Highlights of Nolan Ryan's fastest pitches. Was he the fastest pitcher ever? Did he throw 108 MPH?? 0:00 Nolan Ryan | Mets 0:18 Nolan Ryan | Angels 0:28 Nolan Ryan | Astros 0:48 Nolan Ryan | Rangers 1:46 Nolan Ryan | Pitching Mechanics
@@prestonschumacher1314 don’t think he’s talking about the one he made with a blown UCL- think he means the pitch before. Nolan was absolutely sitting 96-98 that game, which at 46 years old is beyond unheard of 😭
The first major league game I ever attended was Mr. Ryan's fourth no hitter against the Baltimore Orioles.... I was nine years old and it was Little League day June 1st, 1975. I still have the ticket. I had no idea the history I was witnessing, and I remember my dad (who was my LL coach) trying to explain to no avail, but the game did have my two all time favorite players in it, Brooks Robinson and Nolan Ryan.
I was at that game, also. He walked the bases loaded twice and still got the no hit shutout. I went to that game with my late dad, also. I was 13 years old at the time. Fast forward and I was at the Big A with my mother when Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no hitter. Angels radio changed over to the Rangers' broadcast of the final out. Within a minute, Anaheim gave Nolan Ryan another standing ovation, despite the fact that he was in Texas at the time.
In 1991 Jim Palmer tried to come back at the age of 45 after 7 years of retirement (he was inducted into the Hall of Fame the year before). He had a good fastball in his prime and ate up lots of innings, but there would be no comeback. He threw two innings in Spring training, hurt his hamstring, and his fastball topped out at 75 mph. He couldn’t hold back time. Nolan Ryan was 44 in 1991. He still had his high-90s fastball, struck out 200 batters, had a winning record, a sub-3.00 ERA, and threw his seventh no hitter. He was a full-on power pitcher at an age that pretty much saw junkballers and knuckleballers. Old geezers are supposed to be like Jim Palmer, not Nolan Ryan, and that is what I think makes Ryan so special. Oh, and Ryan pitched until he was 46 too!
The cheat on Nolan Ryan was he would grunt on fastballs but not the rest of his pitches! The problem was, by the time you heard the grunt, the ball was past you! 😂
Rube Walker was one of the NY Mets pitching coaches in 1969 and was instrumental in "bringing up" Ryan, Seaver, Gentry, and Koosman. All benefited from Walker's approach of having them develop compact deliveries (as you described) and had them keep their glove hands close to their bodies throughout from wind-up to release. All benefited, but Ryan most of all since that style of pitching (and his consistency with that approach) saved his throwing arm. The very young Ryan was sometimes "wild" in '69 as I recall, but the rest is his singularly amazing history.
And how about his 2795 career walks? That won't be broken either. The guy was a .500 pitcher, third all time in losses and fourteenth in wins. Terrifying to face but overrated as a pitcher.
@@howie9751still had a 2:1 ratio of strikeouts to walks and is one of the most dominant pitchers ever. 5,714 strikeouts, but you just want to point out the negative stats
@@timkramer9296 He wasn't a dominant pitcher. A dominant pitcher is one you can count on to win you games. That wasn't Ryan. Third all time in losses, fourteenth in wins. Never won a Cy Young nor won ten games more than he lost in any season. He had a lot of spectaculars like strikeouts and no-hitters, but pitchers are paid to win, and at the end of the day he was little better than a .500 pitcher.
My alltime favorite baseball player. I pitched little league in '76 with his baseball card in my pocket. Watched him throw a no-hitter in '91 at 44yrs old. He didnt change as he got older, threw heat until his arm blew out. A mans man.
It wasn't just Nolan's fastball that was lethal. He also had a curve that would buckle hitter's knees. His changeup was pretty good too. Once he figured out how to pitch there was no stopping The Express. I'm glad I got to see him pitch in person.
Right!! The BASIC push off the rubber, natural stride, uses ENTIRE arm motion and shoulder to throw effortlessly, NOT stopping your arm after you release it--FOOLISHNESS, and NOT standing up vertically as you pitch-- MORE FOOLISHNESS. No wonder today's kiddies throw slow and have short careers!!
@@silverguard8105 Yeah, Ryan was never the best pitcher in the league. Guys like Seaver, Carlton, and Palmer were routinely better. But Ryan was the best "strikeout pitcher" of all time.
Because they used to measure at the plate and now they measure out of the hand. The ball loses, depending on environmental variables, spin, etc; between 5 - 10 mph by the time it reaches the plate. So his 101.3 mph record still stands since it very well could have been 111 mph by today's standards. And we can literally time it and see how much faster it was.
