July Pickups

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

I just picked up a really neat lot in Hunt's 2010 Live All-Star Fanfest Auction which perfectly compliments my advanced Nolan Ryan collection. Broadcasting great Dick Enberg recently decided to sell many of the momentos that he accumulated in his 40 year career. BTW, growing up in So. Cal during the 1970's, Dick Enberg was always one of my personal favorites and I spent many great summer nights listening to him broadcast Cal Angels games. I purchased his original official scoresheets from all four of Nolan Ryan's 19 career strikeout games from the years 1974 and 1977.

One of the sheets is from the game played on 8/12/74 vs. Boston. In this game Nolan passed Bob Feller's standard for the most strikeouts in an American League game. Rapid Robert had held the former record for over 35 years with 18 K's. Ryan also tied fellow HOF'ers Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton with their NL standard of 19 K's. This record held up until Roger Clemens struck out 20 in 1986. Note: Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson subsequently joined Rocket Roger with 20 K games as well.

The scoresheet from the game played on 8/20/74 was also of particular note. Not only did Nolan strike out 19 Detroit Tigers, but he also threw the fastest pitch ever recorded (100.9 MPH) using the sophisticated and precise measurement equipment provided by the Anaheim , CA aerospace company Rockwell International. To date, this is still the modern standard and remains in the Guiness Book of Sports Records. It's interesting to note that the 8/20/74 game was used as the calibration game by Rockwell for an Angels PR promotion that occured on 9/7/74 where fans were allowed to guess the actual speed of a Nolan Ryan fastball down to 1/10th of a MPH. The winner received tickets and airfare to the 1974 ALCS championship series compliments of the Angels. Like many teams, the cellar-dwelling early 1970's Angels were struggling to get fans into the seats. What better way than to exploit their only marketable asset at the time- Nolan Ryan? LOL

Many congrats, Scott! I was at that game in which Ryan was clocked. It was very memorable, and a landmark game, as you say. They really made a big deal of the new radar technology.

I still remember how they made the results suspenseful... posting his fastest pitch by inning on the scoreboard. They really made you wait for the record-setting pitch (dragging it out mercilessly). When they finally posted it on the Big A (the scoreboard was still in left field at the time) the crowd went nuts. It was all people talked about the next few days.

I also remember seeing Enberg drive off in his red convertible after the games in those days. He would always flash a big smile and wave. The Angels were never very good, but Dick Enberg was a class-act, and those early '70s games were sure fun.

If you attended Hunts live, I'm sorry I missed you. I was there with another collector friend... we both won a few lots, and had a good time. It was cool to see the Wagner Strip up close, and there were some nice deals to be had. We should have thought to arrange a Net54 get-together with all the local SoCal people who were able to attend. Would have been great to meet Jimmy "King of Clout" as well... Oh well- maybe next time!