It's one of my favorite baseball moments ever. August 4, 1993.
After getting plunked by 46-year old Nolan Ryan, a young, brash, Robin Ventura took two steps toward first base, then inexplicably charged the mound. What resulted was one of the funniest brawl scenes of all time. Ryan simply side-stepped Ventura's moundrush, got him into an unbreakable headlock, and started pounding away mercilessly on his skull, face, and stomach. I can't tell if Nolan was smiling while he was pummeling Ventura. I imagine he had the same gleeful look on his face that Ricardo Montalban did in Naked Gun when he was about to shoot the queen.
Here's a poor version of the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUfJ1C8pGI4
We should all feel sorry for Ventura, who went on to have a nice career. I wonder if Alex Cora will charge Roger Clemens any time soon...
3 comments:
Ryan vs. Ventura is great because it's really a fight. George Brett charging out of the dugout after the pine tar home run and Clemens picking up Piazza's shattered bat and throwing it back at him are also memorable moments, but neither one was actually a fight. I guess you could also count Pedro Martinez grabbing Don Zimmer's head and throwing him to the ground also. Not much of a brawl there. Rematch!
Punching someone on the top of the skull is a good way to break a hand!
-Don
Much appreciate you writing this
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