Watching the World Series last night I could not help but think of the day that the 46 year old Nolan Ryan showed 24 year old Robin Ventura what its all about.
Ventura was hit by a pitch and charged the old man on the mound, as batters are wont to do. Pitchers are not usually known for their scrappiness in these situations, but Ryan is as scrappy as they come.
As soon as Nolan saw that Ventura was heading his way, Ryan did not hesitate. Off came the glove. Striding briskly, he met Ventura at the halfway between the plate and the mound and in a split second put the lad into a headlock and started giving him the nookie-nuks.
Note that the Catcher, Rodriguiz, was in no way there to aid his teammate, but was trying his best to tear the 24 year old away before the great Nolan Ryan killed him.
Too bad Ryan didn't play Hockey!
3 comments:
I went to tech school with a guy named Monte Reeves who turned down a whole handful of full-ride baseball scholarship offers in order to get his A&P. Dude would tell us all to go out for a long one, shout "Run!" and "Keep going!" for a while, and then throw a football about a hundred yards past all of us. A bunch of us went to the Cheyenne Club once and this big cowboy guy decided he didn't like Monte's smart mouth. It was about half a second before Monte had his head in an armlock just like Nolan Ryan with his right fist keeping steady rhythm on the guy's nose. The whole time he had a half-burned Camel resting on his lower lip. He wasn't clutching the cigarette in any way. It was just resting there with the filter butted up against his upper lip. It was a sight to see!
Cigarette dangling from the lips huh? Like he was playing a penny slot machine and having a soda.
Yeah, Dave certain Athletes just have that unshakable confidence, like my ol buddy Steve that hit a hole in one his first time out Golfing.
Or the great Joe whats-his-name, while on a Super bowl winning drive in the fourth quarter, called the teams attention in the huddle to the big man in the end zone…
" Hey, Guys, check it out!” he said and pointed towards the End Zone ”its John Candy.”
The "Ryan Express" was always in full swing! He was and still is a force to reckon with. Grew up with baseball; all sports actually. With three brothers in the house! You can just imagine!
Post a Comment