|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Thirty years ago, one of the most memorable happenings in Major League Baseball took place when 46-year-old Nolan Ryan pummeled 26-year-old Robin Ventura.
By the time of the fight the legend status of Nolan Ryan was already cemented. He held, and still holds, the Major League Baseball record for career strikeouts, strikeouts in a season, career no-hitters, no hitters in a season, and most seasons played. Ryan was also respected for his extremely hard work ethic which was dominated by hours of daily workouts. More so, he was honored for his strength of character, that runs as deep as American and Texas pride, on and off the field.
In 1993, Ryan was 46 years old, playing for the Texas Rangers, and had announced that was his final season. That year was an exciting baseball season, but it was also a nostalgic one. Ryan had announced his retirement as did future Hall of Famers George Brett and Robin Yount. Future Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk was released by the Chicago White Sox after being treated poorly and used by ownership in order to draw tickets. The great Dale Murphy, who should be in the Hall of Fame if anything for his character matching the strength of his play, had to retire instead of being released.
The year 1993 saw Ryan riddled with injuries but he pushed hard. Being undefeated the previous month, Nolan took the mound on August 4 against the Rangers division rivals, the Chicago White Sox. There had been a lot of bad blood already between the Rangers and White Sox with beanings and ejections in previous games.
In the third inning, Nolan hit White Sox third baseman Robin Ventura in the back with his hard fastball.
Ventura, half-heartedly, charged the mound where Ryan grabbed him like a Texas steer in a headlock and began pounding away on him. Nolan landed six punches on his opponent, five on Ventura’s head and the last one in his face before both were lost in an avalanche of players.
Ventura was ejected. Ryan stayed in the game. The Texas fans loved it. The Chicago manager berated the umpire’s decision. The manager was then ejected. Texas fans loved it even more. Ryan continued to pitch and it was, coupled with an appearance that year against his old California Angels, his best start of the year. The fight made the front pages of many papers in Texas and many sports pages across the nation with headlines such as “Respect Your Elders.” ESPN did a tale of the tape between Ryan and Ventura if it were a boxing match with Ryan’s advanced age compared to Ventura’s youth as the most noticeable difference. Nolan retired at the end of the season.
America has changed a great deal since those days. George W. Bush moved on from ownership of the Texas Rangers, became Governor of that State and later President. For years the Ryan-Ventura fight would be played at what was then known as the Ballpark in Arlington and now has been through several corporate naming changes. The fight is no longer played.
Media that once gloated over the fight as good ratings, and a tale of morality, have been reduced to videos of the event requiring age consent sign on to see the fight as it might be deemed “offensive.” Baseball pitchers are ejected for throwing brushback pitches or defending themselves against players trying to pummel them, much the same way schoolchildren who defend themselves against bullies are punished.
The year 1993 was one of the last truly great baseball seasons. Five legends retired that year: Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Robin Yount, Carlton Fisk along with the great, and underappreciated, Dale Murphy. These men taught us the value of old school hard work, competitiveness, and a team centered approach.
The next year season the baseball strike whose pain was only partially rescinded by the Steroid Era. The fallout of that Era and the strike, along with interleague play and unbalanced schedules have messed up the game worse than Astroturf did and the designated hitter still does.
The year 1993 was another time but history cannot be erased. Nor can clean, hard work. As the sun sets, always we will we remember the baseball legends of 1993 who gave America an example. Always we will remember the great Nolan Ryan.
What’s wrong with designated hitters?
Why should we have DH’s? All players should bat.
It’s fascinating how Baseball is called Rounders in the UK and played by girls.
And Football is called Soccer in the USA and played by girls.
Nolan was busy ” giving him the business ” great moment in baseball.
Nowadays, we have lackluster soccer players who chronically bitch about capitalism, preach socialism, worship themselves, and spit on the flag.
Not exactly what typifies Amerian exceptionalism, which they were sent to represent
Over half the country was hoping for the team that hates America to lose.
It was so fitting that the rancid fool Megan Rapinoe choked on the penalty shot that could’ve saved ’em.
Next time get a coach with some backbone, who’ll pick better athletes with better character.
No God = no morals = 🇺🇸 today
I still think the pitcher should have to bat. It makes it a lot riskier to throw at the batter’s head
I’m so glad I grew up in the 50s. What a great time for baseball. I still have all my baseball cards from that time period the 50s and early 60s. The only thing better would be to grow up in the 40s and never have to see the United States as it is today.
As James Earl Jones character Terance Mann in “The Field of Dreams” spoke, “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.”
Baseball is no longer the constant, but rather an ever-changing, social-reacting factor in our cultural equation. Baseball has changed. America has changed, whether we like it or not.
Back when the Dallas Stars and the Rangers had the same ownership, they had an auction to raise funds for one of the Stars’ kid hockey teams and one of the items was a large framed photograph of the “fight” signed by both players.
1993 is pretty well about it for me. In 1994 my team, the Expos, had the best record in baseball with a 74-40 record when the strike happened. The team had it in all aspects of the game. You might say they had all the bases covered. They were surely a team that could have won the WS, but that is never a certainty, were probably even the betting favourites.
Then came the strike. After that they started losing some of their best players to free agency. In 1994 they had the right mix of vets they could keep, FA’s they could afford to keep and a bunch of talented youngsters that weren’t yet able to demand big money. That all changed after the strike. And of course gradually fan interest died and then the team moved. Since then I can’t really watch baseball much. I had the Red Sox as my AL team and it was great when they won their first WS in forever, and especially in the way they did it. But the enjoyment paled in comparison to what it would have been had my real team won. So baseball is just not the same. I had been watching the Expos since inception, every game I could on TV no matter how good or how bad the season, travelled to Montreal just to see games. But baseball doesn’t factor in anymore.
And I do remember seeing that fight. It was classic.
30 years !!!!! Sigh.