Love him, I do, and NOBODY is breaking the no-hitter and career strike-out records....the only one I see as even possible is the season record one in front of Koufax......who IMO WAS better than Nolan......same could be said for the all-most forgotten 1940's teenage terror who was Bob Feller-----guy was also clocked at 107 (just a shade behind Ryan at 108), in street clothes racing a police motorcycle... check the great documentary on RU-vid called (what else?) "Fastball". When Teddy Ballgame days you were the best he ever saw or faced.....well that alone says a lot, and he missed four years of his absolute prime due to serving in the war.....pretty incredible human. What separates Ryan from everybody though was his amazing longevity and what he was able to accomplish in his 40s.....the only guy I can think of that did a similar if not more amazing thing is Foreman winning the heavyweight title back in his 40s
Pete Rose said in an interview that Nolan's fastball "disappeared the last 5 feet." Quite a statement from arguably the best hitter of all time. I'm not one of those guys that thinks the old is better than the new, but I honestly think in his prime, Ryan threw harder than any recent pitcher I've seen. I'm no student of baseball, but I think they started using a different speed gun and showing the pitch speed on the scoreboard and TV set to sensationalize the speed of the pitches. The fans would think that was fast then look at the MPH on the scoreboard and cheer for the 105 MPH pitch. Somebody below said that the ball seemed to explode into the catcher's mitt. That seems to be an accurate description from this video and watching him pitch throughout his career.
@@FreedomFighter2112 We all know that the harder the ball is thrown the harder it is to see the ball. It was Pete Rose's way of saying that the ball seemed to accelerate through the strike zone so fast you couldn't see it.
@@MrFuchew I agree with that. The guys throwing 105 now are throwing really hard, but I don't think they are throwing as hard as Nolan was in his prime. That 101+/- MPH fastball was about his 100th pitch of the game. When guys like Gossage were throwing upper 90's and Nolan was throwing around 100 on the old machine, you feared for the life of the batter. I bet the 105-ers would be throwing around 97 or 98 on the old JUGS machine. Maybe somebody will prove me wrong, but it just doesn't seem as fast. Mike Schmidt said he had a post-traumatic moment when he was on the stage with Ryan at the HOF induction. That is how hard he threw and intimidating he was.
@@WilliamMunnyIIIPete Rose was really about ball movement, not so much velocity. Ball Movement and control of your pitches matter far more than velocity. Nolan Ryan just had velocity _and_ ball movement with abysmal control.
I never understand when people try to argue that he wasn't throwing 107-108, but 99-100. Go watch any modern flamethrower hitting 102-105 on modern guns. Then watch Nolan. The difference is noticeable in how the ball just EXPLODES from his hand - and with movement! You can SEE the difference.
@dasfette Movement and Control matter far more than velocity. Even durability and the quality of pitches matter far more than throwing fastballs nonstop. Modern MLB has it backwards.
In my opinion the best pitcher ever. He never had a lot of run support and didn’t benefit from the expanded strike zone of the last few years either. He threw strikes.
Not even close to the best pitcher ever. Maybe somewhere near the bottom of the top 75. There’s a reason why he never won a Cy Young. He was never even the best pitcher in a single season, let alone all time.
I always enjoyed his late career no hitters. He didn’t actually have the heat on some those nights, he just had great location and worked around the strike zone and threw in some curves as well. When he was on, man he was on.
Imagine Nolan Ryan played with the Mets in his entire career. Ryan and Seaver would have been the best one-two combo in baseball. Then in the 80s, Ryan and Gooden would have been special to watch. They probably win another championship in the 80s.
As he got older, he got more faster. To be able to throw fast is one thing, to able to throw that fast, and even faster, for over 10 years is not human😊
Saw him beat the Reds at Riverfront in September 1988. Cinci was winding down a bad season so good seats were cheap to come by. Paid off an usher and sat with the scouts and their radar guns - the older, “slow” ones. Ryan was 41, and was 94-95 the first few innings, 96-98 midgame. Every fastball he threw in the ninth was 99. Dibble pitched in that game. Touched 97. I don’t think he lost much velo through the years, but I can only imagine what his fastball looked like in 1973-74, because I’ve never seen anyone throw as hard as Ryan did that night. Not Verlander, not Chapman. Nobody.
He used his left foot to his advantage really well taking that momentum. The way he swoops it. Lots of pitchers just stomp their kick leg and dont reach full potential because they think its all arm strength. If that were the case you wouldn't see such skinny armed guys firing 100 mph fastballs
I was lucky enough to see nolan pitch at Baltimore in 1992. Game was sold out so I had to buy a cheap ticket from a scalper for about 10x f as ce price. Nolan made it worth it!
Even by todays standards, unless they moved the mound about two feet closer to the plate, the speed and time it took for that ball to reach the glove is insane! Ive been watching ball for over 32 years and played for 15 and can say with a fair amount of confidence those pitches are exceeding 103 or 104 mph.
I believe the juggs gun had him at 100.8 but the amazing part was that he was throwing 100 mph into the 9th inning and that his career lasted for 27 years! Looking at these highlights it looks like it's 108 mph. He was striking out Hall of Famers in this video and the way the ball exploded into the catcher's mitt it makes you wonder how anyone ever got a hit off of him!
