A hard-throwing pitcher is the closest thing sports has to the gunslinger made famous in tales of the Old West. Alone on the mound, the pitcher winds up and tries to throw the ball past the batter. It only makes sense that Nolan Ryan, the pitcher who was the best at doing this, was born and raised in Texas. After dueling with Ryan, major league batters went back to the dugout as strikeout victims 5,714 times, unable to make contact with the "Ryan Express," the nickname given to his fastball. Blessed with a strong right arm that can throw a baseball 100 miles-per-hour, Ryan shattered the all-time major league strikeout record and won 324 games. Seven times he threw no-hitters--three times more than anyone else. When the sun finally set on Ryan's career, he rode off into the sunset, on his way to the Hall of Fame.

Nolan Ryan was born...