| ROBIN VENTURA
One of the more indelible moments of Nolan Ryan's career came Aug. 4, 1993, at Arlington Stadium. That was the night 26-year-old Robin Ventura, third baseman of the Chicago White Sox, charged the mound after being hit in the right arm by a pitch from 46-year-old Ryan. Upon arriving to the mound, Ventura was put in a headlock and dealt six consecutive uppercuts as he learned why Ryan was known as "Big Tex." It remains the only time Ventura has charged a mound in his career "It's just kind of a blur. It just happened. I haven't been hit all that much. It just happened to have been the next week. I had just gotten hit on the elbow, and then he hit it again. You just kind of react. [Pitchers Kirk] McCaskill and [Jack] McDowell were kind of laughing the next day, saying, 'You're going to get booed here every time you come in.' And I thought, 'Yeah, I guess I am.' It just didn't strike me that way at the time. "It's weird, but I just remember after the game sitting there and walking out after like it was just another game. I didn't think of it as such the big deal it was made to be the next day. . . . [The media] made it sound like I was all cut up when I left, and I didn't have a scratch on me. But it was made up that I had like a split lip, a black eye, knots all over my head, lost a limb, things like that. It was funny hearing all that stuff." - Ken Daley | NOLAN RYAN
Nolan Ryan said he originally was embarrassed by all the attention his fight with Robin Ventura received. Later, he came to appreciate that humor that older fans, especially, saw in his handling of the Chicago White Sox third baseman who charged the mound at Arlington Stadium on Aug. 4, 1993. Ryan was 46 and Ventura 26 when they tangled after Ventura was hit by a pitch. "I haven't seen Robin since that time, but people still bring that up. I'm sure he was glad to go to the National League (signing with the New York Mets), so he didn't have to come back here. "I view it differently now than I did then. I was embarrassed about it when it happened, and I was disappointed the media made such an issue of it. And it bothered me that so many people remembered me for that. "But then, after a while, I realized it wasn't so much that as much as that there was a generation there that felt that represented something, the old vs. young and that kind of stuff. So I think I found a different perspective on the way people looked at it. I guess, when I was an active player, I didn't realize how many people looked at me as a relic." Was Ryan at any point concerned about the angry young man charging him on the mound? "I don't know if you can call it that," Ryan said, "but I think he had a change of heart when he got there." - Ken Daley |
