Nolan Ryan, Men's Longevity Master, and Achieving Longevity With Weight Lifting.

Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. is one of the most amazing physical specimens to have ever lived. The things that Nolan Ryan accomplished and proved possible in his record 27 year Major League Baseball career as a player will probably never be matched or exceeded. Now, it's certainly true that Nolan Ryan was physically, and genetically talented; but many, many baseball players have come and have gone that were just as physically talented as Nolan Ryan; but only Nolan Ryan has the kind of statistics that nobody else ever has, or ever will rival.

Having exceptional physical ability is certainly something that can not be learned; however, there are many, many things that Nolan Ryan did learn that allowed him to reach statistical and performance levels that are so outrageous as to be discouraging, surely, for most with the same level of physical ability. What's the difference between Nolan Ryan, and someone like, Dwight Gooden, or Roger Clemens? Well, besides the physical ability, continued performance on the level like that that Nolan Ryan displayed into his mid 40's, takes a dedication to training and conditioning that must come from within. You have to have the drive, the competitive spirit, the will to overcome. Dwight Gooden had every bit the physical ability of Nolan Ryan; and so did Roger Clemens. It could be argued, and often is, that Roger Clemens was the best pitcher of the modern age. Certainly his winning percentage and Cy Young awards prove that? Sure, Roger Clemens has some statistically amazing seasons, but if you are just looking to be impressed by power, you look more at Nolan Ryan than you do Roger Clemens. Ryan threw harder for longer, also had one of the greatest curve balls in the history of baseball, and had to make fewer adjustments in his style in order to pitch for more seasons than Roger Clemens did. Though Roger Clemens had outstanding control, and plenty of velocity, He never threw a no hitter at all, and Ryan's seven no hitters spaced out over so many seasons clearly indicate that Ryan was a more powerful and dominating pitcher over more seasons than Clemens was in even his best seasons.

My issue with Roger Clemens is that he'd cheated in his career via substances, just like Barry Bonds did, Jose Canseco did, and many, many others did. Nolan Ryan has never been accused of having chemically cheated; the person that his team mates, and others around him in the MLB community knew him to be precludes such an outrageous accusation upon his character. Everyone who ever knew him knew how hard he'd worked. His physical workout routine was the thing that legends are made on,  all on it's own.

In 1986 I was twelve years old, and my sister graduated from high school, got married; and so the control of the family living room television went to me. I promptly met my first love, and started watching every last Texas Ranger's baseball game that I could. The Texas Rangers were always a horrible team, but the 1986 season was pretty special for them, and it was a special season in the history of Major league Baseball. People like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Jose Canseco first became public figures in 1986, and the World Series that year was spectacular. Everyone always will remember Bill Buckner's error, Bill Buckner was one of the finest first basemen that ever lived; but the one ball that went through his legs haunts him still. He and his family had to move out of Boston. Prior to that, when Boston barely beat out the Angels to represent the American League in the World Series. the Angels closer, Donnie Moore, would later kill himself from the label of "goat." An athlete is nothing more than an entertainer; and it's hard being an entertainer playing a kids game. It's harder still to compete against the greatest athletes in the world at an advanced age, and make them look like fools time and again; but that's what Nolan Ryan did for several years after that time.  In 1987 Ryan had one of the most dominating years a pitcher had ever had, but had a losing record due to the horrible offense that Houston's Astros had had.

In mid season 1986, the annual All Star Game was held in the Houston Astrodome, and I've still got the thing on a VCR tape, I only no longer have a VCR to play it on. Who does anymore, right? Anyway, in that game Roger Clemens faced Dwight Gooden for the first three innings. Clemens was setting the world on fire with his pitching, and he continued to do so. Dwight Gooden, I believe, was in his third spectacular year for the New York Mets, and was still the youngest player in the National League. Close attention was being paid during that game to the radar gun, and everyone knew that Dwight and Roger would be airing it out. Gooden threw more pitches over 95 mph than Roger did, but mainly because he threw more pitches. Clemens threw three perfect innings against the National League. Regardless, both of those guys, and everyone in the stands knew that the man who dominated that particular pitching mound on a regular basis, Lynn Nolan Ryan, though far older, and not invited to that game, regularly out did either and all in the "most pitches above 95 mph" category.

Now, in 1986, when I was just twelve years old; I was already cognizant of the name of Nolan Ryan. I doubt that I even knew that that was someone that still played Major League Baseball, I just knew then that he was a famous baseball player. I fell into the habit of watching other teams besides my Texas Rangers, and one Saturday, the Saturday afternoon game of the week, from one of the three major networks, featured the Houston Astros, playing against some other team; and there on the mound was Nolan Ryan.

