<P> In baseball, a strikeout occurs when the batter receives three strikes during his time at bat . Strikeouts are associated with dominance on the part of the pitcher and failure on the part of the batter . </P> <P> Nolan Ryan has the most career strikeouts in Major League Baseball . During a record 27 - year career, he struck out 5,714 batters . </P> <P> The parentheses adjacent to an active player denote the number of strikeouts in the current season . </P>

Who holds the record for the most strikeouts