Nolan Ryan

This memoir by Ryan isn't the greatest book ever written but it is worth reading if you are a baseball fan. Baseball, more so than other sports is wrapped up in statistics which is not my thing. Ryan has plenty to back up his status as one of the greatest players ever, and maybe the games greatest pitcher. It's all positive, [as a Hall of Famer he's now a baseball ambassador] but he does get few digs into a few bad people: Buzzie Bavasi, Billy Martin, Jim Palmer, Pete Rose. Ryan loves Sandy Koufax and was influenced by his play on the field and demeanor off of it. Ryan mentions the ability of the Dodgers' Valenzuela. Tom Seaver was another good teammate who was on the Mets team which won the World Series. Ryan says that it was against the Dodgers that he first struck out the side on nine pitches. Ryan was a pitcher who was so dominant that people expected a new statistical category to be invented: the back-to-back No-Hitter. He came close twice. Some good Yogi-isms are included. If you didn't live during those times, the stories he tells seem made up. But the reality was that Ryan was a unique player who sacrificed much family time to perfect his athletic ability. Ryan joined the Army reserve since it was during the Vietnam era when his baseball career began. He completed his duty on weekends with the military. Ryan is Methodist.… (meer)

To me Nolan Ryan was the poster boy for hard work and humility. A class act, as they say in the media. I picked this book up hoping to find out something about Nolan that I never knew about him or had somehow missed. What I took from this book was that Nolan expected a certain amount of respect for being an elder statesman of Major League Baseball. Even more so, he couldn't understand how gifted athletes wouldn't work to keep themselves in shape to survive more than five years in the league.

According to Costas, baseball's problems started in 1993 when the owner's shook up the leagues to try and generate popularity. This only made it worse. Baseball was turning into hockey, football, and basketball. The bulk of the book is spent detailing what should have happened in 1993, what he would change, and what he would return to it's former self.

This book was written in 1992, so Nolan had not yet retired.

The book's chapters deal with Nolan's opinions, growing up, and baseball. The opinion chapters are pretty much what I expected from Nolan; laid back, hard work, conservative beliefs. He adores his wife Ruth for putting her life on hold to raise kids and deal with his being gone a lot. The one thing he wants to do more than anything when he retires is spend time making up for lost time. He has a chapter dedicated to each of the teams he played for; Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers. He gives more of his opinions on "today's" ballplayers and other odds and ends.
The one part I thought was not needed was the last chapter on next year's Rangers. Oh sure, I got to hear about Ivan Rodriguez, Dean Palmer, and Juan Gonzalez before they were big stars, but hey, most of the players are gone along with the '93 season. So who really cares?

All in all, it was an interesting book for anyone wanting to know about Nolan Ryan, from Nolan Ryan. Unfortunately, his description of himself and his baseball career was a lot like I expected.… (meer)