Nolan Ryan: Baseball's First Million Dollar Man

Any time the name Nolan Ryan is muttered in sports bars around the world there are sure to be plenty of people familiar with the Texan. Some will remember Nolan Ryan as the strikeout king. Many will remember Nolan Ryan as the only man with seven no-hitters. Some will remember Nolan Ryan for the time he whooped Robin Ventura's ass. But Nolan Ryan has another feather in his cap. Nolan Ryan was the first Major League Baseball player to be paid a million dollars a year.

Nolan Ryan's pitching career began with the New York Mets but Ryan was finding it hard to break into the starting rotation that was led by Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. Nolan Ryan tried to make some noise by tying the Mets team record for strikeouts in a game. Unfortunately Tom Seaver spoiled it by breaking the record just four days later. Nolan Ryan got so little playing time in New York that he was only 10 - 14 when he went to Mets management and asked to be traded.

Apparently when Nolan Ryan asked Mets management to trade him they must've thought he said, "Please trade me, a really talented player, for nothing good," because that's what the Mets did when they traded Nolan Ryan and three other players to the California Angels for Jim Fergosi. In his very first season in California Nolan Ryan led the league with 329 strikeouts. In the next five seasons Nolan Ryan would notch even more strikeouts than that three times.

Nolan Ryan's numbers in California continued to impress. In 1973 Nolan Ryan broke the Major League Baseball for strikeouts in one season, beating Sandy Koufax by one. Nolan Ryan threw no-hitters that season, another one in 1974 and a fourth in 1975, tying Sandy Koufax with four no-hitters. In 1974 Nolan Ryan also tied Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton for strikeouts in a game.