On June fifth, nineteen eighty one, Astro's Nolan Ryan lives up to his wild pitching reputation when he sets the record for pitching the most walks all time and when it is his career as a leader with the most walks and the most strikeouts in a career. Here's a story behind Nolan Ryan today on Daily Sports History. Before we get started today, I want to tell you about another great daily podcast called A Little Bit Day Toto, which means a little bit of Everything, which is a daily podcast all about Latin culture. And here's a little preview. A Little Bit of Toto is a podcast about a little bit of everything for curious minds of all ages. I'm Christina and you can tune in every weekday to learn about things like Sinko, the Mayo, Chihuahua's add volcanoes in Latin America. Episodes are bite sized, ten minutes long or less and always Latin American related. Subscribe and follow a Little Bit at the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive the sports history every day, and today's trivia question to listen out for is what founding father was Nolan Ryan related to now. Nolan Ryan was a Texas boy through and through, born in Texas and was what you expect the all American boy to be. In fact, he was actually a descendant of John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence in the United States, so his roots to America go way back. He had been playing baseball with his father in the front yard since he was seven and fell in love with the game playing with the local neighborhood kids in a vacant lot near his house. But he actually kind of developed his throwing arm by being a paper boy with his father, starting at the age of eight. He would go out every morning between one and four am to deliver newspapers. But it wasn't just that he developed his throwing through being a paper boy. He just had a natural gift. By the time he was in junior high he could throw a softball over one hundred yards and he really started to focus on the game of baseball after participating in high school football, when he had a head on collision with a future NFL player, he decided to just focus on baseball for the rest of his career, and he made the varsity team as a sophomore, and that's when things really started to take off and he started to attract many major league scouts while still in high school. His junior year, he averaged two strikeouts per inning, including a twenty one strikeout game in a game that went extra innings. But during his senior year he really set to the baseball world of blaze. He posted a nineteen to three record, taking his team all the way to the state playoffs, led him to get drafted in the twelfth round by the Mets, where he would sign and join the Appellation League, where he started out a blaze fanning having over three hundred strikeouts in his first season, actually making his debut in nineteen sixty six for the Mets in Shae Stadium on September eleventh, and he would make his first major league start a week later in the Astrodome in front of family and friends, and he struck out the whole first side with allow four runs, four hits, and two walks, taking a loss in his first major league start. His fastball was overpowering. He would average fourteen strikeouts per nine innings, which is a great number, but he would also average just as many walks, and in nineteen sixty seven he actually suffered an arm injury that doctors recommended he have surgery for, but Ryan refused and preferred to rehab his arm on his own, as he already knew, especially then, the having surgery on your arm could prematurely cut his career, and in nineteen sixty eight he officially became a full time member of the New York Mets, and he immediately became a sensation, being featured on the cover of Life magazine, being hailed as the best young pitchers the majors have ever seen. But he would constantly deal with finger issues and continuous military obligations, and he had joined the military to service country, but only joined the reserves so he could still pitch. But this caused him to have kind of weird times and couldn't have a consistent pitching schedule, and the Mets really didn't adjust their schedule to fit him, which caused him even more tire strain. But the Mets had a great season, being known as the Amazing Mets. They made it all the way to the World Series, where he pitched two and a third innings, pitching and shut out relief in Game three, Little Debien at the time, this would be the only time he would make an appearance in the World Series, and luckily he was able to get the ring, but Ryan made s tries following the next year, despite having a seven to eleven record, he had an ERA of three point four to two. In nineteen seventy one would be the first season he would win ten wins and would continue that streak for sixteen more years, and by the end of this season, he would complete his dream of pitching in the majors for five seasons. Now is a dream of his because then he would earn a pension from the Baseball Union. But he was still just a middling player. Despite all the hype and the heart throwing and the strikeouts he had, he still only after five years in the majors, had a record of twenty nine and thirty eight, but he would average a strikeout per inning, but would also average six walks, and after the season he told his wife, if the Mets didn't trade him after this year he had made his pension, he would quit the game of baseball. The reason why is because New York didn't foster him. They didn't help him with pitching coaches. They didn't help him with his military operations, they didn't help him grow as a player. He did everything on his own, and he got a lucky break on December tenth, nineteen seventy one, when he was traded for three marginal players to the California Angels, and this is where his career would take off because while with the Angels he was finally done with his