by Howie Mooney
Like pretty much any year, in 1991, we saw plenty of monumental events take place.
On Christmas Day of 1991, the Soviet flag was lowered at the Kremlin for the final time. In January, the United States and a coalition of 34 countries began bombing Iraq after Saddam Hussein invaded and took Kuwait City near the end of 1990. Also, the internet saw its first days of existence in 1991.
In sports, the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted its first placekicker when Jan Stenerud was presented with his bust in Canton. But on May 1, 1991, specifically, a couple of future Hall of Famers etched their names into the record books with some incredible individual performances on the baseball diamond.
Today, we are used to seeing pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training around February 10 and camp wrapping up before the end of March. Quite often, we will see regular season games scheduled for the last days of March or the first day of April. Often now, the games on Opening Day are played on different continents. Back in 1991, the pace seemed a bit more leisurely as the season got underway on April 8.
As play ended on the last day of the month, April 30, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds held slim leads over the other teams in their respective divisions in the National League. Things were tight in the American League as well. In the east, the Boston Red Sox held a half-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Oakland Athletics were the power team in the west at the time, but their lead over the Chicago White Sox at the end of April was a slim half-game as well.
At this time, the A’s were led by Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. As far back as the mid-to-later 1980s, The Bash Brothers had terrorized American League pitchers with their power and their ability to drive in runs. In 1986, Canseco was the league’s Rookie of the Year. In 1987, McGwire followed with his own award-winning rookie season. In 1988, 1989 and 1990, the team found themselves playing in the World Series, winning the ‘Earthquake Series’ in 1989.
They set out to defend their A.L. pennant in 1991. Helping out the 20-somethings were a trio of 32-year-olds in Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson and former White Sox star Harold Baines. Dave Henderson would post the team’s best wins-above-replacement number in 1991 at 5.4 with Canseco putting up a 5.3. Rickey would find himself with a WAR of 4.6. Not too shabby.
Oakland had an up-and-down experience in that April of 1991. They had won eight of their first nine games. Optimism was soaring in Alameda County. But then, they lost five in a row and six of seven. They finished the month by winning their last four games. We’ve seen plenty of teams play win-one-lose-one baseball. But the Athletics were on a pace to give their fans a manic-depressive season if they continued to play like this all year.
In 1985, the musical group Talking Heads released an album called Little Creatures. One of their biggest hits off that album was a song called Road to Nowhere. That may have been an apt way of describing the 1991 Texas Rangers’ season, at least as it fell in the month of April of that year. They started that campaign off by losing their first four contests. Then they won their next three. They ended the month with a record of 8-8, but at least, on April 30, they beat a good Toronto Blue Jays club to pull even at .500.
The Rangers had some good players but for whatever reason, they could never achieve excellence. During the decade of the 1980s, they finished second in the American League West twice – in 1981 and 1986. The rest of the decade, the team languished in complete mediocrity.
Julio Franco was 32 when the 1991 season started and was an all-star in the three seasons between 1989 and 1991. He enjoyed a major league career that spanned from 1982 to 2007. Coincidentally, 1989 was his first season with the Rangers. He finished the 1991 season with a .341 average. In 1990, he posted a WAR of 6.8 and was named a Silver Slugger. He performed excellently, and he had some teammates who did as well.
The Rangers acquired Rafael Palmeiro at the winter meetings in December of 1988 from the Chicago Cubs in a seven-player deal that included names like Jamie Moyer, Curtis Wilkerson and Mitch Williams. In 1990, Palmeiro led the A.L. in hits with 191. At the age of 26, he pounded out 49 doubles in 1991 and put up a WAR of 5.8 and was an all-star for the second time in his career. His consistent play was a hallmark of his career until he admitted taking performance enhancing drugs after his time in the league ended. He became a pariah after that.
Ruben Sierra was cut in the same mold as Franco in that he seemed to play forever. His career started in 1986 with the Rangers when he was 20. He was a first-time all-star in 1989 when he led the majors in triples with 14 and the A.L. in runs batted in with 119. In 1991, he’d be an all-star once again and he would post an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of .859 with a .307 average. His WAR was 5.1.
Nolan Ryan made his major league debut with the New York Mets in 1966. He appeared in two games that year. He was 19. In 1968, he became a Met for real, but his team wasn’t really sure of what his role should be with the team. He worked as a starter and a reliever. He won a World Series with them in 1969, but in December of 1971, he was traded to the California Angels with three other players for Jim Fregosi.
It was with the Angels, though, that he really began to flourish. They looked at him and exclaimed him a starter exclusively. In 1972, he pitched in 39 games in that capacity. He completed 20 of them and posted nine shutouts to lead the majors. His 329 strikeouts also led the bigs. But at bats against him were anything but comfortable for hitters. He led both leagues in walks and wild pitches. He was also an all-star for the first time in his career. He received votes for the Cy Young Award and the Most Valuable Player as well.
In eight seasons with the Angels, he was an all-star five times. By the mid-1970s, he was one of those ballplayers who was a transcendent star. He was also a workhorse. He completed games with regularity. In fact, in 1973 and 1974, he completed 26 games in each season, and he led the majors with 22 in 1977. He approached or surpassed 300 innings every year of the decade except for 1975.
He was also a master of the signature game. And for pitchers, the ultimate prize is firing a complete game no-hitter. While with the Angels from 1972 to 1979, he tossed four no-nos. To be truthful, he accomplished that feat within a period of just over two calendar years.
He notched the first two within two months of each other in 1973. Remember that that was the first American League season in which the designated hitter was used.
On May 15, 1973, Ryan faced three batters above the minimum when he no-hit the Kansas City Royals on the artificial surface at the brand-new Royals’ Stadium. He did allow three bases on balls, but he also struck out a dozen Kansas City hitters. The Angels scored a pair in the first inning and rode Ryan’s arm to a 3-0 win. The farthest the Royals placed a runner was second base. That was in the first inning. Steve Hovley walked and then stole second but was stranded there.
Exactly two months later, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 15, the Angels were in Detroit to face the Tigers. It was a tighter game than the one in May. The Angels manufactured a run in the top of the third on a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly. The score stayed 1-0 inning after inning until the top of the eighth. In that frame, the Angels sent ten men to the plate and the bottom of the eighth started with the visitors holding a 6-0 lead. The Tigers went down in order in their halves of the eighth and ninth innings.
The 26-year-old Ryan faced 31 Detroit hitters on the day. He walked four and forced 17 to sit down after having been retired on strikes. Teammates and opponents used the word ‘overpowering’ to describe Ryan’s day. But his mix of pitches was probably as important as his use of his heater.
