The list has been a worthwhile enterprise keeping me involved and thinking about my own rankings.  It has been fun reminiesing about some of my favorite Angel moments.

But, I am really looking forward to how the Tim Salmon write up justifies his being ahead of Ryan, Fregosi, or Grich.

"He was the first superstar."

Even more insults.   If players like Albie Pearson, Daddy Wags, and Dean Chance didn't have long enough careers to be considered superstars, at least someone should know how to spell Fregosi.

Back in the 70s, a lot of people thought that Fregosi was never adequately replaced.  A long time went by, before people starting mentioning Ryan as being up there with him.

A long time went by, before people starting mentioning Ryan as being up there with him.

As much as I like Fregosi, I don't think a season went by before most insiders and fans realized the Angels had gotten the best of the Mets.  Ryan was on his way to greatness in 1972 while Fregosi was on the downside of his career.

The Fregosi for Ryan trade still ranks as the best deal in the history of the Angels.

Nolan Ryan was my first favorite player. He also was the favorite player of everyone of my family members. Thus, my first boy will be named Nolan Ryan. I was all geared up three months ago to name my first child NR, only for that baby to come out a girl. And my wife was not having that.

In his career, he had CGs of 4 or fewer hits 96 times.  That's about three full seasons' worth of starts where the opposition had little chance to win.  (Well, SHOULD have had little chance, anyway.) Since 156 of his 222 career CG (70%) were as an Angel, I think it's fair to assume that most of these games came with an "A" on his cap.

The last team Ryan ever faced in the big leagues was the Angels.  His last strike out was Greg Meyers.

Just seems a little too 'Disneyland' to me.  He was on the active roster for one year of playoffs. The highest he ever was in MVP voting was 7th.  Consistently above average is a great way to sum up his career, which is awesome, but #1 in our team's history is tough to swallow.  (Especially since unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of guys to combat him with.)  Throw in all the money he's earned the last few years while providing us nothing and it makes it even tougher.  Ironically, with the Angels new philosophy of not holding on to the veterans on their downsides and giving younger guys a shot, they probably internally call this 'the Tim Salmon rule.'

On the other hand...

That one year he was in the playoffs was their only championship.  He was pretty solid in the Yankee series hitting 2 HRs and .263, although he had 5 ks.  He was basically dreadful in the Twins series.  Then came the WS, where he turned back the clock and went .346/.452/.615 on SF's asses!  2 more HRs (we won't even mention the 7 ks with those stats)  Plus, he played his entire career (at least up to this point) for the Angels.  Although with the new Angel philosophy this will hardly be possible for any new players and it won't be their decision.

To sum it up.  We have found the recipe to have unconditional love from the Angel fan base and be ranked #1 overall.  Have a consistently above average career and play your entire career for the Angels.  Be on the downturn of that career right as the team wins their 1st title, and have a renaissance series in that World Series, mix in one victory lap, and voila, all time team MVP and free pass.  (Disclaimer so I'm not the next Grover:  I do love Tim Salmon, and he's definitely top 5, probably top 3, just detailing out my opinions on him)

In 1974, I was 14 and I lived in New Jersey, where my dad was in the Air Force.  The base arranged a group trip to Yankee Stadium, where it had already been annonced that it was being closed for renovations (I bet they wish they had foreseen the luxury box craze). My dad, my two brothers and I went.

We totally scored on the tickets: 5th row behind the 3rd base dugout.  1974 was not a vintage Yankee year, to say the least!  So, who should be pitching for the Angels that night but Nolan Ryan? Since I had moved around so much as an AF brat, I had no team that I called my own.  By the time I walked on the bus to go home that night, I did.

One of the greatest injustices in the history of awards giving in baseball was 1973.  Sorry if I get the facts wrong, can't be bothered to look 'em up, but Nolan had 22 wins, pitched two no-hitters, came close many times more and set the single season strikeout record that many people at the time considered one tier below Jolting Joe's 56 game hitting streak in "will never be broken" status.

And he lost the Cy Young Award to the dull but steady Jim Palmer.  It was the 16 losses and the walks that did him in.

If you look at the box scores for Ryan games, it is amazing how many times he lost when he allowed 2 or less earned runs. The guy should have 350 wins!

EXACTLY!  Another factor: no closer to speak of, so they simply left him in when he wasn't pitching well or was tired and he'd get rocked in the 9th inning.

I was on some baseball board the other day and Nolan Ryan came up.  Someone claimed Nolan should not be in the HoF because of his losses and walks.  I went postal (well, as much as you can on a message board).  I wrote "You're 22, have lived in Queens your entire life and are a Yankee fan. You have no idea how awful those Angels teams were before ca. 1978 that he pitched for.  If they'd had even moderate talent, he could have easily won 30 games a year, he was that dominant".

People on the board didn't really have an opinion one way or the other about his stats, but they LOVED the fact that he had pimpsmacked the younger Robin Ventura.    

Here is a list of low-hit (3 hits or less) games I saw Nolan Ryan pitch:

Date    Hits   Team  Opp   Result

06/01/75   0   Cal   Bal   W 1-0 CG ShO
05/13/75   2   Cal   NYY   W 5-0 CG ShO
08/31/72   3   Cal   Det   W 4-0 CG ShO
04/20/76   3   Cal   Bal   W 5-0 CG ShO
09/05/76   3   Cal   Oak   W 3-2 CG
09/20/76   3   Cal   Tex   W 1-0 CG ShO
07/06/89   3   Tex   Cal   W 3-0 CG ShO

Overall at games I went to Ryan sported a 16-8 record with 7 shutouts.  When Ryan was on he was dominating!

I also saw Nolan Ryan as a Ranger pick up a win in the 07/11/89 All-Star game in Anaheim.  That was the last game I attended that Ryan pitched.

Yetijuice, where'd you find that info about the scores and dates and all? Or was Nolan so freaking awesome that it's just burned in to your memory? :-) I'd love to pinpoint the date at Yankee Stadium when Nolan turned me in to an Angels fan. Thanks.

It should be noteds that
"Fewest Hits Per 9IP:
5.26 in 1972"

is also a MLB record as was his opposing hitters batting average.