In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier.
In 1973, Nolan Ryan was a dominant force on the mound for the California Angels. This card is the first one with him in uniform with the Angels where he would spend eight seasons.
Ryan would post a 21-16 record for a below .500 team, set a big league record and begin a journey on a couple of others.
With 383 strikeouts, Ryan surpassed Sandy Koufax by one for the modern era single-season record. In his final appearance of the season on Sept. 27, Ryan fanned 16 batters in an 11-inning 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.
It was the 23rd time he had at least 10 strikeouts in a game. To put that number in perspective, teammate Bill Singer was second in the big leagues with eight games in which he reached that plateau. The second best team in the majors was the New York Mets, which had eight contests 10 strikeout performances. Tom Seaver had six and Jon Matlack added two.
Starting the season with a 3-0 mark, Ryan found himself with a 4-3 record after giving up five runs in a 7-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox on May 11. He had just retired one batter in the start.
One day later, Ryan earned a save against the White Sox with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts.
In his next outing, Ryan threw the first of his major league record seven career no-hitters on May 15. He had 12 strikeouts as he blanked the Kansas City Royals 3-0.
Named to his second all-star team, Ryan appeared for the first time in the Mid-Summer Classic and pitched two innings giving up a two-run homer to Willie Davis.
In Detroit on July 15, Ryan tossed his second no-hitter of the summer beating the Tigers 6-0. He struck out 17 batters the most ever in a no-hitter. Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer tied that mark in 2015 against the New York Mets.
On Aug. 29, Ryan would start a string of seven straight complete game victories to finish the season.
It began with a one-hitter against the New York Yankees. Ryan gave up a single in the first inning to Thurman Munson and blanked the Bronx Bombers the rest of the way for a 5-0 win.
The right-hander had three consecutive 3-1 wins at home over the Oakland A’s, White Sox and Royals. In 27 innings, he gave up three runs on 10 hits with 34 strikeouts.
After wins over the Texas Rangers and Twins on the road, Ryan returned home for the record-setting game as he fanned Rich Reese for his 383rd strikeout. Ryan and the Angels picked up the win on a pinch-hit double by Richie Scheinblum in the bottom of the 11th inning.
In his 27 years, Ryan would become known for his all-time no-hitter standard as well as 5,714 career strikeouts. He would win 324 games for the Mets, Angels, Houston Astros and Rangers.
One of the most interesting stats from his career is his American League strikeout total of 3,355 in 13 seasons. Taking Ryan’s overall total off the top of the list, his number from AL games only would put him in 10th place all-time.
Ryan was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.