FIRST-PITCH STRIKE

"A team viewed as a minor league franchise that couldn't compete on the field," general manager Tom Grieve said, "became a team that gained credibility with its own fans and baseball in general."

The club's inferiority complex aside, Grieve had a couple of million reasons for his bold statement. The Rangers never drew 2 million before 1989, never really came close. But, in Ryan's first season with the Rangers, they averaged 25,873 per home game, 6,000 more than in 1988. Of the club's top 20 gates over its 21 years in Arlington, 13 have come since Ryan signed.

Other factors played in the surge, Grieve noted. A few days before the Rangers signed Ryan to a free-agent contract, they also traded for Rafael Palmeiro and Julio Franco.

A fast start didn't hurt, either. The club went 17-5 in April, incited by leadoff hitter Cecil Espy's career-in-a-month.

Of course, the team still finished fourth in 1989. The club had done better than that in previous seasons and still not drawn as well.

The main reason they came in 1989, Grieve said, was Ryan.

"He gave the club credibility," Grieve said, "whether he was walking on the field or through an airport."

Ryan gave the club an ace in the rotation, too. His pitching surprised some. Ryan won only 12 games in 1988 for the Houston Astros. He was 42. Grieve said scouts told him Ryan still was effective. He said he would not have signed him had the reports been otherwise. But it wasn't a bad public relations move, either. George W. Bush, whose purchase of the club from Eddie Chiles was completed three months after Ryan's signing, conceded that his primary approval of the deal was its fan attraction.

Ryan was more than a draw, though. He finished 16-10, winning more games than he had since 1982. He threw two one-hit games and took a no-hitter into the eighth inning five times. He held opponents to a major league-low .187 average. He led the league in strikeouts with 301, his first 300 season since 1977.

And he got his 5000th career strikeout on Aug. 22.

Ryan was typically blunt assessing what was an extraordinary season. He was surprised at the 300 strikeouts. He said he thought that part of his career was over. The difference?

"I stayed healthy," he said, "and the league didn't realize I had a change-up."

What was not quite so obvious, though, was Ryan's reaction to signing with the Rangers. He was convinced the club wanted to win. He wasn' t sure about the desire of Astros owner John McMullen, who no longer was interested in free agents or paying his veterans.

Had Ryan stayed in Houston for a 10th season, he didn't think he would have been as effective.

"With all that had transpired," Ryan said, "I probably wouldn't have had a real good attitude."

His relationship with McMullen had been deteriorating for years, shortly after McMullen gave him the first million-dollar-a-year contract. Ryan decided on the Rangers primarily because they were in Texas. But he also wanted to go to a contender. He thought the Rangers might qualify after acquiring two of the best hitters in baseball in Palmeiro and Franco.

The Rangers, who finished sixth in 1988, were better in 1989. They had more All-Stars - Ryan, Franco, Ruben Sierra and Jeff Russell - than they've ever had. They won 13 more games than they did in 1988, improving to 83-79. But they still finished fourth, 16 games out.

The season highlight for Rangers fans was Ryan. The crowd of 42,869 for his Aug. 22 start against Oakland was the second-largest in Rangers history. The fans came knowing he was on the verge of his 5,000th strikeout.

Opening the fifth inning, Rickey Henderson swung and missed a 96- mph fastball on a 3-2 pitch to become a historical footnote. Ryan wanted no fanfare for his milestone, but his teammates wouldn't comply. Every player on the field shook his hand as the fans rained upon him a 1-minute, 25-second standing ovation.

Henderson, for his part, was not embarrassed. He asked home plate umpire Larry Young before the at-bat if he could have the ball, should he strike out.

Said Young: "I told him I didn't think either one of us could get out of here with that ball."

But Henderson found Ryan in the dugout after Oakland's 2-0 victory.

"It had to be somebody," Ryan said, shaking his hand.

"I'm glad it was me," Henderson said, smiling.

Commissioner Bart Giamatti was on hand for the game. So were most of the major media outlets in the country. The exposure, Bush said, was a portent of the crush to come as Ryan would throw two no-hitters and win his 300th game in ensuing years.

"He clearly put us on the map, nationally," Bush said.

He put the Rangers on Palmeiro's map, anyway.

"I didn't really know where the team was," said Palmeiro, a native of Cuba, reared in Miami. He was playing for the Chicago Cubs when the Rangers acquired him in a deal that involved reliever Mitch Williams. "Now we're one of the most publicized teams in baseball because of him."

Palmeiro said he knew Ryan could be an effective pitcher for the Rangers. He had faced him in the National League, where he went 2- for-6 against him and considered himself fortunate.

Geno Petralli had batted against him only in spring training. (" He doesn't remember that," Petralli said, "but I do.") He, too, expected Ryan to be more than another cog on the pitching staff.

But Ryan's performance surprised some.

"It shocked me," said Eric Nadel, one of the club's radio broadcasters. "The second start he made was against Milwaukee, and he took a no- hitter into the eighth inning before (Terry) Francona broke it up.

"It was that start when it dawned on me: This guy's still great."

He proved it again two starts later, throwing a one-hitter against Toronto.

"He made our scout (John Young) look pretty smart," Grieve said. "People had to believe it wasn't done just to pump attendance."

Asked to put it in on a quantitative basis, Grieve said fan appeal was only 10 percent of the reason for signing Ryan. He contacted Dick Moss, Ryan's agent, after reading reports that Ryan might not return to Houston. Moss told him Ryan would consider the Rangers, though Grieve didn't really believe it.

"Until we got him," he said, "I couldn't imagine we'd end up with him. How could the Houston Astros lose Nolan Ryan? He'd always signed reasonable contracts. No one even considered it.

"It was too good to be true."

It was the first of many Ranger fortunes, courtesy of Ryan, Bush said.

"Franchises build their market penetration by their ability to pass on stories about legends," Bush said, "and now the Rangers finally have a legend."