July 2017 has really been one of my best pickup months in the last two years.
While watching the 2017 All Star Game I received an e-mail from a collector friend of over 20 years. About 25 years ago at a baseball card show in the NY area he picked up the home and road lineup cards from a game played in 1983 at Montreal.
These game used lineup cards originated from the personal collection of long-time NL umpire Bob Engel. Noting that HOF pitcher Nolan Ryan was the pitcher for the Astros in the game, he bought them. Only last week, when researching the game, did he realize how historic the game truly was....
On 4/27/83 at Montreal's Expo Stadium, Nolan Ryan became the all-time career strikeout leader with 3,509 K's as he passed HOF great Walter Johnson's standard of 3,508 K's. For the record, Montreal player Brad Mills was Ryan's milestone strikeout.
When my friend realized what he had and knowing that I am an advanced Ryan collector, he was nice enough to immediately contact me asking if I would like to buy them, which I certainly did.
I have always hoped to find the lineup or dugout cards to this game because this was a major strikeout milestone for Nolan en route to his career standard of 5,714 K's, which is a record that quite certainly will never be broken.
These lineup cards now join a mini-collection that I have put together of memorabilia linked to this 3509 K milestone.
In my personal collection I have a 3509 game ball, scored program that is signed and inscribed by Ryan milestones 3508th K Tim Blackwell (ties WaJo) and 3509th K Brad Mills (sets new record), both umpire lineup cards and a souvenir plastic cup that commemorated Nolan Ryan becoming the all-time strikeout king.
TRIVIA DID YOU KNOW TIME
After passing Walter Johnson for career strikeouts, Nolan Ryan briefly lost his strikeout king crown to another HOF pitcher. Can you name him and how this occurred?
Nolan Ryan's milestone 3509th strikeout Brad Mills had an interesting career footnote last week in the 2017 All Star Game. Can you tell me what it is and the unusual circumstance by which it occurred?