Any career that lasts 27 seasons is bound to have a few milestones along the way.

For Nolan Ryan, milestones came around more frequently.

On July 11, 1985, the 38-year old hurler struck out New York Mets outfielder Danny Heep to become the first pitcher to record 4,000 strikeouts.

As he was then, Ryan is still baseball’s all-time strikeout leader with 5,714 career punch outs.

https://baseballhall.org/discover/inside-pitch/ryan-records-4000th-strikeout

His 383 strikeouts in 1973 remains a single season record and his seven no-hitters also tops the all-time list.

“I don’t want to sound like the Nolan Ryan Fan Club,” said all-time hits leader Pete Rose. “I could go on all night about him. Nobody will ever break his strikeout record. No way. It just won’t be done.”