Quote:
Originally Posted by MavzMan
I'm not a big baseball or Rangers fan, but where does Nolan Ryan stand in that list?
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Ryan was huge in Rangers baseball. He is...how to explain this... He is much larger in Rangers lore than his actual production. He wasn't here very long and was 40+ in age. So yeah, he was still pitching at a high level, but he wasn't necessarily at the peak of his prime. Amazingly enough, he had a prime that went from 1972 to 1991. But that prime only extended 3 to maybe 4 years of his time with the Rangers. His name alone brought the Rangers a tremendous amount of legitimacy. There was talk about the Rangers moving somewhere else in the country. Because of Ryan, that didn't happen.
So where does he stand? Realistically, he stands as tall or taller than anyone in the history of DFW sports. He is as beloved as anyone to ever come through the DFW sports scene. The only real comparables would be Staubach and Ryan. But, you might not put him on the Mount Rushmore of the DFW sports simply because he wasn't here long enough.
If you're picking one from every sport, Ryan would be on your short list of possibilities for the Rangers:
Pudge
Ryan
Juan Gonzalez (although he's not beloved by fans so that takes him out of the running. But he was among the best in the game during his time in Texas. Top 5 in MVP voting 3 times in Texas including 2 wins)
Michael Young (although he's a bit of an average player that just happened to play a long time in Texas... he was a "leader" and is beloved
Adrian Beltre (far better player than Michael Young..still playing at a high level)