THE DOMINATOR

Nolan Ryan Jr. was born on Jan. 31, 1947, in Refugio, Texas. As a young boy he liked to throw things around. Just about anything would do.

He would set up targets and rear back and let whatever was in his hand blaze toward its mark. So his dad figured if he had to do it, why not let it be a baseball?

The day Nolan's dad put that baseball in his hand, a pitcher was born. His family moved to nearby Alton, Texas, because his dad got a job there.

Nolan went to high school there and became one of the state's most dominating pitchers but actually played five other positions before settling in as a starting pitcher. Nolan was drafted out of high school by the lowly Mets.

He always had a blazing fastball but had control problems early in his career. After a 6-3 start with a 3.53 ERA in relief and as a spot starter with the 1969 Miracle Mets, he knew a future was not in the cards with the Mets being stuck behind Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.

Nolan was not a happy camper. It showed the next year with control problems and a 10-14 record.

In 1971, he was traded to the California Angels and things started looking up. It was definitely the change he needed, racking up a 19-16 record with a 2.28 ERA and eye-popping 329 strikeouts in just 284 innings.

At the time, it was the third most strikeouts in the modern era. And so it began. In 1973, Nolan struck out 383, breaking Sandy Koufax' record by one.

In eight seasons with the Angels, Nolan tossed FOUR NO HITTERS AND averaged 302 strikeouts a season, establishing himself as one of the most dominating pitchers in modern baseball.

The knock on Ryan is he gave up a lot of walks. And it's true but when you pitch between 100 and 102 MPH, there are going to be pitches out of the strike zone or so close because the ball is coming to home plate so fast umpires just were not sure if it got a piece of the plate or not.

I hear that so much though about walks it makes me sick. And about his winning percentage, Nolan played on so many mediocre teams, that getting 324 wins says it all. Well almost.

I'm coming at you with some stats now, you got awhile? No, I won't do that to you, but here are some mind-boggling stats. Ryan was an eight-time All-Star.

He has 5,714 strikeouts that ranks first in MLB history. He is tied with Bob Feller for the most one-hitters in MLB History; they both have 12. Ryan has 18 two-hitters as well.

With longevity comes greatness, and Ryan played a MLB-record 27 years. That is incredible for a pitcher or hell anybody. Most pitchers, no matter how great they are go a whole career without pitching a no-hitter. In 1973, he pitched two.

From 1971-79, Ryan led the AL in strikeouts seven times and pitched four no-hitters. In 1981 he pitched a fifth no-hitter to break Sandy Koufax's record for career no-hitters and had a 1.69 ERA to win the title.

I could go on another 15 minutes, but I won't. His greatest achievement was on one of baseball's greatest single days when in 1991 Ricky Henderson broke the great Lou Brock's stolen base's record by stealing base number 939, and it was kind of overshadowed, because later that day at age 44, Nolan Ryan pitched an unbreakable record seventh no-hitter.

That wasn't his greatest moment to me. In his last game of his career in 1993 at age 46, that great arm that had sustained him for 27 years tore badly.

With just two games left before he retired anyway, the 46-year-old Ryan threw one more pitch, torn ligament and all. That pitch, his final pitch was clocked at 98 mph. To me, that was the exclamation point to a long and great career.

CARLOS R. GRUBB