Still From the Country, He’s No Gentleman on the Mound

Nolan Ryan considered it his turn, after all the things that have been written by others about him. So now, with the release of his autobiography, “Miracle Man,” it’s Ryan on Ryan.

“Probably the biggest difference between my image and my real nature is how I am off the mound,” he writes. “If you believed everything you read about me, you’d figure I was a slow-talking, slow-walking, soft-spoken guy who just does his job in a detached way and gets on with his life. Part of that is true. I want to give an honest day’s work for the enormous dollars they pay these days, but I’m actually a totally different person on the mound than I am on the street.

“The casual country gentleman, if that’s what I could be called, wouldn’t get anybody out in the big leagues. At that level you have to be single-minded, focused and tough. I mean really tough. You’ve got to go after the hitters, take every advantage you can, work on their weak spots and want to beat them. There’s no playing around out there, no experimenting just because you’ve got a few effective pitches. Anybody who’s ever been on a big league mound knows that you’re always one pitch from failure.”

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Add Ryan: Discussing pitcher Mike Scott, a former teammate with the Houston Astros, he wrote:

“When he was on the mound, he was a committed pitcher. He’d do whatever it took to win. But off the mound he was one of the laziest pitchers I have ever seen. He was blessed with natural strength and ability, and he took it as far as it would take him. He developed that split-finger fastball that made him almost unhittable in 1986 when he won the Cy Young Award and all that. He had people convinced he was scuffing the ball, which distracted them and made him even more effective, whether he was actually doing it or not. But he never did anything to enhance himself physically. Would never work. Nothing. Didn’t run. Didn’t lift. Had terrible eating habits. All he cared about was playing golf.

“Now he has retired before his time, due to an injury. Who am I to say the injury could have been prevented? I don’t know. Just seems to me a guy who keeps himself in shape can either avoid a lot of serious injuries or bounce back from them. I always liked Mike, but I can’t say it surprised me that his career didn’t last as long as I felt it should have. When I used to tease him about not working out or about eating junk food, he’d say something like, ‘You think I want to be pitching ‘till I’m 40? No way. I’ll be out on the links.’ ”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for the most blocked shots in an NBA game?

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State of dislike: In his preseason rankings for Lindy’s Football Annual, ESPN’s Beano Cook picks Notre Dame first and Penn State second. But, he notes:

“Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said that Penn State is a national school. He’s dead wrong. The only national school in the country is Notre Dame.

“Penn State has few friends around the country. Too many athletic directors around the country perceive Penn State to be too sanctimonious and self-serving. If it had been Syracuse moving into the Big Ten, they would not have been shut out of the bowl alliance this year.”

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Whatever became of. . . : Michael Smith, the former star at Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights who was a bust as a first-round pick with the Boston Celtics, is expected to participate in Golden State’s rookie-free agent camp. He is playing with some Warriors in the San Francisco Summer League, an informal setup with games on weekends, and should be part of the team when it goes to Salt Lake City later this month for a more competitive off-season stage, the Rocky Mountain Review.

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Trivia answer: Elmore Smith, with 17 while playing for the Lakers on Oct. 28. 1973.

Quotebook: Jeff Van Note, former Atlanta Falcon center: “Potential is a French word that means, ‘You aren’t worth a damn yet.’ ”