Frank Robinson was 37 and a California Angel in 1973. He had been the first man ever to win the Most Valuable Player in both major leagues. Nearing the end of his playing career, he was mostly used as a designated hitter by this point. He had been a witness to a lot of baseball in his life. What he saw on that Motor City afternoon was special.
“He throws as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen. His curve ball made him, not his fastball. He threw a lot of curves out there,” he told reporters after the game. Robinson then smiled a huge smile and quipped, “In fact, he struck me out three times and I wasn’t even playing.”
Angels’ manager Bobby Winkles figured that Ryan was maybe the best pitcher in baseball at that point in 1973. “Pitching against as good a hitting team as Detroit is right now is really doing a job. He (Ryan) is as good, stuff-wise, as any pitcher in the game today.”
Duke Sims was the Tigers’ catcher that afternoon. Ryan retired Sims on strikes all three times they faced each other. When Sims first spoke with the press, he mentioned feeling embarrassed but then figured there was nothing that day to be embarrassed about. “I’ve had no-hitters thrown against me, but never as overpowering as that one. It’s a hard thing to do a no-hitter. A shutout is hard enough, but to throw a no-hitter with 17 or 18 punch-outs…”
The next season, 1974, was not a good one for the California Angels. As September was coming to a close, they found themselves in the basement of the American League West. Winkles was gone as the team’s manager in mid-June. Whitey Herzog took the reins on an interim basis and then the Angels did what a lot of teams did when they needed a manager in the 1970s. They called Dick Williams. He finished the year as the team’s manager and his record was consistent with how the team performed – not good.
As bad as the Angels were – and they were bad – Nolan Ryan picked up where he had left off in 1973. He had put up a record of 21-16 that season. In ’74, he went 22-16. And he did it on a team that won 68 games all year. But he saved his best effort for his last outing. Well, maybe it wasn’t his best effort, but it was pretty darned good, and it was memorable, nonetheless.
With the Angels playing bad ball and with this being his last start of the season, Ryan decided, before the game, “to air it out”. There had also been speculation, going into the season’s end, that Ryan might be on the trade block. So, for him, not being sure about where he’d be in 1975, he figured that, yes, he was pitching for the Angels on this night, but he might also be pitching to prove something to every other club in the major leagues as well.
The Minnesota Twins were the visitors for this Saturday evening game in Anaheim. It was also Fan Appreciation Night. One may have been excused if they didn’t realize that fact. Only 10,872 spectators showed up for what would be a night to remember, at least for those folks present. But on his way to the mound to start the game, Ryan clapped his bare hand and his glove hand to show his appreciation to the people who had come out to the game.
In the top of the first inning, Ryan struck out Steve Brye, Rod Carew and Bobby Darwin. He did issue a walk to Steve Braun, but it didn’t hurt him. The Angels went down in order in their half of the first. In the second inning, Tony Oliva led off by walking. But then Ryan sat Larry Hisle, Pat Bourque and Luis Gomez on strikes. In California’s half of the second, Leroy Stanton singled for the game’s first hit, but none of his teammates could solve Joe Decker so it was scoreless after two.
In the top of the third, Brye and Carew worked Ryan for bases on balls, but none of Glenn Borgmann, Braun or Darwin were able to do anything. Borgmann hit a drive to left-centre but Angels’ left fielder John Balaz ran it down in the gap to catch the ball over his shoulder. So, there was still no score. Rudy Meoli’s leadoff double was the spark for the Angels in their half of the third. Meoli ended up coming home as did Morris Nettles. Dick Williams’ team put up two runs on three hits and a Twins’ error to lead 2-0.
In the Twins’ fourth, Ryan issued his fifth walk of the game to Hisle. But he got Oliva, Bourque and Gomez. In the middle of the fourth, despite Ryan’s control issues, he was going to carry another possible no-no into the fifth. A couple more Angels’ runs on a Morris Nettles base hit gave Ryan a 4-0 cushion heading into that inning. He allowed two more walks to Brye and Carew, but nothing else.
Minnesota had managed to have seven baserunners, all on walks, but none had managed to advance past first base. Pitching for the Twins now was Bill Butler, who was working in relief of Decker. It was between Butler and Ryan now. The Angels would not get another run in the game. It was Ryan’s job to carry this one home. And, given the Angels shaky bullpen, there was no other thought than to allow Ryan to go the rest of the way.
For the Twins in the top of the sixth, Ryan would face Oliva, Hisle and Bourque. The game sheet showed ground out 6-3, K and K. In the top of the seventh, he saw Eric Soderholm, Borgmann and Brye. They all hit fly balls for outs. Borgmann’s was almost identical to the one he had hit in the third inning, with Balaz making a similar great running catch. In the eighth, it was Carew, Braun and Darwin. Carew and Braun struck out. Darwin was out on a fly ball to centre field.
It all came down to the ninth inning.
Ryan would be facing the 5-6-7 hitters for the Twins – Oliva, Hisle and Bourque. Ryan got Oliva to loft a fly ball to centre that was caught by Nettles. He then retired Hisle on a four-pitch strikeout. Now it was down to Bourque to try to break up Ryan’s no-hitter. But then, Bourque was called back. Harmon Killebrew was sent up in his place. He saw five pitches from Ryan. Only one was a strike though. Killebrew ended up standing on first.
Eric Soderholm strolled to the plate. Ryan fired four pitches. Two were balls and two were strikes. The fifth pitch was a Ryan Express fastball. Soderholm swung and missed. The game was over. The Twins had managed eight walks but had no hits to speak of. The Angels won the game 4-0 and Ryan had the third no-hitter of his career. It was the first one he had completed in Anaheim though.
Ryan was all smiles after the game. “This one gives me as much satisfaction as the first two, simply because it was at home,” Ryan told reporters afterward. “I know I said my goal this year was twenty wins, but I also made a silent goal to try and throw a no-hitter at home. Just to show the people here I appreciate the way they have treated me.”
Ryan and his catcher, Tom Egan, did their best to work together on a strategy of trying to keep the ball on the corners of the plate. “We were moving in and out on ‘em all night,” Ryan told the media after the game was done. “I think I was throwing as hard right from the start as I have in any game this year, but it was a struggle. When you throw as many pitches as I did tonight, you gotta be lucky. The only time I had a little lag was in the seventh inning when I made a mistake against Borgmann.”
When Killebrew came up as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, Ryan had retired the previous twelve Twins’ batters. Someone asked Ryan if the walk to the Minnesota slugger was one of the unintentional-intentional variety. “I wasn’t working around him, but I knew he was looking for something to pull and I had to stay away from him to have a better chance.”
