The ‘Phillies 50’ pitching representative from the 1998 club is a right-hander who appeared in only five big-league games, just one of those in that season.
Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Ryan Nye became the Phillies second round pick in the 1994 MLB Amateur Draft out of Texas Tech University.
Nye competed well as he began to develop in the minor league system right into his 1996 season which was split between Double-A Reading and Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre. That year he was strong with Reading but got hit around at the higher level.
He began the 1997 season back at Triple-A and was still struggling, but the Phillies promoted him when they needed an arm that June. Just prior to his 24th birthday, Nye made his debut in Major League Baseball. He displayed wildness and was hit hard, but still got to experience just over two weeks of the big-league life.
The following year he was performing better at Triple-A, and the Phillies called him up once again when a need arose. On May 13, 1998 he would receive what turned out to be his last shot in the majors from manager Terry Francona.
The Phillies had pulled to within two runs of the host Los Angeles Dodgers on that Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. Francona called on Nye to keep it close in the bottom of the 8th, giving the Phillies one last shot in the 9th inning. He failed.
After striking out the first batter, Wilton Guerrero, Nye surrendered a line double to Roger Cedeno and a single to Juan Castro. With those two runners on base he next ran a 3-0 count on Raul Mondesi. The Dodgers’ right fielder crushed the next pitch out to deep right field for a three-run homer to clinch what would be a 9-4 victory.
Nye did have one last hurrah. Francona left him in after that disheartening blast and he got to make some memories. Nye struck out Dodger stars Mike Piazza swinging and Eric Karros looking to end the frame. It would be his final appearance on a big-league mound.
The final line for Nye in Major League Baseball reads as follows: 0-2, 9.69 ERA, 2.461 WHIP. He allowed 23 hits over 13 innings across his five Phillies appearances, two of those starts, with a 10/9 K:BB ratio.
In 2000, Nye would make a brief appearance at age 27 in the Gulf Coast League before calling it a career. He has since moved into the financial world and is now an account executive with Brite Computers.
MATT VEASEY 