened when I asked for an Albert Belle video 🙏. This time we need a video on the prime of Bernie Williams. Dude was a stud in an era of roided up sluggers .
Screw the Yankees :)
Great yankee center fielder
Didn’t know there was so much vintage Ryan footage out there. Awesome job in procuring the footage.
Yessir Nolan Ryan! Another fire vid Cam!
Ey thank you Sergio! 😎 I appreciate you watching as always
Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson my 2 favorite pitchers of all time
randy was better
Great episode - thanks for keeping the memory of such an unbelievable player and person going. 👏👏👏
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment 👏
I get so fricken excited everytime I see a new video on this page
I really appreciate that! I am extremely thankful to have such great supporters of this series, including yourself, so thank you for making these videos possible 😎
He just said 235 pitch start that's about 5 startrs for any ''Ace" of the morden day game. Simply unbelievable!!
Genuinely curious why today’s pitchers don’t go the distance/aren’t allowed. Would love to see more of that.
Nolan Ryan, what a tough and unforgettable hurler!
He did the work of a starter, two high-leverage set up men and a closer for his whole career. He pitched himself out of his own jams; like a bulldog in a den of snakes.
He was easy to manage because he was easy to trust... put the team on his shoulders then give him 3-4 runs.
I was blessed to get to see him pitch one time. August 1990, in Arlington, first game of a double header. He went 10 (game went I think 12), and in the 10th inning, sitting in cheap seats in CF, the first pitch we could hear pop all the way out there. The man was a legend, like some tall tale you'd share. Because the game has changed no one will get close to his marks. Pitchers are to valuable to throw 200+ pitches, or have 20 CG. But, he really existed and I got to see him. True gentleman and a real highlight.
And come on, who were the dunces who looked at their HOF ballot and said, "nah, he's not a HOF player?"
If I’m picking a pitcher for one game with my life on the line, I’m taking prime Bob Gibson. If I’m talking one pitcher to start my franchise, I’d pick Nolan Ryan.
Satchel Paige
@@n8doggy733 Touché
I agree with that hypothetical!
@@n8doggy733 Touché
@@n8doggy733 Touché
Great video!!! Id like to see one on Gary Sheffield, Andres Gallaragah and Fred Mcgriff!! 3 of my favorite Braves!!
I can only speak for me. But, Ted Williams, Paul Molitor, Curt Schilling, Rod Carew, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker in one video, Gary Carter, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and Roger Clemons among others would make great videos in my opinion. Love this series and hope to see it continue!
If Cam23 makes a video about Johnny Bench, I hope he finds some way to bring up the kids' TV show that Bench did while he was playing as well as the story of how Bench perfected his penmanship
I just arrived in Chicago after the 13 hour all day drive. I sat down and turned the hotel TV on and at that moment, Ryan just plunked Robin Ventura. Ventura charged the mound and took a beating the Chicago mob woulda been proud of. Welcome to Chicago!!! Life moves pretty fast...
My favorite pitcher of all time bar none. Close to 6,000 Ks. Nuts. And he could've been close to 400 wins had he had consistent run support
Got to see Mr. Ryan, on tv live and highlights.....insane arm strength and endurance
How did I not ask for this, Great video, Ryan was awesome. I only caught the tail end of his career but he got 2 no hitters and made the 5k club, and i got to enjoy watching hit do that and beat the crap out of ventura.
Glad you enjoyed the video! I apologize if I missed your comment I have a search filter and sometimes it doesn't correctly pull up every comment that mentions Nolan Ryan
Absolutely the most electric stuff of all time... and it's not really close. Had he been able to control it better and developed a change ... he would have been the most unhittable pitcher of all time by far.
wrong...
Thank you Cam23⚾️💥👊
I knew you'd enjoy this one Ryan! Thanks for watching 😎
We will never see another man like Nolan Ryan in baseball again. Why?
1. There aren't "real men" like Nolan vying for a pitching position.
2. They have ruined my beloved game with making it a hitters game. All a pitcher is now is a server, you have to mix up the meal just right in order to get a win, and there are no complete games now.
3. If a pitcher gets a mismanicured nail, he is considered "injured". It's sad what they get paid now versus what they have to actually do.
4. Hitters are conditioned to hit 100mph fastballs right down the middle. A pitcher would have to throw 110mph+ to be dominant. Then figure out how to be pinpoint perfect to deal with the shi*ty umpiring like Angel Hernandez.
