Ryan Pitches Sixth No-Hitter, 5-0 : Baseball: At 43, Ranger pitcher becomes the oldest to get one and extends his major league record. Facing 29 batters, he strikes out 14 at Oakland.

Nolan Ryan stared down baseball history Monday night, then charged through the front door.

At 43, not even a week removed from the disabled list, against the defending World Series champions, Ryan absolutely dominated. He threw a major league record sixth no-hitter, leading the Texas Rangers to a 5-0 victory over the A’s.

Years from now, few of the 33,436 spectators who came to the Coliseum will even remember the score. They will remember only Ryan and his incomparable fastball.

He struck out 14. He used a masterful curve and changeup to befuddle every Athletic with a bat in his hands.

And when Willie Randolph’s ninth-inning fly ball settled into right fielder Ruben Sierra’s glove, Ryan inspired a wild celebration. His Ranger teammates charged onto the field and carried Ryan off on their shoulders.

“It means a lot when you see that sort of excitement,” Ryan said. “To me, it’s very touching that professional athletes could get that enthusiastic.”

Some of them had difficulty. Consider catcher John Russell, who was catching Ryan for the first time.

He was thrilled simply to see the lineup card. By the bottom of the ninth inning, Russell pretty much lost it.

“It was like I was in a coma,” Russell said. “I had no feeling whatsoever. I was numb.

“I’ve never seen the look in a guy’s eyes that he (Ryan) had in his eyes.”

He became the oldest to throw a no-hitter, and the only one to do it with three teams in three decades.

Ryan faced only 29 batters, two more than the minimum. He walked Walt Weiss in the third inning and Mike Gallego in the sixth. Only Weiss, thanks to a steal, reached second base.

The A’s had few legitimate chances for a base hit. Randolph hit a long fly ball in the fourth inning, but left fielder Pete Incaviglia retreated and made the catch on the edge of the warning track.

“I thought the ball Willie hit was a home run,” Ryan said. “I was really disgusted with myself.”

In the sixth, center fielder Gary Pettis charged quickly to catch Rickey Henderson’s sharp line drive. The A’s then began going quietly, as Ryan struck out the last two batters in the seventh and the first two in the eighth.

Pinch-hitter Ken Phelps--who ruined Seattle pitcher Brian Holman’s bid for a perfect game April 20--provided no such theatrics this time, opening the ninth by striking out. That brought up Henderson, always a threat because of his speed.

On a 2-and-2 curve, Henderson tapped a slow roller toward shortstop Jeff Huson. Huson charged hard and made a nice play to throw out Henderson at first.

Huson’s momentum carried him near the pitching mound, where he pumped his fists in excitement.

“I saw how excited he was,” Ryan said. “I told him, ‘Nice play.’ ”

The crowd almost sensed what was happening before it happened. As Ryan’s early inning fastballs popped into Russell’s glove, the murmurs stretched from the field level seats to the upper deck.

By the fifth inning, when Ryan struck out the side, the crowd clearly had swung to his side. Outright cheers greeted seventh-inning strikeouts of Ron Hassey and Felix Jose.

“He had an outstanding fastball, the best fastball he’s had as a Ranger,” Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine said. “He threw fewer curves than he has all year. But he had the No. 1 (his fastball). That’s why they call him The Express, I guess.”

A few feet away from Valentine, casually downing his postgame meal, sat Ranger pitching coach Tom House. He knows something about historic baseball games.

House was in the bullpen at Atlanta’s Fulton-County Stadium the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. As Aaron’s blast sailed over the left-field fence, House got up and caught the ball.

If that act represented a bizarre place in baseball lore, Monday night’s was more meaningful.

“You want it so bad for the guy, because he deserves it,” House said.

“And when it happens, you’re kind of stunned. I went from ‘Omigod’ to goose bumps to tears.”

The Rangers gave Ryan the necessary offense early against A’s starter Scott Sanderson. Julio Franco hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Russell hit a solo shot in the second and Franco added another two-run shot in the fifth.

All the while, Ryan cruised through a strangely unimposing A’s lineup. Carney Lansford, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire--typically the 2-3-4 hitters--did not start.

Canseco spent the night in the hospital because of a bulging disc in his lower back. McGwire got the night off, partly because of a lingering sore hamstring but mostly because he struck out three times in three at-bats against Ryan last Wednesday.

Lansford, nursing a strained triceps muscle that hindered his throwing, got off the bench to pinch hit for Jamie Quirk with one out in the eighth. Lansford saw three pitches, swinging and missing at all of them.

“The last pitch he threw me was 93 miles per hour,” Lansford said, shaking his head. “Moving away. In the eighth inning. Forty-three years old.”

Lately, that age had been showing. Ryan landed on the disabled list May 18 because of back problems. Canseco missed his chance to swat away history Monday night because of a lower back injury.

He had hit a home run off Ryan last Wednesday night in Arlington, Tex. That’s when the Rangers activated Ryan and he made his return against the A’s, giving up five runs in five innings.

Ryan’s 14-year-old son, Reese, was in the Ranger dugout Monday night, and it’s “not that often” that he is, Valentine told the Associated Press, adding that “We might make it a different policy.”

“I looked down there after the seventh, and there was his son, rubbing his back, talking to him,” Valentine said. “It was some sight, one wonderful sight.

“I’ve never been happier in my professional life.”

The back still bothers Ryan. He will not attend Tuesday’s A’s-Rangers game, because he is scheduled to take a 9:45 flight to Los Angeles to have his back examined.

He threw himself one memorable sendoff party.

RYAN’S NO-HITTERS

Date Team Opp. Score May 15, 1973 Angels Royals 3-0 July 15, 1973 Angels Tigers 6-0 Sept.28,1974 Angels* Twins 4-0 June 1, 1975 Angels* Orioles 1-0 Sept.26,1981 Astros* Dodgers 5-0 June 11, 1990 Rangers Athletics 5-0

* Home game.