Nolan Ryan’s first game pitching in Marion, I think
Marion Mets Newsletter – Issue 15
I can’t make this claim with 100% accuracy, but I’m willing to say with 99.71065% certainty that the very first game Nolan Ryan pitched – in Marion – for the Mets was on a Tuesday evening, July 13, 1965.
But don’t hold me to that. Don’t bet your house on it, or your kids’ college savings.
What leads me to this concussion? Let’s explore.
First of all, I was nearly finished writing this story when I made a discovery that steered the narrative toward a different course. I’ll get to that.
The Smyth County News first mentioned Nolan Ryan in its July 8, 1965 edition, reporting the “right handed pitcher from Texas,” would join two other ball players being added to skipper Pete Pavlick’s team. The two others, the witty newspaper scribe wrote, were Dean McCarthy “a brilliant young shortstop of Brooklyn and Tony Liberti, a catcher also from the city where the tree grew.”
There wasn’t any fanfare around Ryan’s arrival. No one back then, during the Marion Mets’ inaugural season, knew that Ryan would leave Marion and toss a bunch of no-hitters and strike out a gazillion batters throughout a long big league career. No one knew he’d become a hall of famer, although Red Murff had an inkling he had found a gem of a pitcher when he scouted Ryan as a high schooler.
Heck, Marion team president Bob Garnett picked up Ryan from the bus stop and thought the pitcher was so frail looking that he worried his luggage “would break his arm in two,” he said. Nothing from that first impression led Garnett to think of Nolan Ryan as a potential major league ballplayer.
Those three new Marion players, the paper claimed in early July of ‘65, would likely be on the field when the Mets returned to Marion from a long, grinding road trip that would take them to Harlan, Kentucky, Bluefield and Salem.
The Mets hit the road after a bitter-sweet homestand. Sweet because of two decisive victories over the Salem Rebels that cut into the lead of the Appalachian League frontrunners. Bitter because of all of the rain that spilled over Marion on the July 4 holiday, postponing two games against Johnson City on Sunday and Monday.
The Mets won three of the five games they were able to play on the road. They spanked Harlan 10-5 the first night and were rained out in that small eastern Kentucky town the next evening, July 7.
On July 8 and 9, they split games with Bluefield.
Ryan had joined the team by then, but didn’t get into any games.
Wait till you read the reason.
“I didn’t even have a uniform the first week because they were out of uniforms because they had signed so many kids [players],” Ryan recalled in a phone interview in 2021. “I had to wait around until they released somebody to get a uniform.”
Ryan must have received his Mets attire sooner than expected because Pavlick had him warming up in the bullpen, readying for a relief appearance, during the July 8 and 9 two-game series in Bluefield,
That’s where another new arrival, Larry Wallin, fresh off the plane from Minnesota, got an eye-opening introduction to life in the minor leagues.
And Nolan Ryan’s fastball.
“He was a little wild, and he threw exceptionally hard,” Wallin told me, recalling the night Pavlick told him to grab his catcher’s mitt and warm up the righty. “I was sitting there 60-feet, 6 inches behind home plate, and I ended up moving back because I had a heck of a time catching him at that distance. No one in Minnesota threw like him.”
Ryan, however, never made it to the mound in either of those Bluefield games. His name was not among those Marion Mets listed in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph box scores.
Searching through old newspaper stories and listening back to phone interviews, I was sure I was going to learn that Ryan made his Mets debut at Marion Stadium. But that’s where I stumbled into a new truth. That’s when I stumbled across a box score in the Roanoke Times from a Marion Mets game in Salem, Virginia, on July 10, 1965.
There it was, the surname “Ryan” printed in black ink on the box score among Marion’s relief pitchers.
Relief pitcher?
Even though I’ve looked at his stats 1,000 times on Baseball-reference.com, I had forgotten that Ryan had one appearance as a reliever with Marion. This was it! And, going back more than a week through previous game boxes, I found his name had not been listed.
Remember, the Smyth County News first reported to its readers on July 8 that Ryan would soon join the team, and he didn’t make it into those July 8 and 9 Bluefield games.
So, this had to be it.
Nolan Ryan, according to the box scores I have, (I haven’t yet located a box for the Harlan game) made his debut as a professional pitcher with the Marion Mets on July 10, 1965.
How’d he do?
Uh, not so great.
Marion, in second place at the time, just a couple of games back of Salem, was deadlocked 2-2 with the league leaders after five innings. Lefty James Jenkins started the game and pitched well for Marion through five innings. He struck out 10 batters, but Pavlick sent him to the showers – or someplace off the field – after five innings and put Ryan on the mound for the bottom of the sixth inning.
The skinny fireballer with a bit of a wild streak pitched well in his first ever minor league inning, retiring the side. He walked a couple of Salem batters, but none scored.
No harm done.
The bottom of the seventh was a different story entirely. Ryan walked the first three batters to load the bases with no one out.
Salem fans must have been delirious watching their team rally against Nolan Ryan. Well, they would have been delirious had they known then that this lanky pitcher they were watching unravel before their eyes would soon be THE Nolan Ryan, if they had known about his future no hitters, about his 5,714 major league strikeouts, and about the time, at age 46, he pummeled 26-year-old Robin Ventura’s face.
But how would they know all that unless they arrived at the Salem ballpark via a time machine from 1999?
I digress,
The Marion Mets defense boosted their young hurler by getting two quick outs on force plays at home plate. Give Ryan a little credit, too, for inducing ground balls that led to those putouts.
Ryan’s good fortune, however, died there.
Salem’s Bob Moose hit a drive over second base, over the heads of Bill Strong and shortstop Curtis Brown. Two runs scored for Salem, giving the home team a 4-2 lead. The Rebels added one more when Wayne Dickerson singled to score Bob Money.
That was it for Ryan. Pavlick had seen enough, and sent in reliever Tommy Patchen, who also gave up a couple of runs.
Salem won 5-2 and increased its lead to three games over second-place Marion.
Ryan’s final tally for his first game looked like this: 3 runs allowed (all earned), 3 hits, five walks (yikes!) and two strikeouts in 1 ⅔ innings pitched. He also got his first at-bat in that game. He was 0-for-1.
When we talked on the phone a few years ago, I asked Ryan if he remembered his first game with Marion.
“No, I don’t think I do,” he said with his familiar Texas drawl.
You know what they say about relief pitchers and memory: it’s best not to have one.
Three days the Salem game, Nolan Ryan got his first start against Wytheville, at his new home ballpark in Marion.
Ryan soared through the first six innings, giving up only three hits.
“The Alvin, Texas, righthander, working a little too fast and bearing down too hard,” the Smyth County News wrote, “fanned 12 Senators, kay-oing all three of the first batsman to face him.”
He struck out two more in the second inning, and “was going like a house afire,” the paper reported, “until the roof caved in with Wytheville scoring five big runs.”
The Senators claimed a 7-3 victory, It was Wytheville’s second win in as many nights in Marion.
More importantly, though, we know it was the very first game Nolan Ryan, future hall of famer, ever pitched in Marion. I’m sure of it.
99.71065% sure.
Before you go, this is my reminder that I’m always looking for stories about the Marion Mets. If you were a player, fan, ball boy, concession stand worker… anything… and have a story to share, I’d love to talk with you. You can reach me at chadoz97@gmail.com. Also, if you see something I missed or simply got wrong, send me a note.
And don’t forget to Connect with Marion Mets on Facebook.
Check this out ... Ryan talks about signing with the Mets and his experience getting to Marion for his assignment: https://metsrewind.substack.com/p/the-clampetts-are-coming-to-town