[BluesDuke]

Ryan had the best right arm in baseball history.

He may have had the hardest throwing right arm in baseball history (and even that may be a question of debate - especially among old-time Baltimore Oriole hands who remember a minor league pitcher named Steve Dalkowski, who blew his arm out practically the minute he finally made the Orioles), but Nolan Ryan was very far from being the best righthanded pitcher in baseball history. From where I sit, the best righthanded pitcher in baseball history would be Walter Johnson as the head of a class including second place being shared extremely tightly by Christy Mathewson, Bob Gibson, and Tom Seaver.

It's easy enough to overrate Nolan Ryan because of the five thousand strikeouts and the seven no-hitters, but the plain truth is that he was a very overrated pitcher (aside from his overall winning percentage, his earned run averages are serviceable but not singular) who was actually very vulnerable, overall, when his teams were anywhere close to a pennant race. (He was, in fact, passing his prime when he turned in his single best pennant race or postseason performance, in the 1986 League Championship Series; Bob Gibson he wasn't in the heat of a pennant race or in the post-season, overall.) And he wasn't even close to Walter Johnson or Tom Seaver for pitching top-of-the-line baseball for comparatively bad teams.

This is not to say he didn't earn his place in the Hall of Fame, by any means. He did earn it. But he was not the greatest righthanded pitcher of them all regardless of the raw quality of his pitching arm, and he was certainly not one of the top ten pitchers in baseball history.

[jwalsh07]

On a given day, Nolan Ryan was the toughest pitcher to hit against bar none, except maybe Bob Gibson.

[foreverfree]

Bob Gibson he wasn't in the heat of a pennant race or in the post-season, overall.

Except in 1964, when he won the pennant clincher in relief on the season's final day (eliminating the Phillies and Reds) as well as game 7 of the WS; and 1967, when he went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA as the Cards beat the BoSox in seven; and 1968, when he struck out 17 Tigers in the WS opener (Detroit went on to win that Series).

Nolan Ryan's only WS appearance was with the Mets, when he mopped up Gary Gentry's game 3 victory over the Orioles (the game where Tommie Agee made two circus catches to end Baltimore rallies).

foreverfree