Nolan Ryan

Nolan Ryan was born on January 31, 1947 in Refugio, Texas, USA as Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr.

Recorded his first career strikeout on Sunday, September 11, 1966 when he fanned Pat Jarvis of the Braves. Gave up his first home run to Joe Torre. Torre later became a baseball team manager, after his playing career.

Member of 1969 New York Mets World Series Championship team

Set a Met record with 15 strikeouts in one game on Saturday, April 18, 1970, only to see teammate, Tom Seaver break it four days later, on Wednesday, April 22, 1970 when he struck out 19.

Traded by the Mets along with pitcher Don Rose, outfielder Leroy Stanton and catcher Francisco Estrada to the California Angels on Friday, December 10, 1971 for infielder Jim Fregosi in what is generally regarded as the worst and most disastrous trade in Major League Baseball history, especially to the Mets' team.

Struck out 383 batters in 1973, still a major-league record for a single season. The previous record was 382, set by Los Angeles Dodger pitcher, Sandy Koufax, in the 1965 season.

Was clocked in 1974 at throwing a fastball at 100.8 mph. First major league pitcher ever to be clocked at over 100 mph.

Celebrated his return to the National League by hitting his first major-league home run in his first start with the Astros on Saturday, April 12, 1980, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The homer was in the eighth inning and gave the Astros a 5-4 lead. The Dodgers won that game in extra innings.

Some critics consider Ryan to be a .500 pitcher (his career won-lost record is 324-292 for a .526 winning percentage). However, his career ERA was only 3.19. Ryan also spent much of his career playing for teams that were very mediocre, so his high number of losses stems more from lack of run support. In the 1987 season, Ryan led baseball with a 2.76 ERA and 270 strikeouts, but a lack of run support resulted in Ryan having a record of 8-16. The Astros that year had a team batting average of .253 and finished third in the National League Western Division with a 76-86 record. The team scored rarely, while allowing 678 runs.

On Thursday, May 1, 1991, at 44 years old, he became the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter when he beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-0. This was his major-league record 7th and final no-hitter.

Although he has Major League Baseball record of 5,714 strikeouts in his career, arguably his most famous "punch-out" was one that did not appear in the box score. On August 4, 1993, during a Chicago White Sox versus Texas Rangers baseball game, Robin Ventura, who was 26 at the time, decided to charge the mound and try to attack Ryan, who was 46, after being hit by a pitch. Ryan, a rancher, saw Ventura, as he quickly charged to the mound, was prepared for him coming, grabbed Ventura, putting his head into a headlock and punched him several times in the head, as he defended himself. Umpires ejected Ventura and Chicago White Sox manager, Gene Lamont from the game. Ryan was not ejected, he was not fined either.

[February 6] Named president of the Texas Rangers. [February 2008]

Inducted into the ESPN Dallas Hall of Fame in 2011 (inaugural class) with Emmitt Smith, Tom Landry, Troy Aikman, and Roger Staubach.