[clydepepper]

Nolan Ryan is third favorite player of all-time behind Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax.

All were lacking of one thing or the other: Koufax's light shown bright, but for a very short time; Mantle struck out a lot and wasted what was viewed as his potential; and, in addition to all you have stated about Ryan, he was also a terrible fielder.

However, all three of these players were wonderful fun to watch, though I only got to see Koufax and Mantle a little.

Truly, there is a distinct difference between elite players - with only a very few being in the top strata of that descriptor.


Koufax had some of the greatest seasons ever by a pitcher, but he doesn't have any records that would be considered unreachable.


Mantle, also, had some truly legendary seasons, but only one of his may be unreachable - his 18 World Series Home Runs.


Ryan never had a season the caliber of the other two, but, good grief - 7 No-Hitters AND 12 1-Hitters!!!

I won't live long enough to see those even approached.

- and one more thing about Ryan's walks: He had two seasons were he walked more than 200 batters, but, because he had the ability to strike out batters in the clutch, his ERA was below 3.00 each time. Now, that's amazing!!


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