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Originally Posted by Scott Garner
Congrats to everybody! Those are some awesome centerpieces that you posted so far!!
The centerpiece to my Nolan Ryan collection would probably be Ryan's game used glove from the 1989 season.
In 1989 he became the first and only pitcher to strike out 5,000 in a career. He also struck out 300 in a season for the sixth and final time (a record that has since been tied by Randy Johnson), threw 2 one-hitters (his last two; ML record 12 in a career), and was the winning pitcher in the 1989 All Star game in Anaheim (the oldest pitcher to ever win the All Star game).
It should be noted that there are two other centerpiece type items in my Ryan collection, which at least deserve honorable mention:
Ryan's game used home shirt from his historic 1973 season (2 no-hitters and ML record 383 K's) and his complete uniform from his last win (career win # 324 at Cleveland).
In my no-hitter collection it would probably be the two rare die-cut ticket variations from Johnny Vander Meer's ML record 2nd consecutive no-hitter in 1938. The red version is extremely scarce. This game was the also first night game at Ebetts Field.
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Amazing stuff. I probably saw Ryan pitch close to thirty times, and have the ticket stubbs from all the games (somewhere). When he was with the Astros, we went to all the games leading up to his breaking Johnson's record - I have the program with him and Johnson on the cover, but he couldn't get it done at the Dome. Later, I went through the same pain watching him try to get win #300 in Arlington - I have the special no-hitters program and the '300 wins' program, but didn't see the 300th. I did; however, luck into being at the last no-hitter.
So the centerpiece of my Ryan collection is simply the stub from the last no-hitter, along with a fuzzy photo of me and my buddies in the outfield after the game ended.