The Rangers Years (1989-93)

The Dallas Morning News
After getting in the groove, Ryan struck out more than 10 batters for the third time in the 1990 season.
Record: 51-39, 3.43 ERA. In 129 starts, had 353 walks and 939 strikeouts in 840 innings

Achievements: Pitched record sixth and seventh no-hitters (at Oakland on June 11, 1990; vs. Toronto on May 1, 1991), the latter at age 44; became 20th pitcher to win 300 career games (July 31, 1990); fanned Rickey Henderson for 5,000th career strikeout (Aug. 22, 1989); in 1993, became first player ever to appear in 27 different seasons; led the majors with 301 strikeouts in 1989; suffered first career ejection for hitting Oakland's Willie Wilson with a pitch (Aug. 6, 1992); involved in bench-clearing brawl on Aug. 4, 1993, when White Sox 3B Robin Ventura charged him on the mound; tore ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during first inning at Seattle's Kingdome on Sept. 22, 1993, in what became Ryan's final game.

Reflections:

"When I came up here, things went well and were real comfortable for my family. If I'd come up here that first year and it had been a real hardship on everybody and we were having problems at home, I wouldn't have played any longer. But because it agreed with everybody, I was able to stay up here five years.

"The thing that I was concerned about was the heat, No. 1. I'd been in the . . . [Astrodome] for nine years, and I remembered when we went back East on a real humid, hot time, how hard it was. I remembered coming in here with the Angels, and they'd have that scoreboard with 108 degrees on it at 9 o'clock. The whole team would just sit on the bench and bitch, going, 'God is it hot here. Why the hell would anybody want to live here?' It would have an impact.

"So I called Charlie Hough to talk to him about it. Charlie said, 'Hey, the heat ain't that big a deal, because there's always a breeze. And if you stay out in it, you'll get acclimated to it. And to win here, all you have to do is pitch longer than your opposing starter.' And there was a lot of truth to that. So, I felt better about it afterwards. I came in here with the attitude I was gonna get climatized, and I did. I stayed out in it, and the heat was never a factor.

"I knew Bobby [Valentine] already, because we'd been teammates [with the Angels]. I didn't know a lot of the other players; I just knew of them. But that wasn't a factor at that point of my career. I was at the point where I just appreciated things more and liked the area, and the atmosphere at that old ballpark was kind of a relaxed attitude. Coming out of Houston, and the management down there where everyone was always so uptight and they had so many rules you couldn't do anything, here it was different. There weren't any rules. Kids could go anywhere; you didn't know who the people were walking through the clubhouse. It was kind of refreshing. It came at a time I was kind of fed up with some of the stuff going on.

The Rangers Years

The Astros Years

The Angels Years

The Mets Years

"At Houston, it had gotten to the point where your kids couldn't come in the clubhouse and they only got one hour of visiting on Sunday. It was like we were in prison. The kids hated it. When Al Rosen was there, kids couldn't go on the field when batting practice started, but they were in the clubhouse and would bat-boy and stuff, and they loved it. Then Dick Wagner comes in and he throws down the iron curtain, and the kids felt like they were being punished. It was the first time in our household that kids were turned off by baseball. They didn't want to go to the 'Dome; they didn't want anything to do with it. It was affecting what we had built off of. So it just came time for me to move on or get out."