I've been an Astros fan all my life I'm 68 I've said in every level of the dome stadium in Houston this man was phenomenal and awesome athlete with tenacity for the game he would not give up you could not beat this man he's one of my heroes
I believe that Nolan and Tom Seaver had the best pitching motion of any right handed pitcher in history. They were just smooth with their deliveries. ⚾️⚾️
I grew up watching Nolan Ryan in the 80's. IMO he is the greatest pitcher of all time, and he whipped Robin Ventura's ass in the process of becoming the GOAT! LOL
No one pitching today looks remotely close to this. He was blowing high fastballs by guys who were completely overpowered and buzzing the low ones by them just as easily. Clock it out of his hand and it's about 8 mph faster than where it was clocked then. The hardest throwing pitcher of all time. He'd be averaging about fifteen K's per nine with guys swinging like they do now. He'd also be finishing them if allowed to.
Ryan, Blyleven, Sutton, Seaver, etc. played long toss and ran. I read an article some years ago concerning Ryan. He would pitch a complete game and ride the clubhouse exe recycle for an hour post game. He had incredible pitching stamina to go with the arm and mechanics. An amazing athlete.
Just think what his career would have been like if he played on a winner during his time like the Yankees, Dodgers or Reds. In my humble opinion think Ryan is the greatest pitcher certainly of his generation.
Seaver, Ryan, Koosman all coached well in the Mets farm system to usr your legs to drive the ball when pitching, all 3 15+ years in the MLB with minimal arm trouble
Nolan Ryan racked up all those freakish strikeout records, played for all those years without injury, and then baseball analytics comes in and says a pitcher has to rest longer between games, and has to walk off the mound after 100 pitches? Yeah, I'd say Ryan's strikeout records are pretty Secure.
Ryan's mechanics were as good as it gets. It they weren't his arm would have died long, long before it did. In fact, his arm never died. He just got old and was tired and sore.
just looking at it, i'd say: 1st pitch, 5 second mark: 107+ mph...i don't know what i'm seeing here; if i put an upper limit to it, i'd say 110 mph. 11 second mark: 104 mph. keep in mind the footage you're seeing may be moving faster than actually happened - i.e. frames per second moving faster than reality...
I saw him in person on time, pitching for Astros. I did not know now it was Ryan until the 3rd inning, and the strike outs just keep adding up... and then, my friend said, you didn't know it was Ryan? He got 15 strike outs that game before it was over. From my seat, the ball was moving so fast the batter had to make a decision to swing almost from the moment it left his hand.
The worse part of how fast he throws is that is pitching mechanics are so good that his long arms create an abbreviate response time that makes the "closing rate speed" of his pitch even more insane fast because he is so well trained that is more of a detriment...and when he throws a wild pitch it is often a catcher having trouble getting his glove up to the ball and it is tricky to field...there on another note a young girl about 10 years old in as a catcher in softball is amazing that she reaches in and untuitively slides her torso like a pro catcher and traps the pitch low and away and it makes no sense how well this young child has instilled and absorbed disciplines that made this intuitive and whoever paired with her in the coaching engraved gritty and nasty excellence and the girl then goes into calm mode and tapers down and gets the pitcher the ball....this is crazy as it is not even part of the theme of the video and I am thinking to myself who the heck trained this kid..it was the most odd show of intellect, talent, poise, maturity, wildness and innate reaction and don't even want to say who this little kid was because she has to do these drills in her head and it makes no sense and it is like an extension of another situation that again repeated itself and just kind of baffling that they are gonna be something oddly unique and maybe unsung and more bizarre is someone knows that I know in timing maybe how I am gonna react so perfectly and that makes zero sense as whoever this person is has no access to knowing and empowering me and wants to as I am struggling to get the correct dosage of my Rx and are acting like resistors and that is not healthy "resistance" exercise when dealing with Neuro Pons that cannot rebuild and is odd that they would deprive as this is not like muscular refinement that can be redeveloped and is grueling and only painful
I agree sports bar has been lowered. No more nine inning pitchers. Nolan Ryan was a grown man. Greatest pitcher of all time. I never daw Sandy Koufax hecwas great but he got hurt. Nolan threw 4ever and whenever he took the mound therecwas aleays a chance of a no hitter
Just think about this. If he's throwing a 100mph+ ball you have 0.6 sec to react to something that's coming at you from 60'6" away. It's just freaking nuts.
Ryan threw the "nastiest cheese". He threw a pitch 100.9 mph clocked it when it was 10 feet from the plate in the 9th inning of a game. Today's radar guns determine 10 feet out of the hand which would add 6-8 mph. When he was 42, he was clocked at 98.
I don’t know the difference between radar guns now and then but you look at these pitches and compare them to those of say Bobby Miller who pitched today for the Dodgers. Miller was consistently clocked at 100mph and most of Ryan’s pitches here look much faster than Miller’s
