Like them or not, hats off to the Cardinals, 2011 World Series champions. Perhaps it was pre-ordained. Remember Game 6 when they were one strike away from being eliminated on a few occasions, but kept clawing back over and over, to finally prevail. One of the announcers uttered a great line. "They.... just.... won't.... go.... away". Now St. Louis is planning a parade, and good for them.
But what of the other side -- specifically Nolan Ryan? As President and CEO of the Texas Rangers, he sat in a box seat and a championship was oh so close for his team. He could smell it, taste it, almost reach out and touch it -- but for the 2nd year in a row -- in the end -- he couldn't have it. It was snatched away -- again.
Even if you don't like all things Texas for whatever reason, there's just.... no... way... Ryan can be considered anything other than a class act.
Consider his playing career. 27 years. 7 no-hitters. 12 one-hitters. The only player to have his number retired by 3 teams, not counting Jackie Robinson, which was a league-wide mandate and for obviously different reasons. 5714 strike-outs, a record that will stand forever. All time win-loss record? 324-292. On the face of it, a .526 career winning percentage might not be that impressive, but remember 2 things -- that's 616 decisions. A modern day starting pitcher might get 35 starts a season. Assuming he stayed healthy throughout -- no small feat -- It would take him 18 years, to even start that many games, let alone get a decision in all of them. That's not going to ever happen again either.
The other thing is Ryan had the misfortune of being on not so good teams. Between the Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers, when he was there, he got very little run support, yet he never complained. He just went out and played good old fashioned country hard-ball. Oddly enough, he never won a Cy Young award, and got nowhere near being a World Series champion.
In his short 3-year tenure as Prez of the Texas Rangers, that club has gone from nobodys, to getting to the big dance last year, to being one pitch away from a lot of champagne and a parade this year. Is it all his doing? Probably not. Texans would likely be the first people to say "ya gotta have the horses". Still, Ranger players have been quoted as saying Ryan is the heart and soul of their team. They believe in him and vice versa.
Ryan's been a upstanding righteous guy for a very long time. No crashing cars, running around with bimbos, nightclub incidents, guns, DUIs, steroids, etc. You name something bad, and he hasn't done it.
So congrats to the Cardinals. They earned it and are worthy champions.
But I still want to see Nolan Ryan get a "ring" some year soon -- even if he's not a player anymore.
He's earned it too.
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