Word: ryan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When California Angels Righthander Nolan Ryan pitches, curious things happen. Batters edge back from the plate, opposing managers bench their red-hot hitters, Angel outfielders let fly balls drop in for base hits, and the Angel catcher stuffs a half-inch-thick pad of foam rubber into his glove. The reason: Ryan throws so hard he rewrites the basic customs of the game. Batters inch back because they are scared, managers yank top hitters because they can't connect on high fastballs, Ryan's own outfielders are lulled to sleep by the preponderance of infield outs his pitches...
With a fastball that has been clocked at 100.9 m.p.h. (3 m.p.h. faster than Bob Feller's and 7 m.p.h. faster than Sandy Koufax's), Ryan's influence on a game isn't surprising. Nor is his record. He has struck out more batters (383) in a single season than anyone in baseball history, pitched as many no-hitters (3) as Feller, and has thrown four one-hitters, six two-hitters and 14 three-hitters. This year, after two seasons as a 20-game winner, Ryan is setting a 30-win pace with eight victories...
...When Ryan, 28, first came up to the majors seven years ago with the New York Mets, potential was all he had. "I was in the big leagues because of my arm, not because I could pitch," he recalls in a languorous Texas drawl. "My idea of pitching was to throw as hard as you could." That he did, walking batters by the dozen. His difficulties were not eased by chronic blisters on his pitching fingers or long stints in the bullpen...
...CALIFORNIA--Dick Williams's starting staff of Nolan Ryan, Bill Singer, and Frank Tanana may be surprising if some timely hitting becks them...
...Ryan described the auto industry's strategy of "exploiting labor" by forcing large numbers of employees to work overtime, glutting the market, and then laying off workers as "seasonal cyclical secession." She said that 40 per cent of all auto works in the U.S. were laid off this year...