This evening I headed towards Fenway Park not to watch a Red Sox game, but rather to go to the nearby Regal Fenway RPX to take in a screening of a documentary about Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan called Facing Nolan which hit movie screens across the country for one night only.
Facing Nolan is a cut above most baseball documentaries I've seen as it featured a who's who of baseball luminaries (i.e. Pete Rose, Dave Winfield, George Brett, Craig Biggio, Rod Carew) old baseball favorites from childhood (i.e. Houston Astros teammates Enos Cabell, Alan Ashby, Craig Reynolds, Terry Puhl and Mike Scott) as well as former President George W. Bush who owned the Texas Rangers before his political career began.
But the biggest star of Facing Nolan other than the Ryan Express himself is Ruth Ryan, his wife with whom he will be celebrating his 55th anniversary next month. She has been as much of a presence in Ryan's public life as any spouse in baseball has ever been. She often appeared in TV spots with her husband most memorably the Advil commercial where she is catching his fastball sporting a catcher's mask. If not for her not only would there be no documentary about Nolan Ryan, but he likely would have quit baseball while still in a New York Mets uniform. A competitive tennis player in high school, the Express' better half lamented there was no girls' baseball when she was growing up.
The Nolan Ryan baseball fans have come to know and love came of age in a California Angels uniform in 1973 when he threw two no-hitters and set a MLB record for 383 strikeouts in a single season - a record which still stands nearly 50 years and is as unlikely to be broken as his 7 career no-hitters and 5,714 career strikeouts. Some of Ryan's finest pitching came after the age of 40 during his years with the Texas Rangers including two of his no-hitters. It was during those years Ryan augmented his legend by pitching with blood on his uniform after have his lip split open on a hard groundball hit by Bo Jackson and, of course, his pummeling of Robin Ventura. Notably, Ventura declined to be interviewed for the film.
Facing Nolan doesn't shy away from the disappointing aspects of his career such as his early struggles with the New York Mets, not being able to hold the lead in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies and his last big appearance in 1993 against the Seattle Mariners in which he did not record an out and left the game when the tendon in his elbow popped. Despite the disappointing end to his career, Mariners fans gave Ryan a prolonged standing ovation in a measure of respect. With standing ovations in mind, I do wish there had been a bigger audience to enjoy the film as I was only one of five people in attendance at the screening.
What also stood out to me was the use of technology to show Ryan's highlights. There was former President Bush trying to work an iPad to watch Ryan's 5,000th career strikeout. There was also Terry Puhl showing his catch which preserved Ryan's fifth no-hitter (and only no-no while a member of the Astros). While watching the film, I was surprised his cameo on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope wasn't shown. Well, as the credits rolled, Ryan's granddaughters watched his cameo and said they were grateful he stuck to baseball like only granddaughters could.
Watching Facing Nolan is probably about as close as I will get to Fenway Park this year. For those who did not see Facing Nolan, I hope it will be shown in the near future on a streaming service or the MLB Network. While Nolan Ryan is best known for strikeouts, in this instance he hit a home run.
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