Remembering Mets History (1970) Nolan Ryan Tosses His First Career One Hit Shut Out
Saturday April 18th, 1970: On this afternoon matinee at Shea Stadium, Gil Hodges' reigning World Champion New York Mets were still flying high, nine games into the 1970 season. The previous night Tom Seaver had thrown an eight hit shut out victory over the Phillies in the series opener. The Phil's were on a six game losing streak & playing so bad that manager Frank Lucchesi called a team meeting before this series began calling the team out to play better. The Mets were 5-4 at this point playing their first weekend home stand of the season. 23,500 fans came to Shea as young flame thrower Nolan Ryan made his first start of the season taking on Jim Bunning. Trivia: Back on Fathers Day 1964, Jim Bunning threw a perfect game over the Mets at Shea Stadium. The Young Nolan Ryan was one of the hardest throwers in the game but was still having control issues at this point of his career. This drove manager Gil Hodges crazy & with the abundance of young pitching tale...