The Facebook algorithm believes that I would be very interested in watching a new documentary on the career of former Major League Baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan–as posts about it fill my timeline every day. And for a change, the algorithm would be correct.
“Facing Nolan” promises to be a highly-entertaining look back at a ballplayer who was mythic even while he was still playing. When I was a kid, every MLB game was not on TV. There was no SportsCenter, no Baseball Tonight, no video highlight packages sent straight to your phone every morning. And with the Brewers playing in the American League at the time, going to a Houston Astros game wasn’t going to happen. So the few times you would see him would be the rare ‘Stros appearance on the Saturday Game of the Week on NBC or ABC’s Monday Night Baseball, a televised playoff game, or some highlights on This Week in Baseball.
While Nolan Ryan never won a Cy Young Award–and he pitched in just one World Series very early in his career–he still hold a number of high-profile MLB records, most notably most career strikeouts, most career no-hitters, most career walks, and most seasons pitched. And odds are, he is going to hold those records forever.
In many ways, Nolan Ryan is the prototype for today’s pitchers in the “Advanced Analytics Era”. Come in, throw everything in the upper 90’s, and try to strike out everybody. Whereas in the 1970’s, 80’s, and the early 90’s Nolan was a freak of nature, today he would be just another “power arm” on any Major League roster. And yet, none of the flamethrowers today have any hope of ever reaching Ryan’s records–thanks in large part to the very nature of Analytics–and nature itself.
Barring an incredible sea-change in baseball strategy in the future, Nolan’s seven career no-hitters can be etched in stone as “unbreakable”. The latest proof of that came just last week as Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw was lifted from the game after the seventh inning–WHILE PITCHING A PERFECT GAME!!! Never mind that the Minnesota Twins had not come close to a base hit in that game. Thirteen of Kershaw’s 21 outs came via strikeout. But Kershaw had reached the 80-pitch “limit” set by Manager Dave Roberts–so he had to come out. By comparison, Nolan Ryan once threw 235-pitches in 13-innings against the Boston Red Sox in 1974–striking out 19-batters and walking 10. And then he made his next start in the rotation four days later. And he repeated those same exploits for another 19-years.
We should probably admit that if Nolan played in today’s game, he wouldn’t hold any of the records he currently does. He too would be on a pitch count, as analytics-driven General Managers seek to “protect” the valuable arms they pay so much for by using them as little as possible. Of course, Nolan would have been on a pitch count before that–as high school rules prohibit kids from throwing “too many” innings. His senior year in high school in 1965, Ryan pitched in 27-games, starting 20 of those, including one game where he struck out 21-batters, in 7-innings.
Hopefully the documentary will detail Nolan’s early years. I’ve read accounts that as a kid, he threw balls for hours at a time, every day, building up the strength in an arm that delivered extreme heat for 27-years at the Major League level. Now, kids are told to “shut it down” for months at a time, that throwing “too much” is bad for you, and that you don’t need to throw complete games–even if your stuff is still better than the kid that is coming in to replace you.
It might even be fun to have some stat-head included in the film trying to argue that Ryan could have actually been better if hadn’t faced batting orders a third time, or if he had been in a six-man rotation instead of a four-man rotation, and if he had switched to a “tall and fall” delivery instead of his trademark “drop and drive” style. Although, I doubt filmmakers would be interested in making a documentary about a pitcher with no records and no legendary reputation.
By the way, Nolan Ryan’s amazing arm did finally give out–at the age of 45–in the 5,386th inning of his Major League career–tearing a tendon in his right elbow. His last pitch–which came a couple of hitters after suffering the injury–was 98-miles an hour.
