A blog meant for patriotic, educated gentlemen of America to discuss American sports, specifically baseball, in an open form whilst holding true to our values as men and resisting ignorance in an ever struggling society.
Remember when this came out in 1999? What would you change now, 12 years later? Is Randy Johnson on here now? Greg Maddux? Alex Rodriguez? Albert Pujols? Is Bonds on there as a Starter? It would be interesting to re-create this list again.
Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. (born on January 31, 1947), nicknamed "The Ryan Express", is a former Major League Baseballpitcher. He is currently part-owner, CEO, and team president of the Texas Rangers.
During a major league record 27-year baseball career, he pitched in 1966 and from 1968–1993 for four different teams: the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.[1]
Ryan, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, threw pitches that were regularly recorded above 100 miles per hour (160.93 km/h), even past the age of 40.
While his lifetime winning percentage was a relatively pedestrian .526, Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.[1] He leads the runner-up, Randy Johnson, by 839 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in Major League history. He is currently the only major league baseball player to have his number retired by 3 different teams: the Angels, Astros, and Rangers (other than Jackie Robinson whose number was retired by the entire MLB).
Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for most one-hitters, with 12. Ryan also pitched 18 two-hitters. Despite the seven no-hitters, he never threw a perfect game, nor did he ever win a Cy Young Award. Ryan is one of only 29 players in baseball history to date to have appeared in Major League baseball games in four decades.
Ok...but here is where it gets CRAZY. Did you happen to see the 12 one hitters??? Or maybe his 5,714 total K's? Yeah, he walked some guys...ok, a LOT of guys but he also threw more innings than most guys. Retired his number on THREE of his teams?
Check out these stats:
Struck out over 300 batters: SIX times. 329,383,367,327,341,301. The last one was with an eleven year gap when he struck out 301 in 1989.
Only won 20 games twice. How sad is that? Looking at his ERA, hits vs. IP and k's it is quite apparent his teams were horrible all those years. This also explains why he never won a Cy Young award. Yes, that's correct, he never won a Cy Young award. Baffeling really when you have years like this: 1973 with the California Angels 21-16, 2.87 ERA, 26 Complete Games with 4 Shutouts, 326 Innings Pitched (not a typo), 238 hits for only a 6.9 H/9IP, and 383 K's. That is the all time single season record over Sandy Koufax's 381. Came in second for the Cy Young that year. He had a lot of years like that, huge IP, CG, K's, and didn't win a lot of games or lost a lot because of the team he was playing for. In that sense his career in a lot of ways paralled Hank Aarons. Hank never hit more than 44 homers in one season yet is/was the All Time Homerun king. Every season he consistently put up stellar numbers, if not the best of the year, and over the course of his long career he put up All Time Great numbers. Just like Nolan Ryan and his 27 seasons, all 27 where he was throwing 100 mph including after he hit 40 years old. Steroid Free.
3.19 Career ERA. 324 wins and 294 losses. Say's a lot right there about the offense he had behind him all those years. 1987 he led MLB with a 2.76 yet had a 8-16 record...
222 Complete Games. For comparison here's the list of Active Leaders today....
Pretty sure they won't ever even reach that. Although to put Ryan's number into perspective Cy Young himself leads all time with 749 Career Complete Games.
Couple interesting items about Nolan Ryan.
He once pitched over 200 pitches in a 13 inning game in 1974. That may help back up his current disregard for pitch counts with his Texas Ranger pitchers.
By the time Ryan got to high school, he threw extremely hard, but was very wild, and he remembers one game in particular.
"The first guy I hit in the arm and broke his arm," he remembers. "The next guy I hit in the head and split his helmet, and the third guy went down to the third base coach and begged not to hit and I don't blame him. That was a reflection of how wild I was."
Umm...yeah.
Also, he's been married to his High School girlfriend for over 35 years. Great American.
Lastly, doesn't Nolan Ryan make you think of a cowboy that would single handedly break up a cattle rustling group with his fists and guns, just smash some drunks face off the bar and then slam a shot of whiskey before riding off into the sunset with some hot brod? Me too. I love him.
I am a runner so naturally I hold Pre very high in my regards of athletes. In fact, I consider Prefontaine one of the greatest American athletes of all time. All Time. He ran with no regard for his own body. He ran to win. Winning was all that mattered. He held every record at nearly every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters at the time he died.
He died young (24) and that in itself was a tragedy as he never was able to fully show his greatness on the world stage. He was incredible in every race, absolutely dominating the entire country for four years at the University of Oregon only losing 3 mile distance races. He won, he crushed people and he shattered records. I cannot watch a single second of this video from the '72 Olympics without getting chills and wanting to go outside and run full speed until my body gives out. I don't know of another athlete that every has made me want to stop what I'm doing to go push myself. Watch the video, watch him run this race and although he doesn't come out on top (and ultimately falls apart) you can see he gave every single ounce of energy in the name of America and winning. Given what happened at the '72 Olympics it's even more impressive.
Over his career, he won 120 of the 153 races he ran (78 percent), and never lost a collegiate (NCAA) race at the University of Oregon. Prefontaine liked to say, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
In my eyes, he's a Legend in the likes of any "mainstream" athlete like the Jordan's, Griffey's, and Gretzky's. He took over the country and boomed an entire industry with is coach, Bill Bowerman, who went on to create Nike. If you haven't seen the movie "Pre" about his life and running career it's incredible. You might just be calling me to go do sprints on a track.
Here are some amazing quotes Pre said during his years. I love every one of them.
