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Nolan Ryan: The Mets Years (Part One: 1966 - 1969 Championship Season)

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Lynn Nolan Ryan was born on January 31st, 1947, in Refugio, Texas, a son to Robert Ryan & Martha Lee Hancock a descendant of John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence . The Ryan family moved to Alvin, Texas when Nolan was just six weeks old. He began to pitch in Little League & tossed his first no hitter at nine years old. From the ages of 8-18 he learned a strong work ethic, working with his dad who besides working for a local oil company was also a Houston Post distributor. Young Nolan rolled up & tossed the news papers, strengthening that gifted arm. With the arrival of major league baseball in Houston, Ryan was able to go watch games & it was there he was first mesmerized by the pitching of Sandy Koufax.  In high school the Ryan stories are legendary, one tells of a game in the first inning where he cracked the lead off man's batting helmet, hit the number two man & broke his arm & had the third hitter refuse to enter the batter...
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Kodai Senga - "The Ghost Fork" Mets Pitcher (2023 - 2025)

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Kodai Senga was born January 30, 1993, in Gamagori on the island of Honshu in Japan. The six-foot two right hander has a three-quarter delivery with a fastball that averages 96mph & can top out at 100mph. He masters a tricky forkball, known as "Ghost Fork" in Japan. He also throws a cutter & slider. Senga has been a pitcher since his high school days. In 1993 at the age of 17 he was drafted as a developmental player by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.  T he Developmental Player System: allows a player to be held for the purpose of training  separately from the registered players under control of a team in the Nipon Pro League (NPL).  By 2012 he signed a $4.4 million deal to be under the team's control. He worked with Kazuki Yoshimi of the Chunichi Dragons who is known for his control. In 2013 an illness kept him out for the early part of the season. When he did arrive, he pitched as a reliever, used as a setup man to cl...
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