Ryan Throws Fifth No-Hitter: Baseball Legend Solidified

Nolan Ryan threw his record-breaking fifth no-hitter on September 26, 1981, against the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Astrodome in Houston, breaking the record of four shared by Sandy Koufax. Ryan struck out eleven batters. He was 34 years old and showed no signs of slowing down. He would go on to throw two more no-hitters, ending his career with seven, a record that seems permanent. Born in Refugio, Texas on January 31, 1947, Ryan grew up in Alvin, a small town south of Houston. He was drafted by the New York Mets at seventeen and appeared in the 1969 World Series, but his early career was marked by wildness. He walked batters at an alarming rate. The Mets traded him to the California Angels after the 1971 season, a transaction that became one of the most one-sided in baseball history. With the Angels, Ryan's fastball, which routinely exceeded 100 miles per hour on the radar gun, became the most feared pitch in baseball. He led the American League in strikeouts seven times. He threw four no-hitters with California between 1973 and 1975. His combination of velocity and longevity was unprecedented: he was throwing as hard at 40 as he had at 25. His fifth no-hitter, against the Dodgers, was significant not just for breaking Koufax's record but for demonstrating that elite pitching performance could be sustained well into a player's mid-thirties, an age when most power pitchers had already declined. He continued throwing no-hitters into his forties, with his sixth at 43 and his seventh at 44. He finished his 27-year career with 5,714 strikeouts, a record that still stands and that nobody has come within 800 of surpassing. He also holds the record for most walks issued, a testament to the violence of his delivery: when he missed, he missed badly, but when he located the fastball, it was unhittable. He is the only pitcher to have struck out 300 batters in a season six times. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio improved with age. He retired after the 1993 season at 46.