Nolan Ryan.

Lace, William W.  Nolan Ryan.  Enslow/Speeding Star  2013  64p  $16.21  ISBN 978-1-62285-025-9  elem/ms  series: Hall of Fame Sports Greats  Sports biography  E-BNS

Nolan Ryan played baseball with injuries, with tenacity and with heart, to become one of baseball’s superstars.  His early life, his rise to fame and his record-making games are enumerated in this short biography.

William W. Lace writes nonfiction that is creative, enticing and exciting.  He incorporates statistics with text that makes them interesting to both fans and nonfans of baseball.  Finally, he truly depicts Nolan Ryan in a setting of honor, with impeccable layout, stellar photographs and chapter titles that are as inviting as they are accurately organized.  Nolan Ryan’s rise to fame was like something out of a fairy tale.  His “down home” character kept him “down home.”  He ended his career exactly where he wanted to end it, in Texas.  Winning pitching record after pitching record, he was aptly named to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1999.  His records include the good (strikeouts, no-hitters and oldest pitcher to pitch a no-hitter) and the bad (most walks and most wild pitches).  Americans love baseball and they love Nolan Ryan.  This book portrays the man as he is: first a family man, second a Texan, and third a baseball pitcher, perhaps the best of all time.  The nine chapters of Lace’s book prove it.      Among the players in the Hall of Fame Sports Greats series are Cal Ripken, Junior, Deion Sanders, and Troy Aikman.  The series presents biographical data as well as statistics about each player in enticing layouts with supporting photographs as well.

Summary: Nolan Ryan played baseball with injuries, with tenacity and with heart, to become one of baseball’s superstars.  His early life, his rise to fame and his record-making games are enumerated in this short biography.

Nolan Ryan, Baseball-Biography                        --Martha Squaresky