Texas Rangers • Teambook

Why did you think that was a good idea?

You’ve surely seen this photo or the clip of Nolan Ryan putting Robin Ventura in a headlock. The Texas Rangers for a long time had virtually no good moments in their history. Prior to the 21st century, you could make a good argument that this fight was the best moment in their history. However, you may be wondering what the hell Ventura was thinking? Well, according to Robin himself, The Ryan Express hit him on purpose. To be fair to him, he’s not wrong. Nolan Ryan was 46 at the time and well-known for his intimidation tactics. Similar to Bob Gibson and Randy Johnson, if he threw a ball at you, you knew it was on-purpose. Whether he wanted you to back off or back down, throwing his famously hard pitches was the best way to get batters to do what he wanted. However, according to the Rangers’ pitching coach Tom House, there was a financial incentive. Apparently, the White Sox had a clubhouse rule where if Nolan Ryan hit them with a pitch and they didn’t charge the mound, they would get fined. If you watch the clip and wonder why Ventura is almost unsure if he wants to go fight Nolan, that may be why. Why did Nolan immediately grab him in a headlock and start hitting him? “Self-preservation” Nolan’s words not mine. There are more wrinkles to this story, guess who was on the White Sox in this game? Bo Jackson. According to Bo, he told Robin Ventura the following: “If you get hit by Nolan, don’t take your helmet off, use your helmet like a football helmet. When you charge the mound, don’t charge the pitcher… run him to second base, take him off the mound… don’t run up to the mound and stop.” When Bo saw Ventura take off his helmet, he remembers screaming “No!” It’s worth noting that there is no beef between Ryan and Ventura. They talked about it in 2012 with no hard feelings. For his part, Ventura said “I'm all right. He gave me a couple of noogies.” Btw, Nolan Ryan was not ejected for that incident and the Rangers went on to win that game.