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Ryan was the real deal.
Nolan could probably still whup a lot of these young hotheads
I lived in Dallas from 79-83 and was an ardent Ranger fan, which was like rooting for an industrial league softball team at that time. We'd be sitting around work waiting for the 5:00 beer lamp to be lit and somebody would suggest we go to the ball game. We'd buy tickets at the ball park, the old Arlington stadium ballpark, and sit behind home plate for about 12 bucks if I remember correctly, drink giant two dollar beers, and root for the Rangers. They were hapless. All we ever got were aging veterans and minor league players with stone hands.
Fast forward to 1990 and I'd moved back to Oklahoma and the Rangers had developed some real talent. I'd seen most of them play in tulsa in the minors. Juan Gonzales, Pudge Rodriguez, Ruben Sierra to name just a few. A friend of mine copped some tickets to see Nolan Ryan try for his 300th win when the Yankees came to town. Tickets were expensive and hard to get, TV was there, some big titted gal ran out onto the field and kissed Bucky Dent.
Nolan kept the game under control until Ruben Sierra cadillaced (he did that a lot) on a fly into right that bounced in front of him and the Yankees went up 2-0. Bobby 'The Idiot' Valentine pulled Ryan in the fifth with only about 80 pitches. Pete Incaviglia then laced one to the center field seats in the seventh and the Rangers won, but Ryan would have to wait until the next week in Milwaukee to win his 300th. It was the last time I allowed the Rangers to break my heart. I didn't watch or listen to baseball again until way after the strike, when Whitey Herog got the Cardinals going again. Then I returned to my roots and the team my Dad loved to listen to on the radio so much.
I still can't watch a complete Ranger game without getting pissed.
And that's my Nolan Ryan story.
BKB
Damn dude... that memory seems like it's riveted in your soul :)
That's how baseball works...Quote:
Originally Posted by LJ3
I missed ya' by a few years P-hole. If you'd been there earlier, I'd have let you buy me a beer or twelve! I moved from Memphis to Arlington in 1981 to take a job at the GM Assembly Plant there. They were cranking out Chevy Chevelle's and Olds Cutlass' at the time. Then I got a call from Uncle Sam and he said he had a job for me in Vietnam! So I gave up my apartment, loaded up my junk, my dog, and my girlfriend, then headed back to Memphis to enlist.
I remember that fight. Ventura was the only guy to get 5 "hits" off of Ryan in a single game.
The first 4 weren't a big deal but that last uppercut had to ring his bell pretty good!
3 Things:
1) Ventura may very well be the worst fighter I've ever seen. What the hell was that? It looked like he rushed in and then decided he didn't want to be there.
2) I'm not sure that constitutes and a "beat the shit out of" but maybe it does in baseball. Ventura took 3-4 direct shots in the face and came out the other side without so much of a bloody nose. I'm not saying it isn't embarrassing for Ventura, but I wouldn't be any happier if I were Nolan. He's basically getting credit for not running away.
3) I saw Bo Jackson in there somewhere. I'd say the whole team is lucky he didn't get more involved. I'm betting if you get him riled up and he has bad intentions it'd be night night for someone.
IN the article it says jackson saved nolans ass in that big pile up. He was starting to pass out at the bottom of the pile and jackson fought thru the mess to rescue him. Called him that night to thanks him personally.
That's cool and I completely buy that. I'd imagine that there were few people on either team that were going to take a shot at Bo Jackson.
Ditka might have cheap shotted someone if he had been there