Egan was happy with the cooperation with which he and his pitcher worked, and he complimented Ryan’s overall work on the night. “He was all around the plate all night. He walked a lot of people, but he was on the corners the rest of the time, inside and out, and didn’t go down the middle much. We worked real well together and that’s what it takes to win and pitch a no-hitter – one head.”
As far as the possibility of trading Ryan in the offseason, general manager Harry Dalton spoke intensely after the game that he had no intention of shopping his flame thrower. “We’re not going to trade him. Nobody could offer enough for this man.” We all know that general managers have been known to shape their narrative to what they think people want to hear in the moment. But history tells us that Ryan would remain in Anaheim with the Angels until the end of the 1979 season.
For the Angels in 1975, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that they were no longer in last place at the end of May. The bad news was that they were in fifth out of the six teams in their division. One good thing for the team was that on Sunday, June 1, they had Nolan Ryan on the mound for their series finale against a bad Baltimore Orioles team and they would be at home at The Big A.
Ryan had a record of 8-3 heading into this afternoon contest. His mound counterpart would be Ross Grimsley who was 1-6. The Orioles were mired in last place in the A.L. East. But Ryan had lost his previous two starts and the feeling was that he’d have to be close to perfect because the run support he had been getting had not been great.
He threw his first pitch to the Orioles’ lead-off hitter, Ken Singleton, at 1:03 pm Pacific Time that afternoon. A couple of pitches later, Singleton was unsuccessfully trying to beat out a ground ball he had hit to Billy Smith, the Angels’ shortstop. After that, Tom Shopay and Al Bumbry were busy going down on strikes. In the second inning, Ryan pitched around a one-out walk to Bobby Grich to escape unscathed.
In the third, he walked slender O’s veteran shortstop Mark Belanger. After Belanger stole second, Ryan walked Shopay, but a couple of strikeouts allowed Ryan to slither out of that inning without giving up a hit or a run. In the Angels’ third, Billy Smith singled but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play. Then three straight singles to Mickey Rivers, Tommy Harper and Dave Chalk produced a run for the home club. Ryan had a slim 1-0 lead to work with. And work he did.
In the fourth, he got Don Baylor on a foul pop up along the first base line, he got Bobby Grich to line out to Smith at short and he induced Lee May to fly out to Winston Llenas in left field. In the fifth, Brooks Robinson lofted a fly ball to Mickey Rivers in centre field, then Ellie Hendricks flew out to Leroy Stanton in right and Mark Belanger popped a ball down the right field line that Stanton was able to run down.
Ryan faced the top of the Orioles’ order in the sixth. He retired Singleton on strikes. Tom Shopay grounded out to Jerry Remy at second. Ryan then got Al Bumbry to look at strike three. He had retired ten Orioles in a row. If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned what the Angels might have done offensively, it’s because they did nothing. After six complete innings, the score was 1-0 for California.
And Nolan Ryan had allowed nary a hit to this point in the game.
But the seventh inning presented a challenge. Ryan induced Tommy Davis to ground out to Remy for the first out. But then he walked Bobby Grich. The next batter, Lee May, reached on an error to Smith. Brooks Robinson then hit a grounder to third. Dave Chalk’s only play was to first. There were men on second and third with two out. That was when Ryan got Hendricks to pop up to Chalk at third to end the inning.
In the top of the eighth, the Orioles sent their ninth-place hitter, Belanger up to the plate again. He was caught looking at a called third strike. Ken Singleton lofted a fly ball to left that was caught by Llenas. Then, Shopay grounded out to Smith at short to end the inning. Meanwhile, in the bottom of the inning, the Angels maintained their electrifying consistency by not being able to score off Baltimore’s Wayne Garland, who had taken over from Grimsley in the fourth and had done a great job in keeping this a one-run contest.
Once again, it was up to Ryan to finish this one off for himself. And he would have to close this one out against the meat of the Orioles’ order, the 3-4-and-5 hitters. But Al Bumbry poked a fly ball to Llenas in left that he was able to put away. Tommy Davis grounded out to Remy at second. And Ryan caught Bobby Grich looking at a change-up for the final strike of the game to end another no-hitter.
After the game, Ryan addressed that final out with reporters. “I felt Grich would probably be looking for a fastball. He was battling me all the way.” The win improved his record to 9-3 on the season. And his nine strikeouts increased his major league leading total to 96 in the 96 innings he had pitched to that point.
At this point in his career, he was one of the most dominating pitchers in the game. But on this first day of June, he didn’t necessarily have that kind of thought in his mind. “I guess I started thinking about it (the no-hitter) in the fifth inning, but I never really got the feeling, even in the ninth. I didn’t feel that well because I had to face Tommy Davis and Bobby Grich and those are the toughest outs in the Baltimore lineup.”
Four no-hitters was an incredible achievement. It equaled the four tossed by the legendary Sandy Koufax as the most ever by a single pitcher. But Ryan didn’t just throw no-nos. He also had four one-hitters to this point in his career. Throw in seven career two-hitters and the possibility of one of these performances had a chance of occurring on any given Ryan appearance.
But was it something that he actively thought about, especially after having notched his third one in his last appearance in 1974? “Really, I don’t. I never have given that a lot of thought. I always knew it would be nice to have the fourth one. But it’s just something that happens.”
It’s just something that happens. But really, four no-hit games only happen for the very best in the business. Doing a little bit of math, one can deduce that, between the years of 1970 and 1994, a 25-year window, a total of 51,171 major league baseball games were played. In that same period, just 65 no hitters were recorded. That means that in that span, just over one-tenth of one percent (0.13%) of games ended with a no-hitter. That includes games in which a group of pitchers may have combined for a no-no.
And Nolan Ryan had seven of them!
Ryan’s fifth no-hitter took place more than six years after the one at The Big A in Anaheim. After the 1979 season, Ryan became a free agent. He signed a contract with the Houston Astros and began playing with them in 1980. 1981 was kind of an anomaly in that the players went out on strike on June 12 and play was halted until July 31. As a result, the season was divided into two halves.
In any case, as the second half of the campaign was nearing its end, the Astros were under the ‘Dome to host the Los Angeles Dodgers. Houston needed this September 26 game as they stood in first place in the National League West in the second half of 1981 and would qualify for the postseason should they finish in that spot.
Well, with the now 34-year-old Ryan on the mound and going all the way for the no-hit 5-0 shutout win, they held a game-and-a-half lead in the standings, with a few days left in the season. Ryan struck out eleven Dodgers while walking three in the victory. He retired the last 19 Dodger hitters in order. When it was over, his teammates carried him off the field in celebration. He was now the all-time leader in no-hit games.
