Posted on 08/04/2018 8:28:30 AM PDT by DFG
Over the course of his 27-year career, Nolan Ryan won 324 games and struck out an all-time best 5,714 batters. It was presumably those feats of longevity and performance that made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer and placed him on a short list of the greatest pitchers of all time. Ryan is also remembered, however, for being involved in one of the most memorable brawls in baseball history -- and being someone you absolutely do not want to mess with.
On Aug. 4, 1993 -- the final season of Ryan's career -- the righty toed the rubber for a start against the White Sox. After Chicago third baseman Robin Ventura hit an RBI single in the first inning on a fastball over the plate, the 46-year-old Ryan was determined to not give him something that good to hit again. So, when Ventura came around again in the third inning, Ryan worked inside and ended up hitting him in the shoulder.
After taking a couple steps toward first base, Ventura decided to charge the mound. Almost immediately, it was quite apparent that he would regret that decision:
(Excerpt) Read more at mlb.com ...
It looked like that last one may have found the strike zone. :)
I was never a pugulist but I dont think I would want to be punched by a guy that can throw a 100+MPH fast ball.
Poor choices were made.
Saw Ryan in the Astrodome several times. The grunt he gave when releasing the ball would have scared the crap out of me if batting against him.
Batter must have been a real wuss...I’d have had the pitcher on the ground in about 3 seconds...
I always wondered one of the batteries didn’t take the bat with them to the mound... Or maybe that would have been a felony.
Pitcher Juan Marichal (at bat) beat Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro with a bat in a 1965 game.
LOL!
LOL!
I once saw Ryan pitch against the O’s at Memorial Stadium when I was visiting relatives in the Summer of ‘75. Before the game, they were flashing all his stats on the scoreboard. He was a big draw at the time.
He didn’t make it through 3 innings.
Drysdale: “ if a batter starts digging in he better dig it deep enough to get in”
Joe Niekro was also on that Astros team. His and brother Phil's screw ball were legend. You couldn't appreciate the screw ball up in the skyboxes but was a blast to see from behind home plate.
Yep, if a pitcher isn’t on his game he’s gonna get hammered by hits or walks or both.
One of the most overblown fights ever. You can see that Ryan is barely punching Ventura because the only target Ryan had was the top of Ventura’s head. Ryan could have easily broken his hand punching him there with much force. The videos of the fight almost always stop just before Ventura escapes the headlock and puts Ryan on the ground. After the fight, Ventura looks unscathed and Ryan looks like he’s about 5 seconds away from a heart attack but uninjured. No one won that fight. It was just a silly little baseball scuffle.
Mickey Mantle once chastised Drysdale after a spring training game for taking it too seriously and hitting him with a pitch. Drysdale told Mantle that he was just helping him by sharpening his reflexes so he can get away from pitches in the regular season. Then he offered to autograph the bruise.
Drysdale said in his speech, "Some hitters get themselves hit by beanballs."
Killebrew said, "Get themselves hit, Don?"
Drysdale just started laughing.
Dodgers would throw Kofax for the 1st game of a series. His 100 + mph fast ball along with his incredible curve along with a touch of wildness set the stage foe Drysdale.
Hitters came up the 2nd game rattled. Don would throw inside.he felt he owned that part of the plate.
He didn’t mind plunking you. Quite enjoyed it.
I always thought Drysdale was the real guy Bob Uecker described in Major League when he said, "He threw at his own son in a Father-Son game."
I was in my early teens the first time I ever experienced a woman showing raging hormones over a guy. When the Twins played the Dodgers in the World Series (1965), a close friend of my aunt's said to my aunt after watching Drysdale on TV pitch one game, "That is such a good looking man!"
I think that was the opener and because Koufax would not pitch on Yom Kippur. I suspect my aunt's friend, my aunt and Drysdale were all in their primes in those days.
The Niekro bros were famous for knuckleballs, they can have corkscrew action. Joe Niekro was caught with a file in his pocket, but he wasn’t cutting up the ball with it. It was for his nails in the dug out to throw the knuckleball. Not to say Joe Niekro wasn’t cutting up balls, but he wasn’t doing it with a nail file in his back pocket. Joe was much more of a junk pitcher, he could have thrown actual screwballs regularly.
Freegards
...and Marichal made it into the Hall of Fame? There is no justice. I find that inexcusable, but I also think juicers shouldn’t be there either... or at least have a big fat asterisk by what ever record they cheated to obtain.
If memory serves, Ventura was thrown out of the game, Ryan wasn’t. Heh.
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