[DFG]

25 years ago today.

[Autonomous User]

Robin was 26. Nolan was 46. Old man rive kicked his butt!

[Alberta's Child]

Charging the mound was always a silly escapade.

If you are a hitter and you want to get back at a pitcher who beaned you, you just wait until the next time up and drop a bunt down the first base line. When the pitcher comes over to play it, just wreck him right there on the field.

[Delta 21]

Oops. I missed your face! Lemme fix that for ya!

[CincyRichieRich]

My favorite pitcher...bought his rookie card...shared with Jerry Koosman...paid $38 for it...sold it to the guy I bought it from several yrs later for $900...he sold it again for $1200. Everybody won...ain’t capitalism great?

[stevem]

This was less a brawl and more of a massacre.

[Ransomed]

It’s always neat to track the obscure history of baseball feuds. Someone will get stuck in the ribs out of the blue, and there is probably a reason for it that potentially goes back aways.

Freegards

[stevem]

I don't think Nolan Ryan had Don Drysdale's reputation for brushing batters until they were out of the batter's box.

Nevertheless, and Great Caesar's Ghost(!) Ryan could throw a ball hard. Getting hit by one of his pitches could take a good deal of humor out of an afternoon.

For Ventura, having his head restructured may have felt good in comparison.

[Mean Daddy]

Familiar with the fight but didn't know this: Ventura was ejected from the game for charging the mound, and -- as fate would poetically have it -- Grebeck was brought in to run in his stead. Ryan remained in the game and, on the very next pitch he threw, catcher Ivan Rodriguez picked Grebeck off first base.

[Let's Roll]

Go Big Tex!

[concentric circles]

Ventura, as skilled a player as he was, possessed the attitude of the modern, feminized athlete. He was offended that another player would take a hard nosed approach toward him.

Reminds me of the time the Mets and their fans became outraged when shortstop Ruben Tejada turned his back on the play and was taken out by the base runner, Chase Utley of the Dodgers, breaking up the double play. How dare a player make a hard nosed play in a playoff game. Today's professional athletes, as a group, are whining, sniveling losers, unaware of how feminine they have become.

[Skooz]

That was 25 years ago? Dang.

[Iscool]

Batter must have been a real wuss...I’d have had the pitcher on the ground in about 3 seconds...

[The Fop]

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.

[FreedomForce]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

If memory serves, Ventura was thrown out of the game, Ryan wasn’t. Heh.