Arlington, Texas — Nolan Ryan was already striking out plenty of batters with his blazing fastball, and at age 22 pitched the last seven innings in the National League pennant-clinching game for the 1969 Miracle Mets and got what would be his only World Series ring.
If not for the encouragement and insistence of his wife to keep pitching, those could have been the few highlights of Ryan's career.
“Without Ruth...he might not have pitched for 27 years,” said Bradley Jackson, the director of ”Facing Nolan," a new documentary on Ryan.
And there wouldn't have been a first-ballot Hall of Fame career spanning those record 27 seasons, none of the seven no-hitters, and less than one-tenth of his 5,714 strikeouts and 324 wins.