What goes around comes around, I guess. Talk is goin around the Big D that Nolan Ryan’s power is eroding, thanks to a promotion to Jon Daniels (who was already GM when Nolie got there) and Business Operations person Rick George (I think he’s the male version of Pam Gardner.) You see, both guys are now calling themselves President of GM and President of Business Operations and Nolan, who is President of CEO, is supposedly Not Happy about all that extra titling of the other 2 guys. And all this happened back in November and it is just NOW getting out, not sure how it got out, or by whom, or why.
Check this quote from Jon Daniels about Nolan Ryan: “So who has the final say regarding the personnel on the field? “He has the ability to veto something, I think,” Daniels said of Ryan…”
Yes, this DOES sound like a bunch of middle school girls talking about who looked at who.
But what surprised me the very most about the story is not that Nolan didn’t like it when the money gave anyone but himself power to say who would get what title, but that Nolan, who is the (public) face of the Texas Rangers ownership, is not the majority owner. No, those guys are named Bob Simpson and Ray Davis – Nolie only owns a tiny bit of the team. You wouldn’ta thunk it, seeing as how during the bidding for the team sale was won by the “Nolan-Greenberg” group AND Nolan is listed as “principal owner” in the Wikipedia (yes, not exactly infallible). You wouldn’ta thunk it seeing as how the TV cameras focused only on Nolan’s sour puss as the Rangers lost 2 WS in a row.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself in the Nolan Ryan Power Craving story.
Nolan Ryan started his career with the Mets in 68 was used as a starter and long reliever, posted ERA+ for his 4 years of 98, 104, 118 and 86, was traded to the Angels after the 71 season. At that time, he was hardly a STAH!!! and hadn’t yet thrown any of his famous nonos. According to People Who Know, Nolan was very bitter and angry about the trade and carried a grudge, which, by the way, is a Nolan Tradition.
When with the Angels, he became known for throwing very hard, throwing lots of innings, giving up very few hits, giving up a lot of walks and getting a lot of strikeouts. Over his 8 years, he started 288 games and finished 156 of them over 2178 innings. That works out to almost 7.2 IP/GS. As well as approximately 5.2 IP in the games he didn’t finish. He averaged 6.3 H/9, FIVE.4 walks/9 and 10 K/9. In spite of all those no hitters and Ks, and winning 21 and 22 games in 73 and 74, he never won a Cy Young, mostly because he lost almost as many games as he won, but he came in second and third in 73 and 74.
According to my Mama, who was around Back Then, Ryan wasn’t even close to being regarded as a great pitcher, but a guy obsessed with strikeouts who Didn’t Have What It Takes To Win (unlike, say Jack Morris. But I digress..)
He signed for what was then a lot of money with his (almost) hometown Houston Astros – the first of very few splashy FA signings, in 1980. He wasn’t any Roger Clemens though, and there wasn’t the media EXCITEMENT!!! that there was 23 years later. Ryan did get the Astros pub with all those strikeouts and his race with Steve Carleton in 1983 to break Big Train’s Sacred All Time Strikeout Record. According to my Mama, who was there at the time, it certainly didn’t get near the EXCITEMENT!!!!! that the Mantle/Maris or Hank Aaron chase of The Sacred All Time Home Run Record. Or Cal Ripken’s chase of The Sacred All Time Games Played In A Row Record.
Nolan spent 9 years in Houston. Over those 9 years, he started 288 games, had a 106-94 record ( won 53% of his games) with a 110 ERA+ and two no hitters. He played on 3 really good teams in 80, 81 and 86. Check his win/loss records: 11-10 over 35 GS, 4 CG and 2 shutouts in 1980. In the strike shortened year of 1981, a 110 game season: 11-5 in 21 GS with 5 CG and 2 SO; In 1986, 12-8 in 30 GS with 1 CG and no shutouts.
In the playoffs: 1980 NLCS, he pitched 2 games.
- First game, he threw 6.1 innings, gave up 2 runs/2 ER in the 4th, was pulled with men on second and third, 1 out, but they were stranded. That is 27 batters faced, 8 H, 1 BB, 6 K. So no Win there.
- Second game, first playoff gave EVER at the Astrodome (Game 5, which was THE deciding game, as the NLCS was 5 games back then) it’s Nolan Ryan and the Dome isn’t even filled to capacity, drawing only 44 K, same as the previous 2 games. So Nolan wasn’t exactly a drawing card. And he didn’t win this one neither. Gave up 2 runs in the second, then in the 8th, gave up 3 straight singles, then a RBI walk, and got pulled. Relievers let all his runs score and there went the ballgame. Now I’m not sure who many pitches had been thrown, or if Nolan was tired and should have been done at the end of 7, but you know How Things Were Back Then, and TLR hadn’t started The Reliever Parade thingy. So out he went and there went the games.
In the 81 playoffs: He FINALLY went all the way, winning his first game. In the 5th and, again, deciding game, he gave up 3 runs in the 6th (1 unearned) and didn’t get no run support, so for the second year in a row, he was the guy who couldn’t Win when it was All On The Line.