Oh, and by the way, the Astros did make it to the postseason and played Los Angeles in their first round Division Series. The Dodgers defeated the Houston in the best-of-five series three games to two. That Dodgers team went on to win the National League on a Rick Monday home run off Steve Rogers to get past the Montreal Expos. They then knocked off the Yankees in the World Series in six games.
It wouldn’t be until 1990 that Ryan would record his next no-hitter. By this time, he had moved from Houston to Arlington. After the 1988 season, his contract with Houston was up and he signed a contract with the Texas Rangers. When that 1990 season began, he was 43 years old. When the sun rose on June 11, Ryan was sporting a 4-3 record.
He would be on the mound that evening as his Rangers were visiting Oakland to play the reigning world champion Athletics. That elusive thing that some people call “it” was in the building. That night, Nolan Ryan had “it” again. The Rangers built a 3-0 lead after two innings and a 5-0 lead after five. That was how it ended. Oh, and the A’s finished the game without being allowed a hit.
There were a couple of close calls in this one. In the fourth inning, Oakland’s Willie Randolph, hammered a Ryan pitch to deep left field. But Rangers’ outfielder Pete Incaviglia ran it down. Ryan remarked on that play after the game. “The air was cool tonight, and the ball was heavy. The ball Willie Randolph hit in the fourth, I thought would be a home run. I think if we had been in our ballpark. The way the ball travels there, it probably would have been.”
Ryan got the A’s in order in the ninth. But Rickey Henderson came up with one out in that inning. He tapped a slow grounder that passed the mound on the left side. Shortstop Jeff Huson came in charging the ball hard and he made the play to get Henderson at first. After Randolph popped out in foul territory to end the game, Ryan’s teammates once again carried him off the field on their shoulders. A bottle of champagne managed to reach his hands before he was able to leave the field.
In 1989, he had taken no-hitters into the eighth inning five times. Ryan spoke about that with the press after the game. “I just missed a couple last year and that makes this extra special. It certainly has a special place, up there with the fifth one, because it comes so late in my career. The key to the game, I think, was that I had good command of the fastball and made good pitches with it, and I had a good change-up. Oakland is a free-swinging ball club and because of that, they were swinging at changeups even when they were out of the strike zone.”
But some of the Athletics’ players were just straight-up impressed with what they saw from the elder statesman of the game. “Amazing is the only way to describe him,” Carney Lansford told reporters. “Forty-three years old and he’s throwing 93 and 94 mile-an-hour fastballs – in the eighth and ninth innings.”
Which brings us to less than a year later. The Toronto Blue Jays were in Arlington to play the Rangers on the evening of May 1, 1991. They would be facing the now-44-year-old Nolan Ryan. But earlier that same day, something big was happening back in Oakland.
As the month of April closed, the Athletics were sitting atop the American League West with a record of 13-7 and were a half-game ahead of the Chicago White Sox and three ahead of the California Angels and the Texas Rangers. Jose Canseco homered, Mark McGwire doubled and each of the Bash Brothers knocked in a pair of runs. Bob Welch started and tossed 7 1/3 innings of 2-run ball in a 7-3 victory over the New York Yankees.
Rickey Henderson had turned 32 years old the previous Christmas Day. On May 1, he was staring at history. On the previous Sunday, April 28, Henderson had stolen second base in the sixth inning in a 7-3 win over the Angels. That stolen base allowed Henderson to tie the career mark for base thefts that had previously been the sole domain of the legendary Lou Brock. Each man now stood at 938.
The A’s had been the team that originally drafted Henderson in the fourth round back in 1976. By 1979, he was up with the big club, getting into 89 games and stealing 33 bases in 44 attempts. The next year, he was an all-star and on his way to becoming a bona fide star. He batted .303, had an on-base percentage of .420, an OPS of .820 and stealing 100 bases to go with all that. He led the majors in steals from 1979 to 1984.
Then at the Winter Meetings in December of 1984, the Athletics traded Henderson to the Yankees for five players. In 1985, in his first season in the Bronx, his Wins Above Replacement (WAR) of 9.9 was the best in baseball. He scored 146 runs that year and stole 80 bases, which were also the best marks in the game. If he was a star before, in New York, he was now known simply as Rickey. He continued his stellar play and was an all-star each year from the day he was traded in December of 1984 to the end of 1988.
In 1989 though, Rickey got off to a slow start. From April to mid-June with the Yankees, he hadn’t been hitting like he did in the past. His batting average on June 20 after 65 games was just .247. He was still drawing walks though and his on-base percentage was .394. He had stolen 25 bases as well. But something just seemed off for the perennial all-star.
Meanwhile, his old team was doing quite alright, if anyone was asking. In 1987, the Athletics finished .500 at 81-81, but in 1988, with Tony LaRussa still managing the club and Sandy Alderson still in the general manager’s chair, the A’s won their division. They then swept the American League East winners, the Boston Red Sox before losing the World Series in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The A’s had done what the Yankees had acquired Henderson for, and that was making it to the World Series. The best the Yanks had done while Rickey played with them was second place in the East in 1985 and 1986. There were some who suggested that, at 30, Rickey had slowed down both on his feet and with his bat.
And on June 21, 1989, Yankees GM Syd Thrift and Alderson came together to make a deal that would send Rickey back to Oakland. The Athletics would send lefthander Greg Cadaret and power arm Eric Plunk – who had gone from the Yankees to the A’s in the original Henderson trade – along with platoon outfielder Luis Polonia to the Bronx.
Rickey’s Yankee teammates were surprised and saddened by the news of the deal.
Jesse Barfield had been a Yankee for about a month but he’d gotten to know Henderson as a person after watching him as an opponent for a number of years. “I’m very disappointed. Not only because we’re friends, but because I think he’s an outstanding player. You don’t get a lot of opportunities to play with guys like Rickey.”
Outfielder Mel Hall echoed Barfield’s feelings. “It’ll be tough without him. It’s like losing a Tim Raines. Funny things happen in baseball, but I don’t think people thought this was funny. I didn’t see many smiling faces in the clubhouse.” Catcher Don Slaught admitted the trade would leave a hole in the lineup. “Management felt a change was necessary. Time will tell about the outcome. We got some good, young arms in the deal, but Rickey’s a superstar. We’ll see.”
