Heaven For Seven
Nolan Ryan's no-hitters have rescued a septet of appreciative catchers from obscurity
Posted: Friday July 23, 1999 02:22 PM
By Steve Wulf
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Ryan was lifted by his teammates into seventh heaven. Bill Janscha/AP |
 Roberto Alomar swung through the 2-2 fastball, and in that one fell
swoop on the night of May 1, the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0,
44-year-old Nolan Ryan had his seventh no-hitter, 33,439 fans at
Arlington Appreciation Night roared their appreciation, Rickey Henderson
was upstaged, and a nation smiled. Ryan smiled, too, and then made sure he
thanked his catcher, Mike Stanley , before his teammates mobbed
him.
So now Ryan has as many no-hitters as there are seas, heavens, wonders of the
world, days of the week, sacraments, deadly sins and innings before you stretch.
The number of mind-boggling facts about his masterpiece far exceeds seven.
Alomar, for instance, was just five years old when his father, Sandy ,
played second base behind Ryan in Ryan's first no-hitter. The centerfielder in
that game was Bobby Valentine , who is now Ryan's manager in Texas. Ryan
has more nine-inning no-hitters than all the rest of the starting pitchers now
on active major league rosters combined (they have six). No two pitchers in
baseball history can pool their no-hit totals and top Ryan. He is now the oldest
(44) and second oldest (43) man to pitch a no-hitter; Cy Young (41) is
a distant third. In addition to the seven no-hitters, Ryan has taken five other
possible no-hitters into the ninth before they were broken up -- all with one
out. His best fastball last Wednesday night was clocked at 96 mph.
As amazing as the numbers are, the truly inspiring thing about Ryan's
performance last week was his conduct. He was working on four days' rest, one
less than usual, because he felt he needed the work, and it allowed him to make
a start on Arlington Appreciation Night. His back and his right heel were
bothering him, so much so that before the game he told pitching coach Tom
House , "I feel old today," but he went ahead and pitched anyway.
Some six hours after Henderson had declared himself the greatest base stealer of
all time upon swiping No. 939, Ryan aw-shucksed his own achievement. "This
is the one I wanted most because it was in front of the fans," he said.
"The fans have been so supportive of me, and it was really great to pitch
one in front of them." And then he celebrated by working out for a half
hour on a stationary
bike.
Ryan has always had that generosity of spirit. He even seems to have brought it
to bear when it came to apportioning the distinction of catching his no-nos. His
seven no-hitters have come with seven different catchers, most of whom have had
forgettable careers: Jeff Torborg , Art Kusnyer , Tom Egan
and Ellie Rodriguez of the California Angels; Alan Ashby
of the Houston Astros; and John Russell and Stanley of the Rangers.
Those seven had a combined batting average of .234 when this season began. None
of the seven had more than 255 at bats during the season of the no-hitter. It
does seem to speak well of Ryan that he has bestowed these moments of greatness
on people who might otherwise never have had a day in the sun. As Stanley said
after No. 7, "When my career is over, nobody is going to remember me. At
least now I'll have something. I'll remember this for the rest of my
life."
They'll all remember.
May 15, 1973: Angels 3, Royals 0
Torborg, now the Chicago White Sox manager, was hardly expecting a no-hitter. In
Ryan's previous start, against the White Sox, he had lasted just 17 pitches.
"It was our first trip into the new ballpark in Kansas City," Torborg
says. "Nolan did not have exceptional stuff that night -- real good, mind
you, but not exceptional for him. Jack McKeon was managing the Royals,
and he tried to rattle Nolan by protesting the way he tapped the rubber with his
right foot -- not maintaining contact. But he withdrew the protest after the
game. "We actually talked about the no-hitter during the game. I told Nolan
how we had to approach this thing. We still had to win the game. Nolan was
focused. He's always been so intent." There were two close calls in the
game. In the eighth, shortstop Rudy Meoli made an over-the-shoulder
catch in shallow left of a ball hit by Gail Hopkins , and with two outs
in the ninth, Ken Berry , inserted in rightfield that inning for
defense, leaped up at the wall to catch a ball hit by Amos Otis .
"I remember that last out fairly vividly," Torborg says. "I've
even got a montage of the out on my wall at home: Nolan throwing and Otis
hitting, with the scoreboard in the
background."
July 15, 1973: Angels 6, Tigers 0
Torborg broke his finger two days before this game in Detroit, so the
little-used Kusnyer got the call. "Before the game Nolan said he felt he
had good control," says Kusnyer, now a bullpen coach with the Athletics.
