Mets and Related Books 2026

[stevejrogers]

Listening to the audiobook version of the new Nolan Ryan bio by Tim Brown.

Does a decent enough chronological overview bio for the first part, through Anaheim years.  Then veers into several chapters that are more “aspects of his career, an affect on friends & family” sort of things.

Looks like it picks up chronological overview bio with his first year in Texas.

Not a ton in the Met section.  Red Murff got his own chapter, with an interview with Murff’s nephew and MFY Ron Davis, as well as Mike Stanton, who Murff scouted with the Braves.

Obviously superficial, so not much beyond what has already been said about his Met years and his contribution to the ‘69 postseason.

Good for the crowd that likes breezier, and not as dense year by year/era by era of the person’s life and times, books I suppose.  

[Edgy MD]

That's terrific.

As I recall, it was a local scout who fell in love and was sending glorious reports in, but when a higher-level, broader-area, supervisor scout (was this Murff?) came into town to see what the fuss was about, Ryan stunk it up.

But the higher-level scout was moved by the faith of the local guy, and said "If you believe in him that much, I'll confirm your reports."

[stevejrogers]

Yeah, no luck in continuing the chronological timeline, next chapter picks up with him becoming a Ranger executive in the early 2010s

[stevejrogers]

Due to Ventura being tabbed White Sox skipper at the time Ryan became an exec, does give the author the chance to slip in the story of their 1993 confrontation though

[MFS62]

I would have liked to learn about how he thinks his career would have differed had he stayed a Met. I don't recall ever reading whether any other reporter has asked him that question.

Later

[Edgy MD]

There was a lot of discussion of that when he made the Hall of Fame in 1999, and again in 2009 at the 40th anniversary of the team's first championship.

Quote

“That ballclub was a young ballclub with a few veterans sprinkled in,” Ryan recalled. “If the nucleus of that club would have held together, with strength of pitching staff, the talent there, it would have been very interesting seeing what course that would have taken. Jerry Koosman and Tom Seaver and I, and Tug (McGraw) in the bullpen, that’s pretty exciting. It would have been interesting being involved in that for a long period of time. You never know what could have happened.”

There are other money quotes in the article.  It amounts to the notion that he'd have liked to stay, but his career happened the way it happened and its hard to say it could have happened another way.

RYAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MET FOR LIFE | New York Post

[MFS62]

Thanks

Later

[stevejrogers]

2 hours ago, MFS62 said:

I would have liked to learn about how he thinks his career would have differed had he stayed a Met. I don't recall ever reading whether any other reporter has asked him that question.

Later

This book doesn’t get that heady in terms of “roads not taken”, with the exception of Ranger officials/journos in 2024 discussing how influential the 1989 signing of Ryan was to the stability of the franchise heading into the 1990s.  Ie maybe no Ballpark in Arlington for one, therefore a relocation was a possibility

[stevejrogers]

1 hour ago, Edgy MD said:

There was a lot of discussion of that when he made the Hall of Fame in 1999, and again in 2009 at the 40th anniversary of the team's first championship.

There are other money quotes in the article.  It amounts to the notion that he'd have liked to stay, but his career happened the way it happened and its hard to say it could have happened another way.

RYAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MET FOR LIFE | New York Post

The book does position him as an ultimate Texan icon.  So it was ambivalent in terms of his time in both NYC and Anaheim

[Cowtipper]

I've read a gajillion Mets books in my day. I remember Worst Team Money Can Buy being solid Tales from the 1962 New York Mets covering stuff that doesn't usually get covered in most Mets books.