I could go on and on....keep 'em coming.
I’ll never forget, as a kid growing up in the early 90s, we were watching Ryan on TV and my dad made a crazy observation: Nolan Ryan pitched in the major leagues two years before man walked on the moon. That completely blew my mind! In my mind, the moon landings were like ancient history at that point.
Turns out he actually pitched 3 years before the moon landing of 1969 lol
Excellent job
Thank you!
Absolutely a Great video of a man’s Great Career !
Thank you so much!
A truly superior major league pitcher but oddly underated and somehow unappreciated.
Pure Legend!!! I love that man! Also my idol growing up.
Legend… So many complete games! That was the big boy era back then.
The fact nobody thinks there's any possible way Ryan was using some roids or HGH during his Rangers years is mind blowing to me.
Ryan's career was my heyday as a fan. I remember a telecast where they played Ryan's ball hitting the catcher's glove and the sound of a rifle shot.
Throwing 85 mph at 63 years old is ridiculous.
In slacks and belt with shirt tucked in. Not loose. I bet he could hit 90 easy. Then of course.
This is crazy me and my co worker who plays college baseball were just talking about nolan on thursday. Like he played for so long at at such a high level.
That's a cool coincidence! I feel like sometimes the figurative "baseball" finds you on the field.
One of my favorite Insane Primes I've seen!!👏👏👏⚾️
Thank you! I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this one 😎
His stats are almost unbelievable. He is the best pitcher in history and as time goes on it's even more clear that will never change.
The how did he lose almost 300 games?
@@mickeywhite7878 Is that a real question lol? Pitching 26 seasons, Pitching for bad teams and not getting run support for extended periods of time during his career. 26 season's, 300 wins, 5700 SO's and an 81.3 WAR. Getting to 300 wins isn't happening anymore and no one is beating his 5700 SO's and 7 No No's. His career numbers are absurd. Wins and losses is the least important stat and luckily we finally figured that out. Look at deGroms 2 Cy Young seasons. Win / Loss record alone and it looks like he sucked
Back around 1974, as a kid who love only basketball, and played in our school league..I didn't follow any other sport, but I definitely knew who Nolan Ryan was, even tho I never watch a single second of an MLB games lol
I was lucky enough to be able to watch him he was by far the best pitcher in mlb
Gotta make a video on another all time great pitcher, Pedro Martinez!
Love your content as always man, keep grinding
Of all the absurd stats for Ryan, im completely floored by the career .204 BAA, what a legend
He'd be a great one too!
Thank you for supporting the channel I really appreciate it 😎
The .204 BAA blew my mind too 🤯
@Cam23 no problem man, you always make great videos and your one of my go to channels for baseball. I know you'll do Bostons savior proud!
Some records in sports will never be broken, and he has just about every one a pitcher could have!
You the man Cam!!
At the age of 38, I threw a softball across the diamond in a bang bang play that the first baseman dropped. I was furious. I yelled over to him after he retrieved the ball that almost took his face off, "How did you not catch that? It was right into your mitt!"
He came over to me with his glove and said "because of this."
The mitt pocket was completely blasted out, the leather strings snapped. I was proud of myself....and we figured that throw was about 75mph with a softball. 10 years later, my arm is ruined, I'll never throw a ball again....and I never even came close to what Nolan threw at 44 years old when I was firing at 38. He is a legend....
Ryan is on my all-time roster. IMO, that makes him one of the 25 best players of all time.
Just two words……The Best
(0:39) Uh? What? I'm pretty sure Nolan Ryan is legendary among people who know and understand baseball.
It's an added bonus that he is also famous for winning a fight after a kid charged him on the mound.
I've never heard anyone suggesting Nolan Ryan isn't well know and I'm very confused.
I was eluding to the fact he never won a Cy Young, not that no one ever recognized him as a great pitcher. People were well aware of Nolan being a freak of nature
This man was out here puttin up 2 years worth of modern pitching stats in single seasons lol
Especially walks and losses!
Such a legend, I named my son after him.
Love the video. You should do a Darryl Kile Documentary video. His 12-6 curve was one of the best and he was gone too soon. :")
All mind boggling numbers! Probably won't see anything like this ever again...
They say nothing's impossible but I think there's an asterisk next to that (anything Nolan Ryan ever did on the ball field 😂)
@bravesfan293147 The numbers of complete game will definitely never be seen again.
