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
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.