The news of the trade caught the Yankees’ closer Dave Righetti off guard. “I was surprised. We’ll miss him, I know that. He produced a lot of runs for us.” Henderson batted in the leadoff spot in New York. That spot would now be taken by second baseman, Steve Sax. “We can’t think about the trade as players because we have a job to do, and games are going to be played. We have to keep our attention where it belongs – on things we can control,” Sax said.
For Don Mattingly, he was sad at the prospect of the deal, but he tried to look at it as objectively as possible. That said, he figured that Rickey was kind of going ‘home’. “It’s a tough call because the Yankees were in a position of not getting anything for Rickey if the negotiations went too long and he didn’t sign. It’s tough losing Rickey. He had been struggling a little bit offensively, but you know what his abilities are too. I thought Oakland was the only place he would have gone. Still, it kind of makes you realize that anyone can go but I guess I knew that anyway.”
There’s an old saying that says that change is as good as a rest. That was never truer than it was for Rickey Henderson. He hit the ground running and just under three weeks after the trade was consummated, Rickey was hotter than a house on fire! After a weekend series against the Detroit Tigers, seventeen games into his return to Alameda County, Henderson was hitting .413 over that span. He had scored 22 runs and had driven in 11 more. His on-base percentage was a whopping .513 and he had amassed eleven stolen bases.
Certainly, no one was happier than his manager, LaRussa. “He’s handled himself like a total professional in every way. We gave up a lot to bring him back, but not too much. There is no doubt in my mind that Luis Polonia is going to be a plus for the Yankees. He does a lot of things like Rickey, but not quite as much. When Rickey is right, he’s arguably the best in the game.”
In orchestrating the trade, Alderson acknowledged that Henderson’s batting average had not been great with the Yankees in 1989, but he still was excelling in one aspect – getting on base. “If he can do that (a .394 on-base percentage) the rest of the way, that would be good enough for us. We realized they weren’t going to give away a Rickey Henderson for nothing. Eric Plunk has pitched very well for them. Polonia is a good player, and he certainly is a crowd pleaser. But there’s only one Rickey Henderson.”
In the hours after the trade went down, while Rickey was flying westward toward Oakland, he did a thorough self-evaluation and assessed what he needed to do in order to be successful as quickly as he could back in Oakland. He decided in the short term, that even though Rickey still wanted to be Rickey, he would shelve certain aspects of his game in order to get back to simple baseball.
He made the decision to eliminate that one-handed swipe catch across his body. “I want to see the player Rickey Henderson is. I got to thinking people might think I’m a ‘hot dog’. Right now, I’m going to do the basic things. I look back at some of the stuff and I thought, ‘let’s go with basics’. I don’t want people to think I’m a ‘hot dog’.”
One thing that Henderson knew was that he was going to a good team – a team that had the ability to not just win their division but to get to a World Series. He didn’t need to be THE star or carry the team. He just had to play to his ability. One of his new teammates was a guy who is now a Hall of Famer, Dave Parker. Parker spoke with Newsday’s Joe Donnelly about Henderson the player and the man.
“He’s made a lot of money. You start to look at things in a different perspective. He’s home. He’s with a good ballclub and he’s looking to be a part of what he missed. That’s winning it all. We all have the same goal here. Players on a lot of other teams may have the same goal but it’s not as realistic,” Parker reflected.
He continued, “Rickey hasn’t done anything but shine since he’s been here. I don’t see how anybody could have any problem with him. He’s low key. I spend a lot of time with him on flights – play cards, laugh. Heck of a guy. I’ve spent time with a lot worse people in this game, believe me. I think he’s come over to conform to team rules and do everything in a basic way to be successful.”
Also sitting with Donnelly, Henderson looked at what he wanted to accomplish in the future. “To be an all-time king of stolen bases is important to me. But I want to get that (World Series) ring. The ultimate stuff is to be part of a unit that is the best.” At that moment, Henderson had yet to win ‘that ring’. Also at that moment, he sat fourth on the all-time list of stolen base leaders with 830, 108 behind the great Lou Brock.
Henderson did look back on his Yankee days and he confessed to Donnelly some feelings that there might have been some unfinished business there. “I have no regrets about New York. I would never say I wouldn’t play there. I wanted to win there. We had one chance, ’85. We should have won. But there was the same old problem near the end. Too much confusion.”
Rickey continued, “Yet I still follow them on my satellite and check their box scores, I miss some of those guys. If there are guys you want to play with, they are guys like Jesse Barfield. I scored a lot of runs for Don Mattingly. He’s going to miss me. I’m going to miss him too. We became good friends. I wish those guys well. I wish they could win their division. But I don’t think they will. Too much confusion.”
At the time of the trade, the Yankees were in a fourth-place tie in the American League East at 33-36. They would end up in fifth. The Athletics were 44-27 and at the top of the AL West, two games ahead of the Kansas City Royals and 3 ½ ahead of the California Angels. By the end of the regular season, Oakland finished with 99 wins and were seven games ahead of Kansas City and eight above the Angels.
The A’s would face the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. It would be over in five games. Henderson would be named the ALCS Most Valuable Player. Baseball is all about scoring runs and in the five games, Oakland scored 26 of them. Rickey scored and/or drove in eleven of those runs. He batted .400 in the series, and his on-base percentage was an astronomical .609. He was incredible.
In the first two games of the series, he stole a total of six bases. In the fourth game of the series in Toronto, he hammered a pair of home runs. The next day, he led off the game with a walk, stole second base and when Jose Canseco singled, he gave the A’s a lead before the Blue Jays had a chance to even bat. A couple of innings later, he tripled to drive in another run. His brilliance frustrated a beleaguered Toronto team.
Dave Parker summed up what he figured the Jays were feeling. “You know it had to be discouraging. They just never could get him out. They couldn’t stop him. Literally. It seemed like he was on base the whole series.”
Henderson put everything into perspective when he spoke to reporters after the final game of the series. “I can’t say I surprised myself. If you go all out, things happen. You get on base, score runs. This series, everything just fell into place. I will say that it’s my best moment in baseball right now. I’ve dreamed about being in this position. I had a great series. We won. I get to play in the World Series at last. I’ve been working ten years for that!”
Rickey would get his ultimate wish later that month, a World Series ring. That was the infamous 1989 ‘Earthquake Series’ against the San Francisco Giants. There was a twelve-day gap between the second game of the series in Oakland and the third across the bay in San Francisco. The Athletics swept the Giants to claim the championship. In the World Series, Henderson batted .474, going 9-for-19 in the four games.
Again, the A’s dominated the series. In the four games, the closest was the last one. Oakland won it 9-6. Dave Stewart was named the Series MVP winning both his starts and pitching to a 1.69 earned run average. That said, there were a number of candidates on the Athletics that could have laid claim to that mantel.
