He wasn’t an elite pitcher yet, but Nolan Ryan credits California Angels pitching coach Tom Morgan with playing a major role in turning around his career.
Ryan struggled in his early years with the New York Mets. He’s said he basically was told to “throw as hard as I could for as long as I could” by Mets coaches and left alone. He failed to improve as his 10–14, 3.97 ERA stats in his last season in 1971 with the team showed. Ryan was so frustrated that he told his wife Ruth after that season that he was considering quitting baseball if he wasn’t traded. So luckily he was.
In his first Spring Training with the Angels in 1972, Angels pitching coach Tom Morgan immediately recognized Ryan’s tremendous potential and started working with him on his erratic mechanics. Ryan’s more consistent delivery helped him improve that season to a 19–16 record with a 2.28 ERA, and go on to a Hall of Fame career with many all-time records including strikeouts and no-hitters.
As Ryan described to the LA Times while attending Morgan’s funeral in 1987:
“I remained pretty erratic (in 1972), but that was still the turning point of my career. Those mechanics gave me the basis on which to build. If it wasn’t for the interest Tom took in me and all that time he spent with me, I don’t know where I’d be.”
“It’s hard to put a value on what Tom meant to me. But he was more than just a pitching coach. He was a good friend to me as well.”
No comments:
Post a Comment