In the 86 playoffs, in Game 2, he lasted 5 innings, giving up 2 in the second and 3 in the 5th and losing. In the 5th game, which COULD have been the deciding game, he threw 9 innings but gave up 1 run and left with the score tied. If he had been a True Gamer like Jack Morris, he wouldn’t have given up that homer and would have Won. We won’t even talk about Game 6, which is the first playoff game I even remember, and the memory of Kevin Bass striking out to end with the winning run on second – it still hurts.
Anyway, his reputation as the guy who prefers strikeouts to Winning was absolutely cemented in 87 when he went 8-16, got 270 K in his race to see how many Ks he could get. The fact that he won the ERA title too, with 2.76 (142 ERA+) was dismissed. And after his contract expired in 88, when he was 41, when he went 12-11 with a 3.52 ERA (a 94 ERA+ back then), the Astros owner let him go, figuring that he was basically done and wasn’t a Winner anyway. That and the fact that it was right about then that he was thinking of getting rid of the team and didn’t want to spend more money than he had to and Nolan was gonna demand big bucks, which, Back Then, was a million bucks a year. Nolan was NOT happy, and held a grudge. A BIG time grudge.
The Texas Rangers, an afterthought which garnered maybe 3 lines a day in Dallas amidst the 20 pages of Cowboy/ high school football stories 24/7/365, decided to sign The Strikeout King. The 88 Rangers went 70-91 and were 11th of 14 in the AL in attendence. Only 11th??? From the stories I heard, it was 15th – guess the AL was already counting tickets sold and not butts in seats.
It was a GREAT idea – the attendance increased 25% and the team under Bobby Valentine, not yet INfamous, actually posted a winning record going 83-79 as Nolan went 16-10 (learned How To Win) and piled up 301 K over 32 games. Nolan was given all the credit for the turnaround in the Dallas media, which actually had a reporter go to games and actually printed game summaries when Nolan pitched. Yassuh, Nolan, The Real Texan, Texas Strong and Texas Tough at age 41, outthrowin the youngsters and keeping himself fireballing strong by his incredible after game workout routines. Yep, just Nolan and intensive weight lifting and bicycling and Advil and that ol Texas Tough kept him throwin that 98+ MPH FB at age 42, yassuh.
Nolan kept the team winning in 90 and 91, although still not yet enough to Go All The Way, and attendance increased with the emergence of Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez the Sluggahs!!! He started breaking down and needing more rest in 91 (imagine that) but continued to be able to throw the ball at 98 MPH and strikeout 200+ hitters. Should I mention that Jose “Steroid Mary” Canseco didn’t join the team until mid-92, when Ryan was almost finished. But that Nolan had no problem getting into violent altercations at age 46? He tore his shoulder to shreds at the end of 93, so he hed to keep his promise to retire. That 93 season, by the way, saw record breaking crowds come to Arlington.
Nolan’s last 4 years did for him what his first 23 didn’t – cement his reputation as a Hall of Fame First Ballot pitcher, one of the 10 greatest of the 20th century. I promise you nobody talked about Nolan Ryan that way even his last year with the Astros – he was a guy who threw a lot of strikeouts but was uncoachable and cared more about strikeouts than Winning. A 500 guy, at best. Longevity, yes, greatness, no.
But it wasn’t exactly the end of Nolan Ryan’s long on/off relation with the Astros. Not by a LONG shot, grudge or no grudge.
Tags: Houston Astros, Texas Rangers
If the Astros bring this IDIOT back to Houston, I will N E V E R spend one damn
dime to watch them play. Don’t these people *KNOW* how he screwed this
organization to the effing WALL?????? NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!!!!!!!
becky
he’s a prime example of – when the legend becomes fact, print the legend…
i especially like the legend of how he turned around the rangers.
but i’m getting ahead of myself…
Can’t get much worse than people running things now. Now we have fluctuating ticket prices depending on who is in town. So I show up to support the home team and get screwed because we’re playing the almighty yanks, sox, or anybody above .500…ugh, no thanks.
I don’t have your stats and I don’t have any insight into Ryan’s motivations as a player. But I did see him pitch and have some memories of my observations. The first time I saw him pitch I chose to go – in Anaheim the game after he pitched a no-hitter. The no-hitter that game didn’t last long and neither did Ryan, leaving after four or five innings. Unplanned but for some reason when I watched the Astros in Houston, and later in Chicago, Ryan seemed to pitch in over half the games I attended, which was fine by me. A pattern to the games developed. Ryan pitched scoreless or near scoreless ball for most of the game, but the Astros seldom scored more than a run or two when he pitched. I’m not sure if the other team‘s pitcher bore down more or if the Astros were more conscious of watching Ryan pitch or what, but they’d be low scoring games. Somewhere in the sixth or seventh inning, Ryan would tire enough the other team put men on base or scored (or scored when the reliever came in) and the Astros would lose (not always of course – but Ryan with the Astros was basically a .500 pitcher, which I attributed to lack of run support).
Despite what I read in the comments above, he and his guys put together two successful minor league franchises in Corpus Christi and in Round Rock, even with the some pretty poor players. I don’t know the background on that, but he was successful enough people wanted him to buy the Astros.
