Sports Then and Now

Nolan Ryan is often celebrated by some as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, largely due to his extraordinary career longevity, record-setting strikeouts, and seven no-hitters. However, other baseball analysts and fans debate his status as an all-time great pitcher, pointing to several key factors that might detract from his worthiness of high praise. Let’s explore these factors to understand why Nolan Ryan might not be universally regarded as an all-time great pitcher.

1. Win-Loss Record

Ryan’s career win-loss record stands at 324-292, which, while impressive in terms of total wins, reflects a relatively high number of losses. The victory total also reflects that he pitched for 27 seasons, meaning his average season record was just 14-13. The .526 winning percentage is not as dominant as other legendary pitchers, and his record suggests that despite his individual brilliance, his teams did not always convert his performances into victories. In comparison, pitchers like Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, Jim Palmer, and Bob Gibson have much higher winning percentages, indicating more consistent success in leading their teams to wins.

Over the last two decades the importance of individual win-loss records for pitchers has been downgraded, but that was not the case during the era in which Ryan pitched. Like most pitchers from the 1970s, Ryan was expected to both start and finish a large portion of his starts. Ryan registered 222 career complete games, including 156 in an eight year stretch between 1972 and 1979.

2. Control Issues

One of the most significant critiques of Ryan’s career is his control issues. He holds the MLB record for career walks with 2,795, a reflection of his frequent struggles with command. By comparison, Steve Carlton is second all-time with 1,833 career base on balls allowed. This high walk total often put him in difficult situations, leading to increased pitch counts and shorter outings. While his overpowering fastball helped him get out of many jams, the walks limited his efficiency and effectiveness.

3. Lack of Cy Young Awards

Despite his longevity and dominance in certain aspects of pitching, Ryan never won a Cy Young Award, the honor given to the best pitchers in the league. This absence is often cited as a significant gap in his accolades, especially when compared to contemporaries like Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, and Jim Palmer, who each won multiple Cy Young Awards. Ryan finished in the top three of the Cy Young voting only three times in his career and received votes only eight times in 27 seasons, suggesting that while he was excellent, he was rarely seen as the very best in any single season.

Rod Carew

With the Major League All-Star Game being played this year in Minnesota, we recognize as the July Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month one of the best hitters of the last half a century who was named to 18 straight All-Star teams, including in each of his 12 seasons with the Twins.

Few have been as good at the craft of hitting a baseball as Rod Carew. During 19 major league seasons, Carew won seven batting titles and hit .330 or better ten times. Read the rest of this entry →

The Red Sox & Angels staged a historic battle for the AL pennant 25 years ago this October.

It’s League Championship Series time right now in major league baseball, a time the people of Boston were able to get very used to in recent years, with four appearances in six years from 2003-08. The Sox also made this round in 1999 and prior to that the legendary (or infamous, depending on your point of view) team of 1986 played for the pennant. With this being the 25^th anniversary of the ’86 Sox, let’s take a look back on the epic seven-game war they waged with the then-California Angels for the American League flag.

Boston and California had each put away their division titles without drama (from 1969-93 the leagues were split into just two divisions with only the winners advancing straight into the LCS) and the Game 1 showdown of Roger Clemens and California’s Mike Witt was highly anticipated. Clemens had just completed a regular season that would win him the Cy Young and MVP award and Witt was easily the ace of the Angel staff. The series got off to a less than auspicious beginning as the Halos got four runs in the second inning. First baseman Wally Joyner, who’d already greeted Clemens with a double to right in the first, got up again in the second and doubled the other way to pick up two of the runs. Staked to a 4-0 lead, Witt never looked back and the Angels cruised to an 8-1 win. It gave California their goal of just taking one game at Fenway. The Red So were able to bounce back with a 9-2 win in Game 2. This game was closer than the score made it look, as Boston held a 3-2 lead after six and Fenway had to be a very jittery place, particularly when Bill Buckner missed a chance to put the game away early when he grounded into a bases-loaded double play. Ultimately though, three runs apiece in both the seventh and eighth opened the game up and sent the series west knotted at a game apiece.

The three games in Anaheim were all outstanding games, gradually building to the one that would ultimately give this ALCS a storied place in baseball lore. Boston’s Oil Can Boyd pitched very well in Game 3 and the Red So were holding a 1-0 lead, but this was another case where it could have been more. Second baseman Marty Barrett, dominant throughout the series with a record 14 hits (a record that still stands) missed a chance here and popped to first with the bases loaded. Thus when Joyner drew a walk and was moved to second, he was in position to score when Reggie Jackson singled him in to tie up the score for the Angels. Boyd finally lost it in the seventh and in the most maddening way—light-hitting shortstop Dick Schofield went deep, as did leadoff man Gary Pettis, generally a pure contact hitter. A three-run inning keyed California’s ultimate 4-3 win.

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