I have no recollection of the outcome of the game on that day, the first time that I'd saw Nolan Ryan pitch on television, but I'll never forget how impressed I was to hear him seemingly scream, and curse.  When Ryan would throw his legendary fastball, his whole body coiled up like a vertical snake, and then struck towards the batters box horizontally like a cobra strike explosion; and somewhere in between all of that, should there have been a microphone near the field, and aimed in the direction of the mound or the batters box, you'd hear Ryan scream.

ARRGGGGGGGHHHHHAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You knew that if you'd heard that scream, then "the Ryan Express" had been delivered to the plate, and more often than not, it made contact only with the catcher's mitt, and then everyone's eyes would head on over to the radar gun display.

Although I came into pro ball with a lot of talent, it took me almost four years to approach my potential as a power pitcher. In my first season with the Angels, I was 19-16 with 39 starts, 20 complete games, an ERA of 2.28, 9 shutouts and 329 strikeouts in 284 innings.

I had 17 games in which I struck out 10 or more batters. But something more important happened that year that would affect my performance for the next 23 years - I discovered the weight room in Anaheim.

It hadn't been installed for the Angels, because back then it was believed that weight training made you muscle bound. I started slipping in there and working out, being careful not to overdo it and letting my body tell me how it was responding.

I learned how to work different areas of my body for balance and flexibility, taking a day off now and then to recover. I also discovered that even if I was somewhat stiff from lifting, it really had no effect on my ability to pitch. And after I began using the weights consistently, my arm would bounce back more quickly from one start to the next.

A key to my success with the Angels was that my velocity increased in the later innings. Now, this could be attributed to establishing a rhythm, finding a good groove and improving my mechanics as the game went on. But the conditioning program made this possible by increasing my stamina.

Once you fatigue, it affects your mechanics and you can't pitch with the precise timing required for a smooth, compact motion. I was so pleased with my results that I bought a Universal Gym for my home, and it paid dividends. During my first 3 years in the AL, I pitched more than 900 innings. There's no way I could have recovered quickly, or been as durable, without a firm base of strength from lifting. Lifting helped me be more consistent.

As Nolan clearly told us himself up above, weight training was frowned upon during his "prime" years during the MLB seasons of the 1970's, but that didn't dissuade him any from doing it. Nolan saw first hand what it did for him, and wouldn't he know better than anyone else how strong he was? His statistics can't lie; but his talent was phenomenal to begin with. So what's the deal?

While it can be argued that Nolan's genetic makeup was superior for the game to, say, J.R. Richards, who was his equal in talent, but suffered some physical tragedies that took him out of baseball; what can't be argued is that many pitchers had come and gone who seemingly had as much talent as Ryan did; but only Nolan Ryan has the Major League Baseball record for seasons played, at TWENTY SEVEN years. People like Tom Seaver got fat, and retired, but Nolan continued on. Nolan has plainly stated that a big part of the reason why he stuck around so long was the money that he was making. There's nothing wrong with a healthy drive to get the most out of yourself for financial gain, especially when you're more of an inspiration than a parasite, by and large. This isn't the article for moralizing sports entertainment.

What I think is important here is how we can look at Ryan's use of weight training over the course of his career, and clearly see that though he was genetically superior for the position of a Major League Baseball pitcher, that no other pitcher has ever been able to maintain such a peak performance level over the course of their careers.  Sure, Nolan Ryan had to evolve as a pitcher over time to maintain a competitive edge, that's natural, and a source of proof as to how human intelligence plays into sports success as does physical athletic gifts and the ability to maintain that physicality.  It's also true that more and more these days, we are seeing young pitchers come up and into Major and Minor league ball that have demonstrated the ability to throw fastballs at a hundred miles an hour, or as many as five miles per hour more.  It's also VERY reasonable to assume that Ryan had thrown pitches at those speeds in the days before accurate radar guns were in every stadium and all of the time.  What's so impressive about Nolan Ryan is that though he may have matured in the majors as a pitcher who could hit triple digits on the radar gun most every time he started, he also left the game throwing fastballs that were consistently above average for all but the upper echelon of arms in the Majors during his times.  I personally witnessed the second to the last start that Nolan Ryan ever made, and that was in his final season, and final game pitched in Texas, at the no longer in existence, old Arlington Stadium.  I can not recall the outcome of that game, or who Ryan and the Rangers were playing that day, but what I clearly recall is that the radar guns that day hit 96 mph on more than one occasion, and he was either 45 or 46 years old..