The Mets Years (1966, 1968-71)

New York Mets yearbook
Nolan Ryan shows his grip for pitching coach Rube Walker.
Record: 29-38, 3.58 ERA. In 105 games (74 starts), had 344 walks and 493 strikeouts in 510 innings

Achievements: First major league win (April 14, 1968 vs. Houston); pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in only World Series appearance of his career (1969 vs. Baltimore); set Mets record with 15 strikeouts on April 18, 1970 (broken by Tom Seaver's 19 strikeouts four days later); recorded two of his three career saves, including the first official save in Mets history (April 9, 1969)

Reflections:

"My four years with the Mets were pretty much filled with frustration.

"I had a stretch there my rookie year where I think I threw a one-hitter, a two-hitter, a three-hitter and a four-hitter in a row, and I was 2-2. And during the whole time I was with the Mets, I had a military obligation. I was with a top priority reserve unit in Houston. So every weekend, I flew back to Houston. I'd leave on Friday and miss the Friday game, the Saturday game and the Sunday game and be back Monday. I did that every other weekend. So that's why I never started. Everybody says, 'Well, he was in and out of the rotation because of control.' Well, there is some truth to that. Because when I'd come back I might not have pitched for 10 days and then I'd be as wild as all get-out because I didn't have the discipline to understand my delivery and I'd overthrow. And so I might get one or two starts and be unproductive and then I'd go leave for the weekend.

"[Mets manager] Gil Hodges, the way he worked our rotation, he stayed in a five-man rotation and he didn't deviate from it. If an off-day fell on your day, you went to the sixth day. And if my start fell on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, I wouldn't pitch again until my time came up again. I might end up in the bullpen, but in those days we had a very low-scoring team and we had a very strong pitching staff, so we didn't experience a lot of blowouts. So I did a lot of throwing off the mound out there, not in the games.

"I stayed frustrated with the fact I was not progressing as a pitcher. And after four years, you start saying, 'Maybe I need to do something else.' Before the [1971] season was over, in September, I went in and told [Mets general manager] Bob Scheffing, 'Bob, I really think I need to go somewhere else,' and asked them if they'd consider trading me.

The Rangers Years

The Astros Years

The Angels Years

The Mets Years

"I went home and was going to Alvin Community College. I remember reading a paper and saw the winter meetings were going on in Arizona, and I was walking out of the house and the phone rang. Ruth came out and said, 'Bob Scheffing is on the phone and wants to talk with you.' I said, 'Well, I got traded.' I went in and he said, 'Nolan, I just wanted to call and tell you we made a trade early this morning. And I wanted to let you know that you're going to be going to sunny California.' And I thought, 'All right, the Dodgers!'

"He said the California Angels and my heart sunk, because they had all those problems and it was a new league for me where I'd have to learn all those players. And the only thing I felt good about was there were three other guys going over there with me and two of them I knew. But that turned out to be a real positive for me."