Nolan Ryan Throws His Sixth No-Hitter

On June 11, 1990, Nolan Ryan no-hit the Oakland Athletics at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, extending his own record to six career no-hitters. He was 43 years old. The A's were the defending American League champions, a lineup loaded with Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Rickey Henderson, and Dave Henderson. Ryan struck out 14 of them.

The A's were the best team in the American League. They had won the pennant three straight years from 1988 to 1990 and had swept the Giants in the 1989 World Series. Their lineup featured five players who would combine for over 2,000 career home runs. None of them could touch Ryan that night.

Ryan's fastball was still sitting in the mid-90s, and his curveball was breaking off the table. He walked two batters and hit another. He threw 129 pitches. His catcher, John Russell, caught every one. The closest the A's came to a hit was a hard grounder by Rickey Henderson in the seventh inning that shortstop Jeff Huson fielded cleanly.

The final out came when Henderson, leading off the ninth, popped out to second baseman Julio Franco. Ryan raised both fists and was mobbed by his teammates. The Arlington crowd watched on delayed broadcast, celebrating in Texas bars and living rooms.

Nobody expected Ryan to still be throwing no-hitters at 43. He had debuted with the Mets in 1966 and thrown his first no-hitter in 1973 against the Royals. No-hitters two, three, and four came in 1974, 1975, and 1981. The fifth came in 1981 against the Dodgers. Each one was supposed to be the last. Each time Ryan proved he had more.

He threw his seventh and final no-hitter on May 1, 1991, against the Toronto Blue Jays, at age 44. Seven no-hitters, 5,714 career strikeouts, 27 seasons. He retired in 1993 at age 46. The no-hitter against Oakland was the performance that made people stop treating his longevity as a novelty and start treating it as one of the most remarkable athletic achievements in professional sports.