Certainly, Henderson had a tremendous series, as did another A’s starting pitcher, Mike Moore. Moore was the victor in the second and fourth games. He hamstrung the Giants in the fourth game of the series, allowing just five hits and two runs in six innings. But he also pounded out a two-run double as well. It was the first hit by a pitcher in the World Series in ten years.
Giants’ manager Roger Craig recounted how thoroughly his team had been defeated by this Oakland juggernaut. “They’re a club without a weakness. I thought we got beat by the World Champions. They definitely were the best team in the World Series. They beat us in all facets. They showed a lot of class, and I think they’re going to give the other teams in the A.L. trouble for the next three years, at least.”
Rickey Henderson agreed with Craig and wasn’t afraid to speculate on what might be. “I think we can call ourselves a dynasty,” Rickey intoned to the press after this one was over. “From what I’ve seen, we are just as good as those Reds teams (1975 and 1976) and the Oakland A’s teams (1972 to 1974) of the 1970s.”
In 1990, Rickey Henderson did his best to back up his words. As good as the time he spent in Oakland was in 1989, his 1990 season was perhaps better.
Much better!
A quick look at the numbers shows us just how great Rickey was that year. First of all, his 1990 WAR matched his 1985 mark of 9.9 and was the best in baseball once again. He crossed the plate with 119 runs scored, which was again, the best in the game. He led the American League in steals with 65. His on-base percentage was a major league leading .439, which was also his career-best. His OPS was another career-best 1.019, as was his OPS+ of 189.
All of these numbers combined to make him the American League’s Most Valuable Player for that season. He also earned the third Silver Slugger Award of his career and another all-star berth. Most importantly, his play helped advance his team not just into the postseason once again, but a sweep over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS in which A’s pitching allowed Boston to score just four runs in the four games.
The problem for Oakland, once they got to the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, was that Jose Rijo was too much of a force for the A’s hitters to deal with. The Reds swept the Athletics in four games. In the two games Rijo pitched against them, Oakland managed to score just a single run. When they say good pitching beats good hitting, believe it.
By the end of the 1990 season, Rickey Henderson had accrued a total of 936 stolen bases. Going into the next campaign, everyone figured that the star speedster would quickly break Lou Brock’s record of 938. But Rickey turned 32 before the end of 1991 and time has a way of slowing a man down. Even a man like Henderson.
The Athletics’ season began on April 9. Henderson played in that game and managed one steal. In games over the next two days, he was caught stealing once in each game. In that third game though, Henderson suffered what he thought was a cramp in his left calf. Lou Brock had travelled to Oakland to be on hand in the event Rickey broke his record.
That twinge forced Brock to consider a longer stay. His rental car was parked at the airport. “I’m going to have to move my car to long-term parking,” Brock joked to a reporter. Henderson wouldn’t just miss the next game. He wouldn’t appear on the field for the team for another sixteen days. Finally, on April 27, he returned to the lineup to face the California Angels.
He took a couple of turns in the batting cage the day before the game. He was also seen lifting weights and doing wind sprints in the outfield as well. “It’s getting better,” Henderson said the day before. “It feels pretty good, but I know I ain’t 100 percent. I’ll play if I can go out there, but I’m not going to re-injure it.”
Tony LaRussa wanted to be completely sure that Henderson was healthy before declaring him fit to play. “If there is any question, we will hold him out another day or two. But he’s close enough to be excited.” When it came to attempting to steal a base, LaRussa figured that would be up to his player. “I’ll let him use his judgement when it comes to stealing. Even if it wasn’t Rickey Henderson coming back, we’d be careful with a guy coming back from a leg injury.”
Rickey did play on April 27. It was a Saturday afternoon, but he went 0-for-4 and never reached base. His A’s won the game 4-3. The next day, the quest began again. Henderson went 2-for-3. He got things going in the first inning when he singled off Jim Abbott. With the count 1-and-0, Rickey went on Abbott’s first movement. Abbott fired over to first baseman Wally Joyner, who immediately gunned it over to shortstop Dick Schofield to tag Henderson out.
With the Angels leading 2-0 in the bottom of the third, Mike Gallego, batting out of the nine-hole, singled to centre. That brought Rickey back up again. He sharply slashed a liner to right-centre that moved Gallego up to third. Lance Blankenship then took the count full before connecting on a base hit that moved Henderson to third. Jose Canseco then doubled to the wall in left-centre that plated both Henderson and Blankenship. A Mark McGwire single brought Canseco home. After three innings, the A’s were up 4-2, but Rickey still didn’t have a steal.
In the bottom of the fourth, Abbott got Henderson looking at strike three. By the bottom of the sixth, Abbott had been replaced by Jeff Robinson and Oakland was leading the Angels 5-3. Gallego led off the inning but grounded out 4-3. Robinson then hit Henderson with a 2-2 pitch. Blankenship got behind one ball and two strikes. That was when the Angels pitcher missed the zone and Rickey took off. He was safe. He had tied Lou Brock for the career stolen base crown.
He would not break the record that day. The A’s won the game 7-3. Everyone would have to wait for a couple of nights when Henderson’s old friends and teammates on the New York Yankees would invade the Coliseum to play the Athletics on April 30. In that game, Oakland would again triumph by a score of 7-3. Alas, Lou Brock would have to extend his stay in Northern California at least another day. Rickey did not steal a base in that one.
The next day, May 1, would provide another chance for Rickey.
In the first inning of that afternoon game, the Yankees would load the bases on Mike Moore with one out. A Mel Hall liner to right would be caught but it was deep enough to score Steve Sax with the game’s first run. That would be the only run of the inning for the Bombers. Rickey Henderson would step up for Oakland to lead off the bottom of the first.
He would work the count full on Tim Leary. The 3-2 pitch missed the zone and Henderson was aboard. The next man up was Dave Henderson, no relation. Hendu got the count to two balls and a strike. That’s always a good running count. Rickey took off and was nailed by Yankees’ catcher Matt Nokes. Dave Henderson ended up walking. The A’s got nothing in that first inning.
Rickey’s next hitting opportunity came in the bottom of the second inning with two out and the bases loaded. Leary fired a 2-2 pitch that Henderson watched and it crossed over the plate for an inning-ending strikeout. Oakland was still trailing the Yanks 1-0. The more-than-36,000 fans at the Coliseum could be excused if they were concerned about missing history on yet another day at the park.
