General

Ryan Wants His Pitchers to Stop Being Pansies

Dec 23, 2008, 3:11 PM UTC

Nolan Ryan, who is now the Rangers’ team president and hasn’t pitched in over 15 years, wants to take it back the old school, when players rode buses from city-to-city, slept in roach motels, worked offseason jobs to make ends meet and pitched until their arms fell off. Well, that last part, at least: â†µâ†µâ‡¥Ryan wants more complete games. He had 222 complete games in 773 career starts. There were 136 complete games, 10 by lefthander CC Sabathia, in the majors this season. â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Ryan also dislikes the endless procession of relievers, which often leads to a team losing a game with its 12th-best pitcher on the mound. He prefers relievers who pitch to more than one hitter or more than one inning. â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µRyan doesn’t really explain why he wants to see more complete games, other than they make starting pitchers look freakin’ badass and relievers are a bunch of pansies anydamnway. It’s not like urging a mediocre pitcher to throw a few extra innings is going to make him anymore productive. But he does tell us how he plans on making these guys pitch deeper into the game:
â†µ
â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥It all starts with stronger pitchers. â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“To me, it’s a matter of physical conditioning, and then you get into the area of mental toughness,” Ryan said. “That’s what we’re trying to address now.” â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Ryan wants Texas pitchers to learn the difference between being sore and being hurt. â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Ryan suggested pitchers are too willing now to stop when they feel the tiniest of twinges. An examination invariably shows something wrong, because pitching is an unnatural act for the shoulder. â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“Pitchers feel pain sometimes and think they’re hurt,” Ryan said. “A lot of times, they’re not. They have to learn to pitch through it.” â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Texas pitchers have already had one conditioning camp, in which they learned that running will be a way of life. That’s running as in sprints, not leisurely jogs. â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µThis is just a fantastic philosophy Ryan has that I’m certain Kerry Wood and Mark Prior would fully endorse. So, he wants his pitchers to throw more innings, which will inevitably lead to more injuries. But he doesn’t wanna hear any whining about silly elbow tendinitis or torn labrums. Just walk that stuff off. â†µâ†µIf nothing else, Ryan does have one thing right: Nothing makes a pitcher’s arm stronger and more durable than running sprints. â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: