Here is a man who is not only a bulwark of his own family but an inspiration and model to his community. Great men, like baseball legend Nolan Ryan, have a positive and lasting impact on the lives of men and women around them. He played the American game of baseball with excellence equaled by only a few other men, and he has lived his life as many should. As this brief story shows, his example was taken to heart.
Nolan Ryan was born to throw a baseball. No one in baseball history threw a baseball harder and longer than “The Ryan Express.” The great slugger Reggie Jackson once said that trying to hit a Ryan fastball was “like eating coffee with a fork.” With unforgiving power, Ryan and his trademark fastball, often topping 100 mph, embarrassed baseball’s best hitters for more than two decades.
Consider Ryan’s résumé. His career lasted twenty-seven years, a major league record. He has 5,714 career strikeouts and seven career no-hitters, both major league records. He won 324 games and only Cy Young started more games than his 773. He was an eight-time All-Star and was baseball’s first million-dollar man. Other than Jackie Robinson, he is currently the only baseball player to have his jersey number retired by three different teams: the Angels, Astros, and Rangers. In 1999, he was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, Nolan Ryan was one of the most popular athletes in America, not just because of his success, but also because of his stature and standing in his local communities. In his home state of Texas, Nolan Ryan is a household name.
In honor of Ryan’s retirement in 1993, the Texas Rangers held Nolan Ryan Appreciation Week at Arlington Stadium. Any fan under the age of twenty-seven (the length of his career) who had been named either Nolan or Ryan would be allowed to walk on the field prior to the game. The Rangers’ staff expected a hundred or so fans to show up. Instead, close to one thousand Nolans and Ryans (including a few females and a set of twins named Nolan and Ryan) showed up. The response was so overwhelming that the staff gave up on checking IDs and allowed everyone in line to enter. As they circled the field, Ryan sat in the dugout and smiled and waved to each of them. It was one of those great sports moments where the gravitas of human experience transcended mere athleticism.
In this crowd of fans, many of whom had never met Ryan, were people with so much respect for him that they had named their children after him. That surely must be a sign of a great man. Today, a road running in front of Rangers Ballpark and a stretch of highway outside Houston are both called Nolan Ryan Expressway, and he is currently part owner, CEO, and president of the Texas Rangers baseball organization. Ryan will always be remembered as one of baseball’s all-time great pitchers, but his legacy as a man and a role model will live on long beyond his baseball days.