Some good work by Moore in the top of the third kept it a one-run game before the Athletics sent eight men to the plate in the bottom of the inning. They scored three runs, two of which came home on an Ernest Riles triple. In any case, Oakland had a 3-1 lead as the game headed into the fourth inning. Moore was looking at the middle of the New York order in that stanza and with two out and Matt Nokes up, he grooved an 0-1 pitch across the plate. Nokes coiled and smacked that ball into the seats in right to narrow the home team’s lead to a single run.
Rickey came to the plate to lead things off in the bottom of the fourth and got ahead of Leary 2-1. He then hit a ground ball to shortstop Alvaro Espinoza. But Espinoza saw the ball squib through his legs, and Henderson was on base on the error. Dave Henderson then rolled a ball toward third that enabled him to reach on an infield hit. Rickey had moved up to second. With runners on first and second, Jose Canseco saw an opportunity to bring in at least a run and went first-pitch hunting. For his troubles, he flied out weakly to centre field.
Harold Baines then stepped in to face Leary. Leary was possibly distracted by Henderson behind him on second and his first pitch to Baines missed the strike zone. On the next pitch, Rickey took off on Leary’s first movement and he managed to get a huge jump. Matt Nokes had no chance to get him. Bob McCarthy of The Fresno Bee wrote that “an AK-47 wouldn’t have gotten Rickey at third – so large was his getaway on Leary.”
The wait was finally over. The fans in the building that day did indeed witness history. They exploded in pure pandemonium. Rickey Henderson had surpassed Lou Brock’s stolen base record of 938. He was now the greatest base stealer in history.
McCarthy compared Rickey’s record to other baseball marks that may have had some people questioning their validity. Roger Maris had passed Babe Ruth’s 60 homers in a season in 1961, but he needed eight extra games to do it. Henry Aaron had more career homers than The Babe, but he required almost 4,000 more at-bats to get there. Pete Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits, but when he broke the record, he had 2,624 more plate appearances than Ty Cobb did.
Rickey Henderson had stolen 939 bases in 1,001 fewer games and more than six fewer seasons than Lou Brock had played. And perhaps even more impressive than his stolen base mark was the fact that Rickey also held the record for home runs leading off a game. He had performed that feat 45 times at that point.
As soon as he was called safe and the record had been established, Rickey bent down and pulled the base out of the ground. He held it high above his head in his right hand and pumped his left fist into the air. At that point, Lou Brock came out on to the field. A’s third base coach Rene Lachemann was hugging the star. Rickey’s mother Bobbie was there too. Lou Brock’s son, Lou, Jr. was in the group as well as were Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart. The fans at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum were standing and cheering in unison.
Brock said to Rickey, “It’s always been said that competition among men is one of the oldest practices known to man. Today, you might be the greatest competitor that ever ran the bases, and I congratulate you. You are a legend in your own time. Congratulations!” Rickey accepted Brock’s good wishes and then spoke to the fans.
“Took a long time, huh?”
In the stadium, different t-shirts depicting Henderson over the number 939, had gone on sale after Rickey had tied Brock’s record a couple of days before. While speaking to the Oakland fans that afternoon, he said, “Lou Brock was a symbol of great base stealing, but today, I am the greatest of all time.”
A plaque was brought out and Rickey immediately took off his batting gloves and put them on to their pre-arranged spot on the trophy. Someone asked him how he would celebrate the record. He said he had a bottle of champagne that he had been saving since his high school graduation. On the plaque, there were words inscribed at the bottom. “This will always be known as your day, Rickey.”
That inscription was probably well intentioned. But, when all was said and done, it would not necessarily be true. Something else was happening later that evening 1,700 miles east of Oakland.
As news of Henderson’s accomplishment was spreading throughout the baseball world and, indeed, the continent, over in Arlington, Texas, Nolan Ryan was getting ready for his start that night against the Toronto Blue Jays and was feeling every bit of his 44 years of age and he issued his pitching coach, Tom House, a potential early warning. “Gee Housey, I feel awful. My back hurts. My heel hurts. I’ve been pounding Advils all day. I don’t feel good. I don’t think I’m going to be out there long. I feel old today. Watch me.”
The Blue Jays were coming into this game with a team batting average of .276 which was the best in baseball. Surely, they would offer a formidable challenge to the old and ailing Ryan. Surely? But a look at the starting lineup that the Blue Jays were putting out against Ryan showed that they were a combined career 7-for-56 against the 44-year-old. To save you the math, that’s a batting average of .125. Devon White was the Blue Jays’ leadoff man. He was a career 1-for-22 against Ryan going into this game.
But hey, he said he was feeling sore and old. Also, those numbers are in the past, right? And Nolan Ryan was 44! What could a guy his age and in his condition possibly do against the best hitting team in the majors? There were 33,439 fans in the seats and surely very few expected to witness an epic event. Let the game begin so we can see how the stout Blue Jays will handle this aging pitcher.
Devon White was the first hitter of the game. He got ahead of Ryan and worked the count full as a leadoff hitter would ultimately like to do. But then Ryan got him to swing and miss on the curve ball and there was one away. Roberto Alomar was next. He got behind with a strike on the first pitch and then he hit a ground ball to second baseman Julio Franco, and after eight pitches, there were two down.
The next man up was Kelly Gruber. Like White, he also worked the count full, and he earned himself the base on balls. Before Ryan had tossed a pitch to Joe Carter, he spun and fired, and it looked like he had picked Gruber off at first. But Rafael Palmeiro couldn’t complete the play, dropped the ball and Gruber ended up safe. Palmeiro was charged with an error. No matter though, as Carter popped up to Franco behind the second base bag in shallow centre field to end the inning.
Jimmy Key was pitching for the Blue Jays, and he got the Rangers in order in the bottom of the first to keep the game scoreless. Ryan settled down a bit after his first inning and retired the Jays 1-2-3, all looking at strike three (!) in their half of the second. In the Rangers second, it appeared that Key might unravel after he got Ruben Sierra swinging for the first out of the inning.
Julio Franco bounded a ball to Manuel Lee at shortstop. His throw was off the mark and Franco was aboard on the error. Juan Gonzalez hammered a ball to right-centre, and he wound up standing on second. Franco moved up to third on the play. Key then walked Mike Stanley to load the bases. But he then composed himself and induced Steve Buechele to pop up to Joe Carter in shallow left. Then, Jeff Huson squibbed a ball on the first base side of the infield that Key picked up and tossed to John Olerud at first to end the inning.
After a long offensive inning, there is sometimes a concern that the pitcher might have been sitting too long and may have developed a bit of rust. But there wasn’t any of that for Ryan in the Jays’ third. Greg Myers went up swinging at his first delivery and he popped it up into foul territory along the third base line. Buechele found that without a problem. He then fanned Lee and White on a total of eight pitches. Five strikeouts in the game after three innings for Ryan.
