Illegal Foreign Object

The legendary Nolan Ryan hit 158 batters in his career. He also threw 277 wild pitches, good for the second most in Major League Baseball history. Guys like Nolan, Bob Gibson, and Don Drysdale weren’t big fans of hitters getting too comfortable in the batter’s box. A hitter leaning out over the plate? In the eyes of guys like Nolan, that dude must really wanna see first base!

30 years ago, tonight, the Chicago White Sox’s 26-year-old Gold Glove third baseman Robin Ventura attempted to “box with god”. It did not go well (for Robin, anyway).

There was zero love lost between the Sox and Rangers back then; the teams just didn’t like each other. As someone who sat behind the plate and watched a bunch of those games live, there always seemed to be an extra bit of tension hanging in the air. The number of times I saw nothin’ happenin’, Punch and Judy hitters like Craig Grebeck and Joey Cora ruin well-pitched Rangers ballgames…

Earlier in the ’93 season, Chicago ace pitcher Jack McDowell had been critical of the way he felt Nolan Ryan received preferential treatment from the American League umpires, saying that no one had the “guts” to stand up to “The Ryan Express”.

So, when teammate Ventura was plunked by a 93 mph fastball (after claiming Ryan had thrown at him the previous week in Chicago), the all-star fielder decided he wanted all the smoke. What he discovered, however, is that there was still a whole lot of “man” left to go with the “myth and legend” of Ryan.

Halfway to the mound, you can almost read Ventura’s face — he was beaten before he ever made it to Nolan. Pot committed, he continued his halfhearted climb up Mt. Ryan. When he reached the summit, though, he didn’t encounter a baseball pitcher.

Exactly 13 years prior, on August 4th, 1980, the Houston Astros were squaring off against the San Diego Padres. Astros star hurler Nolan Ryan was on the mound against an admittedly weak Padres lineup. However, one of the few guys capable of beating the opposition on any given night was 6’6″ slugging outfielder Dave Winfield. Knowing this, Nolan brushed him off the plate with a few inside fastballs. When the third one came flying in, Winfield sprinted towards the mound.

“The catcher, Luis Pujols, tried to stop me, so I stiff-armed him and he went down,” said Winfield. “The umpire got in the way, and I grabbed him and moved him. I got to Nolan and took a big swing, and the next thing I knew we were on the bottom of a big pile, trying to get little punches in.”

Nolan had always regretted the way he handled Winfield’s visit to the mound, saying he should have been the aggressor, and swore he’d never back up again should a hitter decide to charge him.

So, when Robin Ventura finally reached the Arlington Stadium mound, he wasn’t just standing in the face of a legend, but also history, the past, and a raw-boned cattle farmer with buckets of old-man strength. What happened next can only be described as pure pandemonium.

Snagging Ventura in a side headlock the way he would an attitudinal steer, Ryan delivered a series of punches about the face and head of the entirely defeated third baseman. Shortly before Robin felt that first uppercut land from Alvin, Texas, he had to know mistakes had been made, but when it connected a fantastic damn brawl ensued, with both teams meeting atop the mound for a Hellacious scuffle. Nolan, with what appeared to be half the White Sox roster on his back, rode Ventura to the ground, refusing to turn loose of him.

As all the fighting ensued, my good buddy Geno Petralli, then a backup catcher for Texas, found himself toe-to-toe with an athletic freak of nature Bo Jackson. Sensing the end was near, he did the only thing he could do: he bit Bo on the forearm like a rabid weasel. Bo Knows Bite Marks?

Luckily for Nolan, Bo shook loose of Geno. “I couldn’t breathe,” said Ryan. “I thought I was going to black out and die, when all of a sudden I see two big arms tossing bodies off of me. It was Bo Jackson. He had come to my rescue, and I’m awful glad he did, because I was about to pass out. I called him that night and thanked him.”

After the brawl was broken up by the umpires, only Ventura and White Sox manager Gene LaMont were ejected. Hilariously, Nolan Ryan stayed in the game, a Rangers 5-2 win.