Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr., nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Ryan pitched for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. After his retirement in 1993, Ryan served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Texas Rangers and an executive advisor to the Houston Astros. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest MLB pitchers of all time.
Donald Howard Sutton was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sutton won a total of 324 games, pitched 58 shutouts including five one-hitters and ten two-hitters, and led the National League in walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) four times. He is seventh on baseball's all-time strikeout list with 3,574.
Joseph Franklin Niekro was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 22-year baseball career, he pitched from 1967 to 1988 for seven different teams, primarily for the Houston Astros.
In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine complete innings recorded no hits. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is thereby said to have "thrown a no-hitter". In most cases, no-hitters are recorded by a single pitcher who throws a complete game; one thrown by two or more pitchers is a combined no-hitter.
Donald Scott Drysdale, nicknamed "Big D", was an American professional baseball pitcher and broadcaster who played in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire 14-year career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. Known for being a fierce competitor, Drysdale won the Cy Young Award in 1962 and was a three-time World Series champion during his playing career.
Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez, nicknamed "the Dominican Dandy", is a Dominican former right-handed pitcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1960 to 1975, mostly with the San Francisco Giants. Known for his high leg kick, variety of pitches, arm angles and deliveries, pinpoint control, and durability, Marichal won 18 games to help the Giants reach the 1962 World Series, and went on to earn 191 victories in the 1960s, the most of any major league pitcher. He won over 20 games six times, on each occasion posting an earned run average (ERA) below 2.50 and striking out more than 200 batters, and became the first right-hander since Bob Feller to win 25 games three times; his 26 wins in 1968 remain a franchise record.
Joaquín Andújar was a Dominican professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, and Oakland Athletics from 1976 through 1988. Andújar was a four-time MLB All-Star and a Gold Glove Award winner.
The 1986 National League Championship Series was a best-of-seven Major League Baseball postseason series between the NL East champion New York Mets and NL West champion Houston Astros. It was the 18th NLCS and the first MLB playoff series in which the opponents were two "expansion" teams that had begun play in the same season (1962). The series was won by the Mets, four games to two, culminating with their 7–6, 16-inning triumph at the Astrodome in Game 6. New York then defeated the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, four games to three.
David Stanley Smith was an American Major League Baseball relief pitcher, primarily for the Houston Astros, for whom he pitched from 1980 to 1990. He also pitched for the Chicago Cubs.
Danny Wayne Darwin, known as "the Bonham Bullet" and "Dr. Death", is an American professional baseball pitcher and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, and San Francisco Giants, from 1978 through 1998. Over his MLB career, he amassed 171 wins and 182 losses, with a 3.84 earned run average (ERA).
Michael Warren Scott is an American former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets and the Houston Astros. He won the National League Cy Young Award in 1986, becoming the first Astros pitcher to win the award. Scott is part of a select group of pitchers that have thrown a no-hitter and struck out 300 batters in the same season.
Kenneth Roth Forsch is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher from 1970 to 1984, most prominently as a member of the Houston Astros where he helped the franchise win its first-ever National League Western Division title and postseason berth in 1980. A two-time All-Star player, Forsch pitched a no-hitter for the Astros on April 7, 1979. He ended his baseball career playing for the California Angels.
The 1980 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five playoff between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros for the National League (NL) pennant and the right to play in the 1980 World Series. Played from October 7 to 12, it was the 12th NLCS. Philadelphia won the series three games to two to clinch the NL pennant. It was the first postseason series victory in franchise history for the Phillies, who went on to defeat the Kansas City Royals for their first World Series Championship.
The 1986 Houston Astros season was the 25th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, Texas. For the second time in team history, the Astros won the National League West; it was their third postseason appearance the past seven seasons, and it would be their last for eleven years.
The 1981 Houston Astros season was the 20th season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, Texas. The season was divided into two halves because of a players' strike in mid-season. The Astros won the National League West in the second half with a loss by the Cincinnati Reds on October 3, the penultimate day of the season. The Astros advanced to the playoffs, which matched the winners of the two halves in a Division Series. However, they were defeated in five games by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.
The 1981 San Francisco Giants season was the Giants' 99th season in Major League Baseball, their 24th season in San Francisco since their move from New York following the 1957 season, and their 22nd at Candlestick Park. Giants manager Frank Robinson became the first black manager in the history of the National League. Robinson was also the first black manager in the history of the American League.
The 1980 National League West tie-breaker game was a one-game extension to Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1980 regular season, played between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers to decide the winner of the National League's (NL) West Division. The game was played on October 6, 1980, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. It was necessary after the Dodgers overcame a three-game deficit in the final three games of the season and both teams finished with identical win–loss records of 92–70. The Dodgers won a coin flip late in the season which, by rule at the time, awarded them home field for the game.
On June 13, 2012, Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants pitched the 22nd perfect game in Major League Baseball (MLB) history and the first in Giants' franchise history. Prior to the game, Cain and professional golfer Dustin Johnson hit golf balls from home plate into McCovey Cove. Pitching against the Houston Astros at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California, Cain retired all 27 batters that he faced and tallied 14 strikeouts, tied for the most strikeouts in a perfect game with Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965. Following Philip Humber's perfect game earlier in 2012, Cain's performance marked just the third season in MLB history in which multiple perfect games were thrown. In June 1880, Lee Richmond and John Montgomery Ward both threw perfect games; in May 2010 Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay both accomplished the feat.
