The Day After Is Routine : Baseball: Nolan Ryan, taking his seventh no-hitter in stride, goes back to work.

Thursday morning at 7:30, 4 1/2 hours after getting to bed, he was in a room underneath Arlington Stadium lifting weights.

An extra hour or two of sleep, the morning television shows, even the congratulatory phone calls--they would all have to wait.

No-hitter No. 7? No big deal. Nolan Ryan had work to do.

“My life revolves around my workout routine right now,” the Texas Ranger right-hander said at a news conference later in the day, offering about as good an explanation as any for how, at 44, he had held the Toronto Blue Jays hitless the previous night.

In perhaps the most dominating performance of his 25-year major league career, Ryan struck out 16 and walked only two in a 3-0 victory over the Blue Jays, who began the game leading the American League in hitting and runs scored.

For historical perspective, consider that, in what has generally been regarded as Ryan’s finest no-hitter, he struck out 17 and walked four against Detroit while pitching for the Angels in 1973.

Also consider that the Angel second baseman in that game was Sandy Alomar, whose son, Blue Jay second baseman Roberto Alomar, struck out to end Wednesday’s game.

Ryan says he doesn’t pay as much attention to his age as others do. But he admitted that striking out Roberto Alomar to tie down the no-hitter made him feel at least a little bit up in years.

“I knew him when he was a toddler in the (Angel) clubhouse,” Ryan said. “He wanted to be a pitcher at the time, and I can remember playing with him in the clubhouse, working with him on throwing. That’s how you tell how much time passes--when you see people (he once played with) with kids (in the major leagues).”

This was supposed to be a season of relative tranquility for Ryan, who, amid much fanfare, recorded his 5,000th strikeout in 1989 and earned his 300th victory in ’90. Also last season, on a June night in Oakland, he pitched his sixth no-hitter--and first since 1981--making him the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a no-hitter.

But he added to his legend Wednesday, allowing only thewalks in the first and seventh innings. And so there he was Thursday on a platform in a hotel ballroom, taking time out from a day-off appearance at a charitable function to answer the usual questions about his past, present and future.

Having pitched three more no-hitters than any pitcher in major league history, Ryan is assured a place among the giants of baseball. But, self-effacing as always, he declined to offer perspective Thursday.

“I never think about things like that,” he said. “Keeping up my career is an ongoing deal, and I have to concern myself with my next game. So I don’t sit around and reflect on what’s happening. Once a game’s over. . . . Well, it’s like this morning. I was down in the weight room preparing myself for my next start. That’s what I have to concern myself with--my routine--so I’ll be ready.

“That’s not to say I didn’t hope to be in position to throw another no-hitter and be able to do it in Arlington for the (Ranger) fans. I’m just appreciative it worked out. It was a neat night.”

Ryan had outstanding command of all three of his pitches--fastball, curveball and changeup--making the no-hitter, in his view, a testimonial to his maturation from fastball pitcher to total pitcher over the past 10 years.

“Last night was more a reflection on me as a complete pitcher than any other time, as far as no-hitters are concerned,” he said. “If you look at (his) early no-hitters, they were more on natural ability. Then I had a transition period. A lot of time elapsed between the fourth no-hitter (in 1975) and the fifth (in ‘81) and the fifth and the sixth. Those represent transition periods when I lost some velocity, but my curveball became more consistent.”

Ryan came out of spring training this year feeling good, his conditioning aided by good winter weather in his home town of Alvin, Tex., and the good graces of his neighbor and personal workout catcher, former major leaguer Harry Spilman.

But as he prepared to face the Blue Jays with a 2-2 record Wednesday, Ryan had back pain, a sore Achilles’ tendon and bleeding, cracked skin on the middle finger of his right hand.

“He said, ‘I’ve been popping Advils all day, and it ain’t helping,’ ” Ranger pitching coach Tom House said.

On top of all that, Ryan was pitching on four days’ rest. Pitching on four days’ rest last year, he was 6-7 with a 4.07 earned-run average.

Trying to explain how he pitched a no-hitter under such conditions, Ryan said: “When things aren’t quite right physically, you can become more focused on what you have to do. A lot of times in those games, you get through the first few innings, you finally find a rhythm and things fall into place.

“The first no-hitter (pitching for the Angels against Kansas City in 1973), I had miserable stuff in the bullpen (before the game). When I left the bullpen, I told the guys out there, ‘Somebody better get up. I don’t know if I’m going to get out of the first inning.’ I plodded along for the first couple of innings, things got better and, of course, at the end of the game, I was throwing as well as I ever had.”

So it went Wednesday. He threw 122 pitches--83 for strikes, 39 for balls--and his fastball was clocked as high as 96 m.p.h. And when he threw a 93-m.p.h fastball past a swinging Alomar in the ninth inning, he had an Arlington Stadium crowd of 33,439 in a frenzy.

Later, in the clubhouse, Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine broke out a bottle of champagne--Dom Perignon--that he had been saving for the day the Rangers could celebrate winning a World Series.

Then, after dealing with the toasts, the media and the well-wishers, Ryan climbed aboard a stationary bike to begin the training grind that, he says, has allowed him to throw 96-m.p.h. fastballs at 44.

Before his next start, which should have him facing the Blue Jays again next Tuesday or Wednesday in Toronto, he will have twice gone through weight-lifting sessions and run and stretched every day except the day before he is scheduled to pitch.

Thursday, somebody asked Ryan why he keeps working through the pain.

“I realize I’m not going to be here much longer,” he said. “I enjoy the competition. I enjoy being in shape. There are a lot of days I wish I didn’t have to do (his conditioning work), but that’s just part of the deal.

“You know, I think I get some of that from my father. He worked two jobs to put four girls through college. I know he didn’t want to get up every night at 1 o’clock, but that’s what he had to do. And that’s what I have to do to continue to pitch on this level. That’s what I will do until I can’t do it any longer.”

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of fans flooded the Texas Rangers’ switchboard Thursday, looking for souvenirs of Ryan’s latest achievement.

Ticket manager John Schreiver said that by noon he had received 350 calls from collectors across the country, asking if they could buy unused tickets to Wednesday night’s no-hitter.

“But we got all the tickets, about 2,000 of them, locked in a vault,” Schreiver said. “We’re not selling the tickets because we need to hang onto them for auditing purposes.”

In Austin Wednesday night, Reid Ryan, a University of Texas pitcher, took time out from the books to watch a game, unaware that his dad was making history again.

“We just turned on the TV to watch this boring game with Detroit and Kansas City, and we were sitting there talking about this Louis L’Amour book,” Ryan, a freshman, told the Houston Chronicle.

Soon, a trailer flashed that his father had a no-hitter going.

“Before long, all the baseball players who live in this complex were over here. It was a big deal,” Ryan said.

“I just sat back, drank a Coke and watched the last two innings. When he got the last out, I crushed the Coke can and started jumping around with (teammate) Brooks Kieschnick,” Ryan said. “I was pumped.”