Nolan Ryan
was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, known for regularly having his
fastball clocked above 100 miles per hour. He played in the Major Leagues for a
record 27-years for four different teams (New York Mets, California Angels, Houston
Astros and Texas
Rangers). Often regarded as one of the greatest players to ever step foot
on a pitching rubber, his list of flaws, weaknesses and shortcomings in my
opinion, greatly outweigh his list of assets, strengths and accomplishments.
Any list of
the greatest players will always be up for debate. Different people see
different things and what is one man’s criticism is another man’s praise. The
one thing, however that should not be up for debate is that Nolan Ryan being on any
list with the likes of Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax or Tom Seaver is a complete and
utter joke. Nolan Ryan being considered an all-time great is a myth among myths. Longevity doesn't make up for mediocrity!
I will even
go one step further, a man who started his career just two years before Nolan
Ryan finally hung up his cleats, who spent his entire career pitching in the
American League East, facing the offensive juggernauts of the Boston Red Sox,
New York Yankees and (in the early to mid
90’s) Toronto Blue Jays, was
flat out better. Not only was this man a better pitcher than Nolan Ryan, but
he’s one of the best pitcher’s of the steroid era, who is never even mentioned
in that list. (Yet Pedro Martinez and
Roger Clemens are). This man didn’t have the same enigmatic charisma that
Pedro Martinez exhibited, nor did he possess the cocky surliness that Roger
Clemens possessed (the icy-hot to the
groin every 5 days probably gave him that surly look). No, this pitcher didn’t
manage to do any of that.
All he did
was take to the mound every 5th day with a dignity and respect for
the game that is often lost in this newfound era of pomp and circumstance (cue every boisterous celebration that Jose
Valverde or Fernando Rodney have after achieving a save).
Not only
that, but, in borrowing a page from Skip Bayless’ book when referencing Tim
Tebow; ALL HE DOES IS WIN!
The man I am referring to is Michael Cole
Mussina, one of the best pitchers of the 90’s and 2000’s, who you’ve probably
forgotten entirely about and he’s also better than Nolan Ryan.
Although Nolan
Ryan managed 54 more career wins than Mike Mussina (324 to 270), he did so while playing 9 more seasons. If Mike
Mussina wanted to pull a Jamie Moyer and pitch until he were 47, he would
easily eclipse Ryan’s win totals and be nearing 350 by the time it was all said
and done.
Mussina
only lost double digit games in 6 of his 18 seasons and only twice did he
finish with a record under .500 (including
his first season when he only threw 87 innings). Ryan managed to lose double digit games in 17
of his 27 seasons, including an impressive 11 years in a row between 1970 and
1980 (smack dab in the prime of his
career).
Speaking of
the primes of their career, most baseball minded people describe the prime
years of a pitcher’s career to be the seasons between ages 27 and 32. Well,
taking a look at both Ryan and Mussina, these were their combined numbers during
that 6 season interval:
Ryan:
Games Started: 211
Games Won: 98
Games Lost: 89
Winning Percentage: .524
Innings Pitched: 1,570
Strikeouts: 1,704
Walks: 983
--------------------------------------------
Mussina:
Games Started: 197
Games Won: 112
Games Lost: 62
Winning Percentage: .643
Innings Pitched: 1,344
Strikeouts: 1,193
Walks: 304
It’s a tell
tale story of two different careers. Ryan started a handful more games than
Mussina, but threw nearly a season’s worth more innings and struck out a few
hundred more batters. But, he also won considerably fewer games, lost a lot
more and walked nearly three times as many men. In short, Mussina put his team
in a better position to win during the prime of his career than Nolan Ryan did,
yet Ryan is revered as one of the greatest of all-time and Mussina is a
forgotten man.
In 13 of
Mussina’s 18 years, he finished with a winning percentage over .600, while
Ryan, on the other hand finished with a winning percentage under .500 in nine seasons. Out of his 27 year career,
1/3 of the time, Ryan had a losing record, while 1/3 of the time in Mussina’s
career, he won at least 18 games.
Nolan Ryan
had as many walks between 1973 and 1976 (883)
that Mike Mussina had in his entire career (785). Nolan Ryan finished in the top 6 in the Cy Young Award voting
6 times during his 27 year career. Mike Mussina? 9 times in 18 years, this
means that every other year, Mike Mussina was routinely one of the top 6
pitchers in the league.
Mussina was
a 7-time winner of the Gold Glove award, given to the pitcher who best fields
his position. Nolan Ryan is often regarded as one of the worst fielding
pitchers of his time.
Only five
pitchers in the history of major league baseball have won as many games
throughout their career as Mussina (270)
and have a better winning percentage: Christy Mathewson, Lefty Grove, Grover
Cleveland Alexander, Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. Mussina’s .638 career
winning percentage is good for the 40th best in the history of Major
League Baseball and is among the company of Dizzy Dean, Jim Palmer and Randy
Johnson. Nolan Ryan meanwhile, finds his .526 career winning percentage as the
530th best in the history of baseball, joining the likes of Kelvim
Escobar, Jon Garland and Braden Looper. (Yankee
fans would like to know that A.J. Burnett is currently sporting a higher career
winning percentage than Nolan Ryan. I guess that means A.J. Burnett is the next
Walter Johnson).
