Great Moments in Sports: Nolan Ryan vs. Robin Ventura

I know that several people like to talk about the greatest moments in sports.  Feats of incredible accomplishment, or indomitable wills never surrendering…

So yeah, you can find that stuff elsewhere.  Here at Tin Foil Hats we have a different standard for greatness in sports.  We’ll begin with one of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball:

Nolan Ryan beats the hell out of Robin Ventura

On August 4th, 1993, 26 year-old Chicago White Sox layer, Robin Ventura, experienced first hand a case of machismo going horribly wrong.  The Texas Rangers were playing the Chicago White Sox in the hot summer sun when Nolan Ryan hit the soon-to-be-infamous Ventura with an errant pitch.  In what must have seemed like a fabulous idea to Ventura at the time, he charged the mound at Nolan Ryan, who was 20 years the senior of the young, angry batter.

The result is the image you see above.  In a move which Ryan later claimed was something he learned to subdue cattle on his ranch, he proceeded to beat the crap out of the hapless Ventura until another player intervened to protect the young man.  That player was all Ryan’s teammate, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, who must have felt really bad for poor little Robin as he had his manhood thrown forever into question as the scene would be played again and again and again…..

At the end of the fracas, to add insult to injury, Ventura was ejected from the game along with White Sox manager, Gene Lamont.  As for Nolan Ryan…he was not ejected seeing as how he never left his ground during the entire attack by and subsequent humiliation of Robin Ventura.  Ryan did not allow another hit for the rest of the game.

Some say that fighting in sports is bad, and I can see their point at times, but if you do decide to start a fight in a ballgame, then make damned sure that you are not charging the mound against Nolan freaking Ryan, or you will get Ventura’d.