Posted on 08/04/2017 12:48:28 PM PDT by DFG
Hall of Fame hurler Nolan Ryan left a lasting impression on the state of Texas and on Major League Baseball with an illustrious 27-year career.
His 5,714 strikeouts, 324 wins and seven no-hitters cemented his legacy as one of the greats.
But it was 24 years ago Friday that the Ryan Express immortalized himself -- and it didn’t have much to do with his pitching that day.
On August 4, 1993, the 46-year-old Ryan drilled Chicago White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura in the elbow with a fastball. Ventura then made a decision he undoubtedly regrets to this day.
He charged the mound, was put in a headlock and delivered a flurry of punches to the head.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
Nolan was the best. He was a nasty head hunter though.
I don’t blame Robin (an all around nice guy). But he should have known his limitations before charging the mound. (Dirty Harry reference)
EPIC!!! If there’s a better baseball still photo than of Ryan waiting to unleash I don’t know what it is. LOL
“seven no-hitters cemented his legacy”
I was at his 7th no hitter in Arlington Tx at the old ball park there. It was an unbelievable performance by a pitcher over 40. He stuck out 16 batters. Alomar, no slouch as a hitter, was the last person he faced. He had two strikes and he foul tipped the pitch which was dropped by the catcher. Ryan fired the next pitch, well over his 100th of the game, past alomar for a swinging strike albeit he swung after the ball was by him. It was a 96mph fast ball.
Greatest moment in Rangers’ history.
Great video. Noteworthy is how large and muscular most of the baseball players were in 1993 relative to now. The steroids were in the drinking water.
I remember watching that game on TV.
Yup. Don’t get in a fistfight with somebody whose hands move that fast.
When Ventura had his hitting streak at Oklahoma State, Bennet Hall was being renovated. One of my friends was staying on the top floor on the cheap (no air conditioning) and his windows overlooked the Diamond.
We watched the games for free with a refrigerator and microwave listening to the radio play by play.
They had a great batting line up.
My fav was Don Drysdale. Big D scared the hell out of everybody. No one could throw chin-music better than him and he loved to intimidate batters.
Seems to have been a reach issue.
Lot of guys in MLB TODAY that shouldn’t pick a fight with Nolan Ryan. Today.
Wouldn’t be prudent.
Nolan Ryan has given us Texans some of the best baseball memories ever. So proud to be from his neck of the woods and share in the pride we have in him.
I got a chance to read Ryan’s statement on this little incident.
Ryan was the first to admit that pitches got away from him on occasion as he threw so hard. But that fear of a 95+ mph fastball inside was part of his intimidation. For the first few years of his play, and not until he joined the Angels, he didn’t have anything but hard stuff. He learned the breaking pitch in Anaheim and when he became a starter rather than a pen guy.
But to hear him tell it, the pitch was an accident and he really didn’t have a total idea what to do while Ventura charged him. So he quickly got him into a headlock, and, in his words, started giving him some “noogies” on the top of his head. If you check the stills, Ventura’s arms were covering any path to his head except on the top. In an article from ESPN, Ventura claimed Ryan hit him deliberately. “If you don’t think he did it on purpose, you don’t know the game,” Ventura said at the time. “I’m all right. He gave me a couple of noogies, but that was about it.” But, again, I have no idea why he supposedly did it on purpose. He had no reason. Ventura over rates himself a bit.
rwood
Ah but we did get revenge in the playoffs. The last play was memorable and Odor had something to do with it IIRC.
“My fav was Don Drysdale. Big D scared the hell out of everybody. No one could throw chin-music better than him and he loved to intimidate batters.”
The only player to get the best of Drysdale was the Braves’ Eddie Matthews. A multi-game beanball war between the Braves and the Dodgers in 1957 finally ended when Matthews beat the crap out of Drysdale.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ebd5a210
How about Clemens? Hell even through a broken bat at you.
Seriously. Piazza is HOF. But Clemenza would be in if he hadn’t gotten caught with peds
Bob Gibson was the most ferocious pitcher. If someone leaned over the inner third of the plate, he took serious offense. He fed his children off that plate and no one would take food out of their mouths on his watch. Soon they backed off. Nor did it frighten him when he came to bat and would inevitably get hit. One tough and memorable man.
That pitch was not to back a batter off. That pitch was a felonious assault with a baseball hidden, which he got away with only because juries don’t have mind-reading abilities.
I’m inclined to believe that Ryan merely gave Ventura “noogies” (understanding the comically broad use of that term) only because he was certainly powerful enough to do serious damage to Ventura’s face and none was at all apparent. Going “easy” with those punches was probably Ryan’s way of making a show out of Ventura but simultaneously acknowledging Ventura had reason to be furious.
There’s a funny epilogue to this.
George W Bush was owner at the time. He considered charging the field. He says he then saw Bo Jackson charging onto the field for the White Sox, and thought better of it.
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