Mussina
managed to end his career an astounding 117 games over .500 and he won at least
15 games in a season 11 times in 18 years, while Ryan is only a paltry 32 games
over .500 and accomplished the same feat of winning 15+ games only 8 times in
27 years.
The most
batters Mike Mussina ever walked in a single season was 69 for the 1996
Orioles, which is also the fewest
number of batters Nolan Ryan ever walked in a single season (for the 1984
Houston Astros). Mussina’s career average for number of walks per season was
50, while Nolan Ryan walked almost 2 and a half times more than that per season
(120)
Nolan Ryan
is the all-time leader in strikeouts and the 5,714 batters that he punched out
during his career is 839 more than the runner-up, Randy Johnson. But, on the
flip side, his record 2,795 walks is almost 1,000 more than the man who is #2
on the list, Steve Carlton.
He also
threw 7 career no-hitters, which is the most no-hitters in history by a wide
margin. He threw his first no-hitter in 1973 and his last in 1991, at the ripe
old age of 44. While that feat alone is remarkable, a few games do not make an
individual an all-time great, nor does it make them a Hall of Famer (don’t mention that to Bill Mazeroski who’s
only in the Hall of Fame because of one swing).
Nolan Ryan
was nothing more than a mediocre player who threw the ball hard, who in 27
years never learned how to ‘pitch.’ In fact, I would say that the best control
and most accurate throws Nolan Ryan ever managed out of his right hand happened
in succession on August 4, 1993. Granted it wasn’t a baseball he was throwing
and it wasn’t a glove he was connecting with. It was his fist and Robin
Ventura’s head. That bench clearing brawl (a
highlight of my childhood) is one of the most replayed moments in Ryan’s
career (and the only other highlight of
Ventura’s, next to the walk-off Grand Slam Single in the 1999 NLCS).
I still
remember that evening fondly. My family and I were on vacation in Florida visiting my
grandparents and my brother and I were spending the night at my Aunt’s house.
We were watching the movie Under Siege (show
a 7 year old boobs for the first time and it’s a moment he’ll never forget,
ever) and my mom called to tell me
that Nolan Ryan got into a fight with a White Sox player. Having always been a
fan of old guys who beat up kids (odd, I
know), I immediately made us pause the movie and turn on the news so I
could watch the replay over and over again, as Ryan wedged Ventura’s head
between his forearm and armpit in a perfect headlock and reigned blows upon his
head (which is also a move my brother has
imitated on me about 4,055,139,218,128 times in the 19 years since that day).
Don’t get
me wrong about Ryan, he was a must-see whenever he was on the mound. On any
given night, Ryan was a threat to throw a no-hitter. Notice, I said ‘throw’ and
not ‘pitch.’ He was also a threat to walk 11 batters and hit another 5, because
he had no idea where the ball was going half the time (A.J. Burnett calls this effectively wild).
I don’t
want to belittle the fact that Ryan amassed 7 career no-hitters during his
lengthy career, since it is an extremely hard feat to accomplish. But, it’s a
feat that any pitcher is capable of
achieving. If it wasn’t, then explain to me the names Bud Smith, Jose Jiminez
and Eric Milton. Or better yet, explain to me how Kent Mercker, Kevin Millwood
and Hideo Nomo have thrown 2. (I’d put
asterisks next to Mercker’s first and Millwood’s second, since each only went 6
innings in their starts and the bullpen pitched the last 3 innings in both).
I could
point out that Justin Verlander has already thrown 2 career no-hitters and was
extremely close to his third this season, but no-hitters aren’t what make
Justin Verlander the most dominant pitcher in baseball. Justin Verlander is the
pitcher that Nolan Ryan wished he
could have been. Every 5 days when Verlander takes the mound, he instantly
gives his team an advantage over his opponent. The same can’t be said for Ryan.
If that were the case, then his career winning percentage would be a hell of a
lot higher than .526 and a lot closer to the .647 that Verlander has posted in
his 8 years as the Tigers ace.
So, now you
tell me; who would you rather have had throughout the primes of their career:
Nolan Ryan or Mike Mussina? What about Nolan Ryan or Justin Verlander?
To me, the
answer to both of those questions don’t include the names Nolan or Ryan and
frankly, it isn’t even close (and if you
put Mussina up against Verlander, it’d be a lot closer decision than you’d like
to think, but that’s another topic, for another day).
Now I began
writing this article as a dissection of the career of Nolan Ryan and how I view
him as one of, if not the MOST overrated ‘pitcher’ in the history of Major
League Baseball and how it is a travesty that he is viewed as one of the
greatest pitchers of all-time.
But, in
retrospect, my emotions aren’t as fixated any longer on the career of Nolan
Ryan, who received 98.8% of the vote when he was inducted into the Hall of
Fame.
Instead,
they are fixated on Mike Mussina and the fact that if he isn’t voted in as a first
ballot hall of famer when he is eligible in 2013; then that is the greatest travesty of them all.