Three Voted Into Hall Of Fame

Baseball's Hall of Fame Class of 1999 -- Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount -- spent a lifetime competing against each other, one firing fastballs, the other two trying to time them.

On Wednesday as the three posed in Hall of Fame shirts and hats, they recalled the duels, the good moments and the bad ones.

"The first time I faced Nolan, he was with California," Brett said. "I was batting seventh, behind Jim Wohlford. He hit Jim in the ribs and the ball seemed to stick there for a minute before it fell to the ground."

"Jim was trying to breathe and he couldn't. Then I came up and took three pitches, three strikes. That was good enough for me."

The pitches were all fastballs because that was what Ryan threw, the pitch he rode to 324 victories and a record seven no-hitters and 5,714 strikeouts.

Brett, who had 3,154 hits and batted .305 in a 20-year career with the Kansas City Royals, went 29-for-101 lifetime against Ryan. That was better than Yount, who had 3,142 career hits but only 16 in 69 swings against Ryan.

"I faced both of them when they were rookies," Ryan said. "I remember Robin was only 18 but he choked up and stood up on the plate. You couldn't intimidate him. He'd hang in there."

Yount frowned. P>"I wasn't intimidated?" he said. "I must have hid it well. It took three or four years for me to catch up with that fastball. If you didn't turn it up a notch, you were in big trouble."

Ryan and Brett, who won three batting championships, were each named on more than 98 percent of the 497 ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Ryan's 98.79 percent was the second-highest in history, trailing only Tom Seaver's 98.84 in 1992. Brett received 98.19 percent, trailing only Seaver, Ryan and Ty Cobb's 98.23 in 1936's first election.

The Ryan-Brett-Yount rookie sweep marked the first time three first-year candidates had been elected since Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson comprised the first class at Cooperstown.

Brett, in Kansas City, and Yount, in Milwaukee, spent their entire careers in small markets -- something that may not be possible in the current baseball economy.

Near the end of his career, Yount said he thought about leaving the Brewers. He had been to just one World Series, batting .414 in the seven-game loss to St. Louis in 1982. He wanted a chance at another postseason.

"I came close to leaving Milwaukee after 1989," he said. "I was a free agent, not sure how much longer I would play. I was close to signing with California."

Yount was inundated by mail pleading with him to stay. It affected his decision.

"There was a lot of pressure to stay," he said. "The more I looked at it, the more I thought it was the right thing to do. How much the people of Wisconsin wanted me to stay was the deciding factor."

Ryan never got a chance to stay with his first team, the New York Mets. After four spotty seasons, he was traded to California and launched one of the greatest power-pitching careers in baseball history.

If the 324 wins and 5,714 strikeouts hadn't gotten him into the Hall of Fame, the seven no-hitters certainly would have.

"I probably pitched better games when things didn't go as well," he said of the no-hitters. "I wasn't a no-hit pitcher coming up. I pitched one in Little League and one in high school."

"When I pitched the first one against Kansas City, no one was more surprised than me. The second and third time through the batting order, the advantage is with the hitters because they've seen you pitch and they have a better feel for what you're throwing them."

"The one in 1973 against Detroit, warming up everything was going right. I could put the ball right where I wanted it. I said to Tom Morgan, the pitching coach, `If I ever pitch another one, this could be the day."'

And it was.

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