Baseball history in jeopardy?

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Do I think Ryan was the best pitcher of all time-not at all.

I think he was rhe best "thrower" and power pitcher of all time. On his best day he was also the best "pitcher" ever based on the no hitters. When he was at his best you could honestly say he was unhittable. I don't care what his record was. he holds the all time record for strike outs and for walks. No one is even close. He threw more pitches in the Major Leagues than anyone in history. That is amazing, no matter what the results show! He was a real freak of nature!

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On his best day he was also the best "pitcher" ever based on the no hitters. When he was at his best you could honestly say he was unhittable.

I agree 100%! I also heard somewhere, maybe on here, that a MLB Scout once said that as a Junior in High School he threw harder than anyone he'd ever seen. Now that's impressive!

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I think he was rhe best "thrower" and power pitcher of all time. On his best day he was also the best "pitcher" ever based on the no hitters. When he was at his best you could honestly say he was unhittable. I don't care what his record was. he holds the all time record for strike outs and for walks. No one is even close. He threw more pitches in the Major Leagues than anyone in history. That is amazing, no matter what the results show! He was a real freak of nature!

I agree. When he was on it was scary. He could tell a batter what was coming and they still couldn't hit it. I remember watching the "Game of the Week" in the early 70's when he was with the Mets and even though they say it's impossible for a fastball to rise it sure looked like it was starting waist high and finishing at the shoulders. Batters were swinging as the ball hit the mitt. If his control had been a little better he would have held every pitching record.

Moc1,

Our conversation has been a total waste of time. You have chosen to ignore the very point I was making and instead go off on a tangent about how great Nolan Ryan was. I was a big fan of him and do think he was a great pitcher. But that was not the point I was making.

My original post, and the point of the original thread topic, was about comparing different era's and discussing the use of PED's. My one line comment about Ryan having inflated K numbers was made in comparison to the fireballing pitchers of previous era's.

You chose to ignore this point so we got nowhere.

I have no doubt that Ryan was very difficult to hit. But I also doubt that the hitters you mentioned, the ones who choked up and just tried to make contact, would have been very good at that type of a swing. The old-timers, the ones Walter Johnson had to face, swung with a make contact mentality all the time and were no doubt much better at it than the batters who tried to do it only when they faced Ryan.

Nolan Ryan never would have had 5,714 strikeouts had he pitched in an earlier era. He also never would have had that many strikouts if he came along later. He would have been taken out of many many games for a relief pitcher. Ryan had 222 complete games. Clemens had 118, Maddux had 109, Randy Johnson had 100. So, Ryan had the benefit of batters swinging for the fences and the benefit of getting a lot more innings in his prime than pitchers of more recent era's. He came along at the perfect time to do what he did. That's all i'm saying.

And I don't think the stats I presented make me sound goofy at all. You should try it sometime.

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Nolan Ryan never would have had 5,714 strikeouts had he pitched in an earlier era. He also never would have had that many strikouts if he came along later.

The mound was lowered in 1969 to give hitters an advantage? Ryan may have had more strikeouts in an earlier era. Ryan faced some juicers also.

DOD, This is what you said:

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Getting back to Nolan Ryan, the one comparison I have heard about him is his inflated strikeout totals He came along in an era wherestriking out was more acceptable than in previous era's.

And that's the quote I responded to.

Your last post is all I need to read.