Nolan Ryan

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Was it a big night? A special night? Are you kidding?There was a 40-foot-high color portrait of the other team's starting pitcher hanging on the front facade of the ballpark. Bigger than the giant American flag hanging alongside.Greetings from Chairman Nolan."The Rangers put it up last year," someone said, "and liked it so much they never took it down."Down in the Orioles clubhouse, three hours before the first pitch, Leo Gomez stood by an old air-conditioner rattling in the summer heat and pointed to his name on the lineup card.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It's tough to talk about something you know little about. That's about the only thing two generations of hitters have learned about Nolan Ryan.And the Orioles are no exception. Players on the current roster are batting a collective .206, with 33 strikeouts in 160 at-bats.Those numbers are explanation enough of Ryan's 5-0 record against the Orioles in the past two years. He lost 16 of his first 21 decisions against the Orioles, but for the most part that was a baseball lifetime ago, during his first stint in the American League with the California Angels.

DALLAS -- No, Dallas, he doesn't want a downtown parade.But a peaceful retirement season also is not among Nolan Ryan's final career wishes.As Ryan issued his "one more year" announcement yesterday at Arlington Stadium, he also was talking about going out in a World Series blaze.Man, would that be something special. But, then again, Ryan does pitch for the Texas Rangers. Frankly, I think he's got a better chance of surviving a ride up Commerce Street.But regardless of the Rangers' history, be there anyway this season when Nolan Ryan is on the mound.

Nolan Ryan has learned not to get too satisfied with success and not to take failure to heart.These haven't been normal times for the future Hall of Famer, with an early trip to the disabled list and a stratospheric ERA.So, after yesterday's no-decision in the Texas Rangers' 5-3 win over the Orioles, Ryan, 45, was upbeat."

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The "if" word has failed the Rangers once again. As in "if Nolan Ryan stays healthy. . ."At age 46, and after his most pain-free spring training in years, we now know "if" was still asking too much, as it had been at age 45 and 44. The right arm remains a miracle of genetics, but time and physical stress continue to take a toll elsewhere.Which brings us to yesterday morning, when Nolan Ryan awoke after a rough night at the ballpark against the Orioles and discovered he was unable to walk due to a locked right knee.

Those grains of sand in the hourglass are frozen. Nolan Ryan, you see, defies the passing of time. He holds off the tick of the clock, and there's never a need to turn the calendar. He is a pitching antique, a marvel of the age.At 44, most baseball players have reluctantly accepted enforced retirement, brought on by the harsh reality that there's no market for their deteriorating services. Ryan is the exception. He pitched his seventh no-hitter Wednesday night against Toronto to establish again, with irrefutable evidence, that he is an absolute marvel -- a physical phenomenon of astonishing proportion.

The first ovation swelled from the seats at 6:44 p.m., some 20 minutes shy of the first pitch, with the stands fast filling and the warehouse still covered in a warm bath of late-afternoon sunlight.Nolan Ryan emerged from the visitors' dugout at Camden Yards and began the slow, long walk across the outfield to the bullpen. Many in the crowd stood and cheered, then stood and cheered a little longer. Ryan waved, waved again, then started warming up with a set of 120-foot bullets across the grass to a bullpen catcher.

Nolan Ryan sat at home writing holiday thank-you notes and trying to treat the day like any other. George Brett stayed inside with his wife, watching the clock and feeling like a prisoner. Robin Yount plopped down in his office, never far removed from a telephone.The calls came for all three players yesterday. And while they may not have arrived at precisely the times they expected, the wait was hardly a long one.In one of the most eagerly awaited Hall of Fame elections in baseball history, all three players were voted into the Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine in their first year of eligibility.

Get ready for the "Rocket" vs. "Rocky."That is the intriguing pitching matchup today at Camden Yards when impressive Orioles rookie Rocky Coppinger takes the mound against his boyhood idol, Boston's Roger Clemens.It will be an early milestone in the promising career of Coppinger, who zoomed through the organization's minor-league system to become a member of the Orioles' rotation in less than two years."I'm excited about it," said Coppinger. "Roger was a real idol to me just because of the way he goes after guys.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It's tough to talk about something you know little about. That's about the only thing two generations of hitters have learned about Nolan Ryan.And the Orioles are no exception. Players on the current roster are batting a collective .206, with 33 strikeouts in 160 at-bats.Those numbers are explanation enough of Ryan's 5-0 record against the Orioles in the past two years. He lost 16 of his first 21 decisions against the Orioles, but for the most part that was a baseball lifetime ago, during his first stint in the American League with the California Angels.