All those innings with all that heat. Dude was the Secretariat of baseball.
For me it’s hard to pick best pitcher ever and even harder to justify Nolan as best pitcher ever because of how many walks and wild pitches he had. But looking at his stats once he left the Mets he never really had a bad season (except maybe his 93 seaeon) so I know like no one has him higher then the 11th best pitcher ever he is my pick for best pitcher ever and one thing he did that I loved he helped Randy Johnson fix his control issues I love that.
I don’t even like baseball but I love Nolan Ryan
When I first saw him in the '69 Series, he impressed. He was up there with hero Roberto Clemente ad Bob Gibson. What competetor! I was laughed at when he went to the Angels and took the Angels as a team in my Strat-O-Matice league of six teams; two divisions, a 32 game season. He averaged a 1.22 ERA there!
Mr. October is definitely overdue for an Insane Prime video.
I don't know what's more impressive
1)If he had a little more control, Ryan would probably have a few seasons with 400Ks
2)That he never won a Cy Young
3)The Angels wasting a Generational Talent is nothing new.
4)How this guy barely have any run support?
Great video. The fact that there fans who say that he's overrated is completely insane... There has never been another Nolan Ryan. The closest I've witnessed is Randy Johnson.
Thank you! I think that people like to discredit the best of the best, just how it is unfortunately.
👍💯💯💯
@@grace1975kaufOnly 83 WAR in 5000+ innings and only a 112 ERA+ yet people call him a top 10 or top 5 pitcher of all time.
@@ToonTwist look at the teams he pitched for in the early 70s... Yeah he walked hitters but the fact he has the lowest hits per 9 in history speaks to how unhittable he was ... He was a different animal. He completed his starts, it was a source of pride.. As far as ERA plus...I think the fact that he pitched so long he certainly had some seasons bring that down.... Just like Mantle hanging around from 67 & 68 brought his career average below .300... But to do what he did for that long and excel is astounding .... We measure Pedro to be elite and rightly so but he didn't pitch the innings or the years that Ryan did but we don't discredit tht bc he was elite for the time he pitched and I would argue Pedro was a bulldog... Nolan came from a different era and sometimes WAR doesn't speak the whole career of a player.
@@grace1975kauf Nolan could throw eight innings and give up 2 hits all game. Dominant right? Well no, because those 2 hits were grand slams. His ERA+ was not affected by playing so long because through out his whole career he would have below or hear average ERA+ seasons basically every other year. Even his good ERA+ seasons weren’t that impressive compared to what other great pitchers were putting up. Pedro had the greatest prime and greatest pitching season in baseball history which is something Ryan cannot say. Pedro in his prominent years would average about 210 innings per year. Which was definitely a little less than others in the 90’s and 2000’s but it wasn’t a huge drop off. This is kinda the same with Ryan who in individual seasons wasn’t pitching as much as some other guys while still pitching a really good amount.
The one time I got to see Nolan Ryan pitch was one of his worst games. It was back in the 70's when he was with the Angels and they played Texas at Arlington Stadium. He went 1.1 IP, 7W and 3K. 40+ years later I still remember that game, lol.
it did work out . I do like
the quick recap
Great video!
Thank you!
came in and went out throwing smoke… legend
Jeez, if Ryan had better support during his Angels career, all those high double digit loss seasons, he couldve had (or close to) 30 wins at least 5 times and overall a shot at 400 wins.
Nolan Ryan is my favorite pitcher of all time. He also has a beef company, simply called "Nolan Ryan Beef" that is sold at Kroger. It's really good beef, and their steaks are the only steaks I get nowadays, and I always put on baseball when I grill them up. Lol super random but wanted to share
That's wild I never knew that, thanks for sharing! I'll keep my eye out for it now
Damn so many times he had a sub 3.00 era and 16 losses. Any run production he can have had 25 wins easily
Good pitcher but nowhere near randy Johnson on intimidating batters
I don't know about the 108 mph but even if just 100 was def more being was clocked there but dif bla bla. The fact that he did it for soooo long is crazy
The greatest pitcher ever.
Jim thome would be a good one. Very underappreciated
Ryan is the Brett Favre of pitchers
My favorite retired Astros pitcher of all time
Nolan was a serious threat to anyone.