After Gary Pettis reached on an infield hit, Jack Daugherty tried to bunt him over. Daugherty’s execution left much to be desired. His foul bunt attempt on a two-strike count gave him a seat in the dugout. But a Palmeiro single moved Pettis up ninety feet. A couple of pitches later, with Ruben Sierra at the plate, Pettis broke for third. Myers throw to Gruber went awry, and Pettis hustled home to score. Palmeiro moved up to second. On the next pitch, Sierra deposited Key’s offering beyond the left field wall. It was 3-0 for Texas.
The Rangers didn’t score another run in the game, but then, they didn’t need to. The rest of the game became The Nolan Ryan Show. In the top of the fourth, he collected a couple more strikeouts around a Kelly Gruber fly ball out to left field. In the fifth, he got a couple of pop ups before striking Glenallen Hill out on three pitches.
The sixth inning saw the only drama of the night for Ryan, the Rangers and their fans. It was momentary, I assure you.
Greg Myers was leading things off for Toronto. He worked the count full before swinging and missing the next pitch. That brought Manuel Lee to the plate. He went up there hacking and he made contact with Ryan’s first pitch to him. The ball wasn’t hit hard but it was heading for that triangle between the shortstop, the second baseman and the centre fielder. It looked like it was going to fall, but Gary Pettis came speeding in and made a great shoe-top catch to preserve the no-hitter.
When Devon White swung and missed the 2-2 pitch from Ryan, he became the eleventh Blue Jay strikeout victim of the evening. A couple more K’s in the top of the seventh made it thirteen and were the seventeenth and eighteenth consecutive Jays to be retired on this evening. He then allowed Joe Carter to walk to first. John Olerud then popped out to Buechele in foul territory. In the eighth, the Ryan Express captured two more strikeout victims. The score remained at 3-0.
The ninth inning then arrived. The Rangers held their 3-0 lead. The throngs of fans were chanting “No-lan! No-lan!” Three more outs were there for the picking for a dominant Nolan Ryan. The batters he was scheduled to face were Manuel Lee, Devon White and Robbie Alomar. Lee and White both grounded out to second. One more batter.
Alomar’s father, Sandy, Sr., had played with the Angels from 1969 to 1974. One of Sandy’s teammates was Nolan Ryan. “I’ve known him since he was 3,” Ryan told reporters after the game about Robbie. Alomar worked the count to one ball and two strikes. The next pitch was fouled off. He then took a curve ball outside. Alomar got wood on the next delivery but, it too, was foul. The seventh pitch of the at-bat came. It was Ryan’s 122nd of the game. Alomar missed it.
The game was over. Nolan Ryan had his seventh career no-hitter. The crowd roared and his teammates rushed out to the mound to congratulate him, to pick him up and to carry him off the field on their shoulders. His sixteen strikeouts had tied a Rangers’ club record that he had set the year before in 1990.
One look at the game sheet told you that he had been magnificent. When he was asked to compare his stuff on this night with his six other no-nos, he was honest, as usual. “I had the best command of all three pitches. This is the best. This is my most overpowering night.”
“I guess it was probably the best stuff I had since the second (no-hitter he tossed in 1974). “It also might be the most rewarding, coming here before all these folks in Arlington. The fans have been so supportive of me, and it was really great to pitch one in front of them. The key tonight was establishing the curveball and changeup early. Toronto’s a good fastball hitting club so that’s what Mike (Stanley, his catcher) and I had in mind. We went to the fastball in the later innings.”
All the Blue Jays could do after the game was shake their heads and marvel at Ryan’s greatness. “He was awesome,” Joe Carter told reporters when it was all over. “As a hitter, you always go up there thinking you’re going to get a hit but give him credit. We’ll see him again next week in Toronto.” Jays’ manager Cito Gaston echoed what Carter had said. “Any time you face Nolan Ryan two things can happen. He can beat you or he can throw a no-hitter. The biggest thing you can do is prevent him from beating you, because you can’t do anything about tonight. He just had great stuff.”
The only time Ryan had any concern of giving up a hit was on Lee’s lazy flare in the sixth that ventured out toward centre field. Lee said afterward, “The ball I hit to centre field was a fastball, inside high. It was off the end of the bat. Pettis got a good jump, and the ball stayed in the air.” Ryan expressed his feelings about that ball after the game. “I knew that one had a chance at falling. Sometimes it doesn’t even take a mistake. But I also knew if anybody makes that play, it’s Gary Pettis. Gary made this one possible.”
Pettis thought that ball was going to land as well though because, “I was playing him shaded to left and it was hit toward right. But I got a good jump on the ball. I was aware of the no-hitter. I’m glad I had a chance to make a play that helped him get it.” Ryan talked after about how badly his body had felt before the game as well. “It was a downer of a day physically. A no-hitter was the furthest thing from my mind when I came to the ballpark.”
Gary may have made it possible, but without Ryan’s work on the mound on this warm spring night, whether or not Pettis made that catch might not have been really consequential. That no-hitter on May 1 was kind of reflective of Ryan’s 1991 season. His earned run average that season was 2.91 – his lowest since 1987 and his second lowest since 1981. His WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) was the lowest in all of major league baseball that year at 1.006.
Ryan would play two more seasons.
That day, May 1, 1991, was an absolutely incredible day. With Rickey Henderson’s afternoon and Nolan Ryan’s evening, it was truly historic. In the Toronto Star the following day, Dave Perkins summed up everything that was great about Ryan, Henderson and the entire spectacle that unfolded for baseball fans everywhere.
Perkins wrote, “Yesterday was a gigantic day in baseball, it turns out. Rickey Henderson owned the afternoon and earned the headlines, then Ryan came along and made sports editors all over the continent rip out their front pages. Rickey’s 939th stolen base, the one that pushed him past Lou Brock, was one of baseball’s moments for the ages. He will never have another one quite like it, because stealing bases is what Rickey Henderson is all about, the way a letter high fastball and a swinging strike three is what Nolan Ryan is all about.”
“Rickey grabbed the microphone and shouted, ‘I am the greatest in the history of the world,’ talking stolen bases now. No one disputes it and no one should knock Rickey for talking that way, because that’s Rickey. The swagger and strut and the ‘in-your-face’ is as much a part of his game as the head-first slide. In Texas, eight hours later, Nolan Ryan would have been just as entitled to grab a microphone and say the same thing Henderson said. Not his style though. The rest of us will say it for him instead.”
* * *
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