07/25/99

My favorite memory of my dad is not a memory of him pitching, rather it is of a day he was working the bucket behind second base during batting practice. (When a pitcher works the bucket during batting practice it means that the pitcher (Nolan) is responsible for collecting all the balls hit in batting practice and getting those back to the coach throwing batting practice.)

Nolan was with the Houston Astros and the team was in Chicago playing the Cubs. I was about 12-years-old, and I was along on the road trip. I was in the outfield shagging batting practice with Astros relief pitcher Larry Anderson. Now, Larry Anderson was known around the league as one of the craziest players in baseball. So what happened was not a surprise to my dad, but it was to me.

Let me preface the story by saying that Wrigley Field has some of the rowdiest fans in the National League. Like I said, it was my dad's responsibility to get all the balls back to the coach and he was not really allowed to give the balls out to the fans. This is an unwritten rule around baseball and every player knows they need to watch the number of balls they give away. Nonetheless, every player still gives a ball or two away, just not every batting practice ball.

I was with Larry in left field and the first ball is hit out to us. Well, the fans start yelling for the ball. Larry turns to the fans and says, "I will give you every ball hit out here if Nolan will let me." The fans go crazy thinking they are going to get all these balls. So Larry looks to second and yells, "Hey Nolan can I give this ball away."

Now, Larry knows that my dad is going to follow the rules and ask for the ball back. Sure enough Nolan shakes his head and Larry throws him the ball. This scene plays out over and over again in left field, and by now the natives are getting restless.

After the tenth ball hit to left field is once again returned to Nolan, the fans have finally had enough. This plays right into Larry's hands and he starts the crowd into a chant of, "No-lan sucks....No-lan sucks!" All the Astro and Cubs players were cracking up with the sound of "No-lan sucks" echoing off the ivy covered walls of Wrigley.

Well, finally as batting practice was drawing to a close my dad finally agreed and Larry started throwing balls into the stands. This made the crowd go wild. They instantly started chanting, "No-lan...No-lan...No-lan." They loved him. The fans continued the chant as the Astros left the field.

I asked my dad if he knew that Larry was going to do that. He said no, but that he had seen Larry do it to pitchers before. I assumed that when Nolan heard the fans chanting he thought he would wait a while and then give in. The plan worked because the next day when Nolan pitched the fans still loved him. He turned the usual hostile Cubs fans into his fans.

Nolan pitched a great game and he got the win. Years later Larry told me he had planned that with my dad to win over the Wrigley faithful.
Reid Ryan
Round Rock, Texas