Nolan Ryan he ever win a Cy Young Award. Ryan is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in Major League baseball games in four decades and the only MLB pitcher to strike out seven pairs of fathers and sons. Ryan was born in Refugio, south of Victoria in south Texas, the youngest of six children, to Lynn Nolan Ryan Sr. (1907–1970), and the former Martha Lee Hancock (1913–1990). The senior Ryan operated a newspaper delivery service for the "Houston Post" that required him to rise in the early morning hours to prepare 1,500 newspapers for delivery over
Nolan Ryan mark two weeks after Ryan, and Gaylord Perry did so later that season.) On July 11, 1985, Ryan struck out Danny Heep for his 4,000th career strikeout. In 1986, Ryan's Astros faced the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series. Ryan had a shaky start in Game 2, taking the loss. He returned in Game 5, throwing 9 innings of 2-hit, 1-run, 12-strikeout ball, but one of those hits was a Darryl Strawberry home run which tied the game at 1–1, as Dwight Gooden matched Ryan pitch for pitch. Ryan got a no-decision as his Astros lost in