A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Steve Prefontaine
How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races? Steve Prefontaine
You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement. Steve Prefontaine
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
"How does a kid from Coos Bay, with one leg longer than the other win races? All my life people have been telling me, 'You're too small Pre', 'You're not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your foolish dream Steve'. But they forgot something, I HAVE TO WIN."
How is it that the Yankee Empire has cranked out 39 Hall Of Fame players, several being in the top 5 of all time, and none of them got to 3000 hits? Amazing!
Jeter, who turned 37 yesterday and is eligible to come off the disabled list on Wednesday, is sitting on a club-record 2,994 hits. He owns the club's all-time records for stolen bases (330), singles (2,219), at-bats (9,584) and plate appearances (10,841), and is second in doubles (477) and games played (2,357).
He's third in runs scored (1,724), fourth in total bases (4,303) and runs created (1,699), sixth in walks (971) and extra-base hits (775), and seventh in batting average (.312).
Jeter ranks eighth in RBIs (1,155) and 10th in home runs (236).
One can argue Jeter's club-record 241 double-play grounders should temper the praise. Ditto for the 1,603 strikeouts that rank second in team history -- an ugly number for a contact hitter.
Being a Chicano is not easy when it comes to soccer. You spend about 2 days wondering what jersey to wear for the game, green or white. And no matter what you choose, you hate yourself at the end of the game no matter who wins. The U.S. and Mexico are bitter rivals. If you've never been to a soccer game, go watch a Mex vs US match. The game is always physical and lots of action. Watch this video for examples. Lots of fights, black eyes and kicks to the nuts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pENBzZ4aGp4&feature=fvst
The U.S. has dominated Mexico on U.S. soil, beating them 11 out of 13 matches. Saturday's Gold Cup final's loss not only put the U.S. out of the Confederations Cup, but in my opinion is the first indicator of the shift of power in CONCACAF. With young star players like Chicharito and Dos Santos, and a talented U-17 club, El Tri is poised to dominate for the next 6 years.
The US squad is aging. Lets face it, Donovan is an amazing player, but he is 30, and Freddy Adu is not the star we thought he would be. Agudala is too injury prone, and Tim Howard is old and on the way out too. It's time for the US squad to revamp. Four unanswered goals should tell you something. That defense is terrible. Having Cherundolo go down early really hurt the team. Bornstein was getting burned on the left side all game.
Was the game amazing? Yes. Did I like the results? Yes and No. I should just cut my jerseys in half, and sew each half to each other.
The Women's Suffrage movement was an important time in the history of this country. The acknowledgment of women having equal rights as men opened the door for us to become a better society. It also opened up the door for women in sports, and sports deemed to be only be played by men. These days there are women and co-ed leagues for just about every sport. I think the U.S. was an early adopter of this concept, which probably explains their complete dominance in world soccer in the 90s. That team was one of the best U.S. teams of all time.
The first FIFA Women's world cup team in 91 won all 3 of their group matches with 11 goals, and only 3 against. In the knockout stage they scored 14 goals, and 3 against. Dominance.
The U.S. Ladies have won 2 Cups and 3 Olympic Gold medals. Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers are the only two women, and the only 2 Americans to be named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players chosen by Pele as part of FIFA's centenary observances.
The Women's WC has already started. Keep an eye out for striker Abby Wombach to close in on Mia Hamm's record, and Hope Solo, probably the best female keeper in the world, to make some amazing saves. Bring another victory back for Old Glory Ladies!!!! USA!!!! USA!!!!
Noah, Cesar and I know a couple guys that packed up their Camry one summer and just lit off on a trip across the country visiting every ballpark in the country. Three Rivers Stadium had just opened up (and coincidentally ended as their favorite stadium of all) and for the next several months I was envious with each email I received of their new city, new stadium and new experience they were having. They are not friends anymore, the tens of thousands of hours made sure of that, but I'm sure they will never forget that summer.
When we opened the Hotel in 2005 the April of 2006 brought in the Phoenix Film Festival as it does every spring. It's your typical Film Festival filled with unique, interesting, and thought provoking movies. Some leave you walking out the door amazed, others leave you wondering how you just paid $8.50 for that. The first few years of the Festival and our opening we were major sponsors of the Festival. We had celebrities and movie makers, producers, actors and the like all staying with us for the Festival. It's not in some great mountain town but instead in Stripmall, Phoenix at a nice, new, giant movie complex. It's nice enough but certainly not as if it was Telluride, Montreal or something like Cannes. That year I remember checking in a father and son into their room. The son was right around 40 years old and the father 60+ and very quiet. They were very nice and the talking point became baseball and the Dbacks. They turned out to be really big baseball fans and that was that.
The next night I went to see a movie at the closing of that festival called, "Boys of Summer." It was about a father and son traveling across the USA visiting each and every baseball stadium. Just the father, just the son as the father lives through Parkinson's Disease. They used the memorable event of seeing the country and steady hold of baseball to spread the awareness and raise money for research of the disease. It's a film about America, baseball as our national pasttime not a sport and it's about the journey they take as Father & Son. It's very funny, and very sad.
I hadn't noticed until the movie started that the father and son I checked in the night before were the two that the film was about. Watching the movie was sad, funny and incredible all at the same time. I stayed afterwards and spoke to them and the Q&A was as interesting as the movie to hear their experiences along the way, all those miles in a car, all those stories of different cities, ballparks, games and everything that comes with such a great memory.
So one day, I hope to do the same thing. I won't be the first, I won't be the last but the chance to see the country, Main Street America, the stadiums, all those amazing games is something i hope to have one day. If I don't have the time I'm going to be sure to make the time. Hopefully with my son.
