Every Nolan Ryan begins here — card #177 of 1968 Topps, a shared “Mets Rookie Stars” card pairing a 21-year-old Ryan with fellow rookie Jerry Koosman.

Collectors call its family the “Four Horsemen”: the same card was issued four ways — the standard Topps, a Milton Bradley version, the Canadian O-Pee-Chee, and a scarce Venezuelan printing. The Venezuelan is the rarest, and the one advanced collectors chase hardest.

The first page of the longest, hardest-throwing story the game has ever told.

In the finest grade it is nearly mythical — of more than ten thousand submitted, a single copy has ever earned the top grade, and it changed hands for a reported $600,000. Not because it is beautiful, but because it is where all of it starts.