military obligations, he was getting in a better rhythm, pitching every four days so he would get less blisters on his hands, and he was actually able to get into a workout regiment, which was unusual for the day, as he was lifting and conditioning more than any other player and becoming in great shape, which back then was thought to be weird because they didn't think pitchers should work out as much because it would limit their mobility of their arm. But this actually became a great asset to Nolan as it helped him strengthen his arm and pitch for many many years. He would go on to pitch four no hitters with the Angels, tying Sandy Cofax's career record, who was an idol of Ryan's, and he would have his first three hundred strikeout season in nineteen seventy three with a total three hundred and eighty three strikeouts. But the problem was, despite all his success he was having with the California Angels, they were a terrible hitting team. His era with the Angels was just above three point zero, and he won over twenty games two times because they could not score. This somewhat helped Ryan as he knew he had to pitch almost a perfect game every time, but was a continuous challenge for him as he just wanted the chance to win. Despite all the success he was having with the Angels in the time there setting records, pitching no hitters, having great success despite the team not having success, the team eventually let him go as they thought they could replace Ryan with a couple of other pitchers because he was just winning a little bit more than fifty percent of his starts and as a power pitcher. He was thirty two years old and they thought he was probably gonna be going downhill. Did they know Nolan Ryan wasn't the average pitcher and he wanted to go back to Texas, back to his home where he became the first player in professional sports history to earn one million dollars per year with his three year contract with the Houston Astros, and he made more in the first two seasons with the Astros than he made all the twelve years previously with the Mets and Angels, and in nineteen On July fourth, nineteen eighty he recorded his three thousand strikeouts, and in nineteen eighty one, he again pitched a no hitter, giving him five no hitters, passing his idol Sandy Kofax, becoming the all time leader in no hitters. That same year, he would break the record for the most walks pitched by a pitcher in Major League history, but two years later he would also set the record for the most strikeouts that had stood by Walter Jones since nineteen twenty seven. Two years later, in nineteen eighty five, he would pass four thousand strikeouts, and he still wasn't done. In nineteen eighty seven, he was the first major league pitcher in history to lead the league in both strikeouts and RARA and not receive a Cy Young. Despite leading the league, he only had a record of eight and sixteen, which had nothing to do with how good of pitching he was doing, and he finished fifth in the Cy Young and by the time he was forty years old, he had still not lost velocity. He was still pitching regularly over one hundred miles an hour with a devastating curve and a changeup. He had also learned as well. But after the nineteen eighty eight season, the US Nastros thought he was done pitching and they let him go. But Ryan wanted to stay in Texas, and he actually got a raise and went to the Texas Rangers, where he would continue to pitch great for the rest of his career because on June eleventh, nineteen ninety, he pitched his sixth no hitter in j A month later, he would win his three hundredth game. But in September nineteen ninety one of the most iconic moments happened in his career when big hitter bo Jackson hit a one hopper back to Nolan Ryan that hit him in the face, giving a gash in his lip that required six stitches, But he continued to pitch with blood on his face, intimidating every hitter from then on if they already weren't intimidated by his great power. But in his final year of baseball in nineteen ninety three is arguably more iconic than the Bloody Face game that he pitched. When Robin Ventura was hit by one of his fastballs, he stormed the mound and tried to attack Nolan Ryan, who was twenty years his senior, and Nolan just stood his ground and was able to get Robin in a headlock and punched the top of his head. After the fight, Ventura was ejected and Ryan stayed in the game, retiring twelve of the last thirteen men he faced. But just a month later, September twenty second, nineteen ninety three, while pitching a game in Seattle, it would be his last he ever pitched because while in the first inning, he heard a pop and he had torn his a ligament in his right elbow, which is very common for pitchers that used the Tommy John surgery for but by this point, being in his forties, he knew it was time to hang everything up, and in nineteen ninety nine he would be inducted into Cooperstown as he was a first ballot Hall of Famer as he still leads the majors strikeouts, walks, no hitters, and despite all of that, he never won a Cy Young Award and only had one World Series championship back when he began his career as a reliever with the Mets. But he didn't stay away from baseball for long, as in two thousand and eight, he became the president of the Texas Rangers and has become an idol for many pitchers, just like Sandy Kofax for him. And I want to thank Jacoby Matteuel for suggesting this topic from Twitter. And if you want to have a topic done on this show, all you have to do is leave us a review wherever you're listening, give us your name and the topic you want, and we'll give a show just for you. And come back tomorrow for more Daily sports history. And did you catch today's answer for the trivia question? Did you catch the answer to the trivia question today? What us founding father is Nolan Ryan related to? And the answer is John Hancock