The first time I ever had problems with Ryan was his stint as “owner” of the Rangers. His almost satanic look when the Rangers beat some team in the playoffs was sadistic and disgusting. I was actually quite pleased when the Giants sunk him in his chair like a spoiled kid who didn’t get the present he wanted.
Overall I bear no ill will to Nolan Ryan. We need our heroes. Let him be one. But there’s a sunset calling him. Let him ride into it; and not return to the Astros.
ralph
unfortunately the fluctuating ticket price thingy is how teams are doing it these days – and drayton upped the ticket costs for the redsox/yankees a few years back too. fraid the few ticket buyers are fluckt again.
hi joe,
the only year that nolan really had poor run support was 88, the 8-16 year, when the team was awful.
nolan inherited a AA team full of great young talent when he bought the team. his son did a really outstanding marketing job in austin, gotta say that – but i’ll get into that later.
he’s not MY idea of a hero. and he wants to be dictator and he ain’t gonna get that with the astros neither
In 1980 Nolan wasn’t the marquee pitcher for the Astros. It was J.R. Richards and Joe Niekro (if you can call him “marquee”
In 1986, it was the Great Scott. ‘Nuff said.
Ryan was basically second fiddle to those guys. And Scott’s 1986 season was nothing short of phenomenal. More K’s than hits AND walks combined. Put the fear of Scott into those cocaine snorting fiends from Manhattan so much so they HAD to win Game Six.
I did watch his no hitter on TV while he was with the Astros. As well as Mike Scott’s pennant clinching no hitter of San Francisco.
But Lisa’s right…Ryan wasn’t a pitcher you could rely on to win an important game and as she pointed out, he only did well ONCE in the post season with the Astros.
Won’t even comment on Roger Clemens’ inability to pitch past the 6th while he was with the Astros.
And to this day, I’m still trying to figure out how the heck Mark Portugal managed to go 12-4 with all that junkballing he did. He reminds me of another Astros pitcher who had crappy ERA and SOMEHOW managed to win quite a number of games. I’m trying to place his name…but I was agog every time he won.
It was Dave Mlicki. 7-3 with a ERA of 5.03. That was so unreal.
eric
my mama and every astros fan i know who was watching from 80 – 89 agrees with you 100% that nolan ryan was never the staff ace and was never THE GUY, just a strikeout guy, a .500, no-hitter thrower.
Da Rojah pitched very well the first 2 years – 33 games over 214 innings of 145 ERA+ ball; 32 games over 211 innings, didn’t miss a start – AND had a 226 ERA+ at age 43, which is just incredible. in 06 he did the – start on june 22 to draw attention – thingy but still threw 19 starts and 119 innings – bout 6 IP/GS and a 194 ERA+ which is just mindblowing. it was the postseason that was the problem. except the 15 inning game and his heroic 3 inning win. that’s just barely shy of 7 IP/GS.
Also, the winner a lot with a crappy ERA was Jeriome Robertson: 15-9 with a 5.10 ERA (86 ERA+) over 160 innings, about 5 IP/GS. got a good trade for him though – willy T and luke scott. too bad drayton threw gerry out.
Yeah I remember Jeriome Robertson. Heh.
Speaking of Gerry Hunsicker…getting rid of him has to be one of the worst decisions that Drayton’s ever made. It’s no accident that since Hunsicker became the GM for Tampa Bay the Devil Rays have become a contender year in and year out despite not having the Yankees’ 200M payroll.
Anyway…Mlicki was my rallying cry for that year cause the Astros were bad although not 100+ game bad as they have been the past two years in my postgame comments with other Astros fans on ESPN.
But the postgame comments were always a cesspool of idiocy for the most part though.
Got to talk to Mlicki and his wife one time back in the good old days when you could mingle with the players and get autographs long after the game.
Listening to the game on 790. Yikes, these radio guys are DRY…. No personality
Ralph……I misds Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan. Steve Sparks is NOT a radio guy, and Robert Ford is BOOOOORING. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz Becky
Back in his Mets days, Nolan was known as “effectively wild”. Neither you nor Nolan knew for sure whether that next 100 MPH pitch was coming at your head or not. Certainly helped his K totals.
Becky….holy smokes, I really started yawning after about 5 minutes. Their call of the Pena home run sounded just like a routine pop fly for the third out. Can’t watch em because I don’t have Comcast, “dynamic” ticket prices, and now the radio is just awful.
listened to part of the last broadcast – seeing as how the game was a complete and total embarassment for the astros, unsurprisingly, there wasn’t real too much to get EXCITED!!!!!! about.
steve sparks does not appear to translate well to radio, although i thought he had done fine in his short appearances on tv last year. robert ford is bland. however, the good part is
1 – no milo
2 – no milo
3 – no milo
AND no talking ABOUT milo!!!!!!
that alone makes it a VAST improvement. i would say it is kind of like changing a pounding blinding headache for dull low back pain.
i’ll see if either one improves, but the current setup is hardly great. however, having listened to just about every other team’s broadcasters, i will say that i will take dull and bland over irritating (think nats or phils) to the point of turning off the broadcast even when i want to hear it – bad.