May 13, 2022 By: Mark Knudson

Watching and Learning from the great Nolan Ryan

Dante Bichette stood in the right handed batters box, knowing full well he was about to see a fastball like he’d never seen before. The young, up and coming California Angels outfielder was eager for the opportunity to face Nolan Ryan, and eager to earn his stripes by competing with one of the game’s great flame throwers.

In a way, he did.

He wore a Nolan Ryan fastball.

“When he drilled me in the elbow, I went down,” Bichette recalled. “And he came walking up next to me, and he’s standing over me, and – he didn’t apologize. He didn’t apologize to anyone – he says, ‘I got ya in a good spot, didn’t I?”

That was the competitor in full bloom. That’s what you can expect when a new documentary called, “Facing Nolan” comes out later in the month. It’s gotten rave reviews from those who’ve been fortunate enough to preview it and will no doubt get a similar reception from audiences when it opens in theaters.

Say what you want about all the guys throwing 100 plus these days.

NO ONE threw a heater like Nolan Ryan.

No one.

I never “faced” Nolan Ryan during my eight seasons in the big leagues. I did compete against him in the American League – where the Designated Hitter rule saved me from utter embarrassment and similar physical harm. I was fortunate enough to get in the box score as a relief pitcher in the game that became his 300^th win in Milwaukee in 1990, and even more fortunate to be on the winning end of an Opening Day match up against him in Arlington, Texas the following season.

But even more importantly, I had a comfortable place to watch him from – the dugout – as his teammate during the years between 1983 and 1986 when we were both Houston Astros. I can sum it up this way: It was a gift to share the locker room, the weight room, the dugout and the practice field with one of baseball’s all-time great pitchers.

It’s not easy to pinpoint one or two things that made Nolan Ryan a baseball immortal. He was a leader that didn’t say much, instead leading by example. Follow him around the weight room – he was a pioneer in baseball weight training and told me once that it was what separated him from his peers during the second half of seasons – and try to do what he did. It was like trying to match Superman lift for lift.

I was blessed to be in the dugout on July 11, 1985, when Nolan recorded his 4,000^th strike out against the New York Mets. There was a lot of hoopla going on all around him, but all Nolan said when he came back into the dugout at the end of the inning was, “Okay, let’s go get some runs.” It wasn’t about the individual stats or accolades.

For him it was about winning the game, period.

The best game I ever saw was a duel between Nolan and Dwight Gooden in Shea Stadium on July 4, 1986. Gooden was the hot new fad. Nolan was the standard bearer for strikeout pitchers. The Mets beat us 2-1 that day and went on to be World Series champs. That ate at Nolan.

He was a mentor without being asked to be one. He expected all the young players to play the game the way he’d been raised to play it. With dedication and discipline. With desire and tenacity. Do things the right way. He called me out in the visitors’ locker room in Philadelphia one day (not by name, but by reference) in front of some teammates for a dress code violation that bothered him.

“I saw something today I never thought I’d see,” he said in his Texas drawl. “I saw a big league ballplayer wearing shorts in the lobby of the team hotel.”

Mind you, it was summer in Philadelphia and the humidity was about 300% …and I’d been out for a morning walk. Still, when Nolan said that out loud, I could not find a hole large enough to crawl into. Needless to say, I never showed my legs in public again that summer.

He was almost too tough for his own good.

He pitched through numerous arm injuries that would have any of today’s pitchers on the shelf for weeks at a time. He bristled when the team decided to put him on the disabled list in late July of 1986, loudly telling our General Manager Dick Wagner that he was fine to pitch, even with a slightly torn ligament in his right elbow. Wagner won the argument (I guess) and Nolan went on the DL to rest and rehab – he refused the surgery option – only to come off 15 days later and throw six scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That was my last day with the Astros. When Nolan got reactivated, I was the one who got optioned out and ended up being traded to the Brewers. I always wished I had been able to stay there just a little longer, to celebrate that National League Western Division title with Nolan and the rest of my Astros teammates.

There was still so much to learn from him.

Nolan had been generous enough with me a couple spring trainings prior to sit down with me at the lunch table – both of us in full uniform – and record an interview for a diary-style “at spring training” column I was writing for the old Rocky Mountain News at the time. But it wasn’t so much an interview as it was a lecture from a Professor. He looked me straight in the eye when he spoke. He wasn’t talking to the masses; he was telling a student how things should get done.

I still have that cassette tape somewhere. I should find it (and something to play it on) and listen to that lecture again. It’s never too late to learn from a Master.

Be sure to catch Mark Knudson and Manny Randhawa on the Park Adjusted Rockies Podcast each week, available on all major Podcast platforms.