"That wasn't all that common for him in those days. He actually thought the
Tigers were stealing our signs. I told him, 'I can tell them what's coming and
it wouldn't matter the way you're throwing.' "At one point Norm Cash
struck out, and as he returned to the dugout, Bill Freehan asked
him what Nolan was throwing. Cash said, 'Don't go up there.' His last time up,
Cash actually came to bat with a table leg, all square and knobby and
everything. He had taken it off a table in the clubhouse. 'I might as well use
this,' he said. The umpire ( Ron Luciano ) wouldn't let him use it, of
course. He struck out 17 that game, and my finger turned purple from all the
fastballs he
threw."
Sept. 28, 1974: Angels 4, Twins 0
Egan, who is a regional sales manager for a Phoenix trucking firm, says he knew
a no-hitter was in the works from the first pitch of this game in Anaheim.
"We called a fastball, I went down to block the ball, and the ball rose,
probably three feet, and it was a strike. The umpire, Bill Haller ,
said, 'Where were you going?' I said I thought it was in the dirt, and he said
he did, too. "Nolan definitely had it. It was like driving a powerful car.
He walked eight in that game, though. The only close call I remember was a ball
hit to shortstop. Rudy Meoli dove for the ball, got up and threw the guy
out." (Meoli may have saved the first three no-hitters, but he also cost
Ryan one in 1973 when he a let a first-inning pop-up by the New York Yankees'
Thurman Munson fall for the only hit of the game.)
June 1, 1975: Angels 1, Orioles 0
Before the game in Anaheim, Ryan went up to Rodriguez, asked him if he was
catching and then tossed him a little rubber ball. "Here," he said,
"I'll be throwing these today." Despite that little omen, Rodriguez,
who is now a youth worker in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, says that Ryan did not
have his best stuff that day: "He had a tough, tough time warming up. When
he started, he was throwing around 86 miles an hour. But he had a good change
and a good curve going. Then in the fifth inning, his fastball started popping.
He shook me off just a few times in that game. Once was on the last pitch of the
game, with the count 2-2 on Bobby Grich . I called for a fastball, but
he called me out to the mound to tell me he wanted the changeup, and we caught
Grich looking. I had the ball, and I told Nolan, 'I've got the ball, and I'm not
going to give it to you.' But I
did."
Sept. 26, 1981: Astros 5, Dodgers 0
This was the no-hitter, pitched in Houston, that broke Sandy Koufax 's
career record of four. "I saw two of Koufax's no-hitters as a kid,"
says Ashby, who is now a sportscaster for KHTV in Houston. "I idolized
Koufax. So to be able to catch the fifth one, the one that broke the record,
that was a mind-boggling experience. "Looking back to '81, I didn't think
Nolan would be able to throw another no-hitter. Logically, he was nearing the
end of his career. He wasn't losing his stuff, but he was 34 at the time. On the
last out of the game, Nolan hung a curveball to Dusty Baker , but he
guessed wrong and grounded the ball to Art Howe at
third."
June 11, 1990: Rangers 5, Athletics 0
Geno Petralli had a sore neck, and Stanley had a bruised shoulder, so
the assignment that night in Oakland went to Russell, who had never caught Ryan.
Six weeks before the game Russell had been helping to coach a high school team
in suburban Philadelphia. The Braves had released him in spring training, and
the Rangers had signed him to a Triple A contract in May. Before the first
pitch, Russell told Ryan, "It's a great thrill just to catch you."
Russell says he didn't start thinking no-hitter until the fifth: "That's
when Nolan really started to turn it on. It seemed like every pitch he made was
perfect. Behind the plate, the pitches looked unhittable. The intensity in his
eyes was unlike anything I've ever seen. That's why I never got nervous. I
looked into his
eyes."
May 1, 1991: Rangers 3, Blue Jays 0
Stanley also had to make the team as a nonroster player this spring. Until the
May 1 game, he was feeling left out. Russell had a Ryan no-hitter, Petralli had
caught Ryan's 300th victory, and Chad Kreuter had been behind the plate
when Ryan got his 5,000th strikeout. After the second inning, in which Ryan
fanned John Olerud , Mark Whiten and Glenallen Hill --
all looking, all on curveballs -- Stanley started thinking he might get his
career moment: "As each inning went on, you could see it in his eyes. You
could hear him talking to himself. You could see that he really sensed it and
knew what to do with it. That was the exciting part, watching Nolan and his
mannerisms, and the way he went after it." Stanley thought Ryan had lost
the no-hitter in the sixth when Manny Lee hit a shallow fly ball to
center, where Gary Pettis was playing. "I screamed and yelled and
turned away," Stanley says. "Then I looked up and saw the ball coming
back in. Gary must have moved before the ball was hit. I thought, This is the
greatest chance for him and the greatest chance for me for a no-hitter. And it
came
true."
Issue date: May 13,
1991
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