NOLAN RYAN IS MY FAVORITE PITCHER OF ALL TIME, ANY TEAM I PLAYED FOR, WHETHER FOR LITTLE LEAGUE IN THE EARLY TO MID 90'S TO MIDDLE SCHOOL TO HIGH SCHOOL AND AMERICAN LEGION, I GOT TO WEAR #34, FOR ALL OF THEM, EVEN FOR ALLSTARS. I WAS ONLY 135LBS 5'5", THROWING 80MPH, BEING A RIGHTY. A FEW GAMES I DID GET TO PITCH LEFT HANDED AS WELL, I JUST DIDN'T HAVE AS MUCH CONTROL, THROWING UP TO 78 MPH.
8:55 I know the frame rate issue but that is the fastest pitch I have ever seen.
Nolan Ryan is with out question the greatest pitcher that ever took the mound,They should rename the Cy Young award to the Nolan Ryan award.
7 no hitters almost 6thousand strikeouts countless 1hitters,4 decades of baseball,know one will ever touch these records.
No he wasn't. His won loss % wasn't great and he walked more batters than anybody in history.
Greatest pitcher EVER.
PROVE ME WRONG.
Ok, almost 300 losses. Roger Clemens won more games and had more than 100 less losses the Ryan. Same with Maddux
The man gets stitches and keeps pitching?! AND I remember Robin Ventura getting his but kicked. EPIC!
Suggestions for “The insane prime of” : Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Bob Gibson
Ted Williams would be 🔥⚾️
I am waiting for the inevitable video about David Ortiz or possibly another pitcher in Pedro Martinez
the only true freak in the history of sports. Never be anything like him in this lifetime, and probably ever
One unofficial record that I'm fairly certain Ryan holds, but is rarely talked about because there is no definitive way to confirm it, is highest lifetime pitch count. Cy Young threw nearly 2000 more innings and faced nearly 7000 more batters... BUT... Ryan is the career leader in both strikeouts and walks by wide margins. . It takes a minimum of three pitches to strike out a batter and a minimum of four to walk one. All other outcomes can be achieved with one pitch.
So we can calculate the minimum number of pitches a pitcher has thrown with the simple formula of Batters Faced + 2 x Strikeouts + 3 x Bases on Balls.
For Young that's 29565 + 2 x 2803K + 3 x 1217BB = 38822 pitches minimum.
For Ryan we have 22575 + 2 x 5714K + 3 x 2795BB = 42388 pitches minimum.
So that means for Young to have thrown more pitches than Ryan, Ryan has to have way more one pitch at-bats, and anyone who's ever watched Ryan pitch will tell you that is highly unlikely.
From 1988 through the end of his career we probably have exact numbers for the number of pitches that Ryan threw since 1988 is when exact pitch tracking data starts. That gives you six years of data to analyze and then extrapolate from. While it certainly isn't perfect as it doesn't encapsulate anywhere near his full career, you could probably use those numbers to calculate the average number of pitches that Ryan used per walk and per strikeout, to get closer to his true total. Personally, I would not be surprised if Ryan's total number of pitches thrown is closer to 50k
@@northstarjakobs Actually, I think it exceeds 60k and is probably closer to 70k. If we add just one extra pitch per batter faced, which I think is reasonable, we add 22k to the minimum 42k, which brings us to 64k.
That is absurd 🤯 A truly impressive stat thank you for sharing!
@@northstarjakobs Thanks for the tip on pitch tracking data. I checked Baseball-Reference and it turns out that even my estimate severely lowballs him. From 1988-1993, Ryan faced 4385 batters and threw 17388 pitches. Projecting that rate of 3.97 pitches per batter over the total of 22575 batters he faced over his entire career gives him 89,517 pitches. And even this is probably low, as from 1988-93, his walk rate was 10.0%, before that it was 13.0%. His strikeout rate partially offsets that, as it went up from 25.0% to 26.6%, but I now am fairly confident that the man threw over 90k pitches (and very rarely took anything off of any of them.)
EDIT: That's just regular season, it also appears that he threw 850-900 postseason pitches.
@@big8dog887 Glad to be of assistance! Kudos to you for actually looking at the numbers and running those calculations. It's hard to imagine doing over 90,000 of anything, let alone throwing fireball pitches.
No one will throw the amount of pitches or innings this man has throw. Therefore, that K record just won't be broken.
That Nolan Ryan right there is a real Texas boy.
Randy Johnson threw some heat now if we're strictly talking starters with the most power