Facing Nolan

[metirish]

A love letter of a documentary about Nolan Ryan. I enjoyed it, early part of the doc focused a lot of his time with the Mets , general acknowledgment that he was was inconsistent, at heart he's a Texan.

Netflix

[Edgy MD]

Looking forward to it.

[metirish]

Jerry Grote features a lot , claims Ryan threw 108 mph .. lots of good remembrance from team mates and players he faced , plenty of Koufax stuff , Ryan idolized him.

Robin Ventura declined to be interviewed

[Frayed Knot]

Where is this running?

[metirish]

Netflix

[Edgy MD]

I remember, in the mid-eighties, a player interviewed who had recently jumped from one league to the other, asked about who was more intimidating to face, Gooden or Clemens. He paused a beat and just said, "Nolan Ryan."

At the time, Ryan was something like the age of Gooden and Clemens combined.

[metirish]

Did anyone watch this?

[Edgy MD]

Cued up for this weekend.

[Edgy MD]

Watching this NOW!!!!

"From the time I was about five years old, I had an attraction to cattle." — L. Nolan Ryan

[metirish]

Nolan loves those cattle , I found him to be very likeable and humble

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I'm halfway. It seems that this was in part produced by a production company owned by the family or something. The narrator likes to include the apocryphal parts of the story, saying that it's probably (or definitely) bullshit but enjoying slathering on the myth.

Would have naturally liked more Metly content, but in addition to Gil Hodges archival footage, we get two Mets managers acting as talking heads — Jeff Torborg (who caught him with the Angels) and Art Howe (who made the play on the last out of his fourth no-hitter). Could have used less Pete Rose, but most movies, even if they have zero Pete Rose content, could use less Pete Rose.

Rube Walker doesn't exactly come out looking great.

[metirish]

Yeah it was cool to see some former Mets , definitely liked Tom House , interesting character

[Edgy MD]

I'm saving the second half for Sunday night.

I'm a fan of Tom House though, through his book (with Craig Wright) of The Diamond Appraised. A contemporary of Bill James, House stands out from the crowd in that he's been more of a baseball theorist than a data analyst — someone who introduces new theses to the game. I think he was also baseball's first reliably documented steroid user.

He went on to study kinetic science, and I believe provided personal coaching to Tim Tebow — trying to help his throwing of both footballs and baseballs.

[Edgy MD]

Of course, among Mets managers, we get beaucoup Bobby Valentine in the second half.

It's unfortunately produced by Ryan's family, so it certainly had the narrative the family wanted, along with contributing figures who are friendly with the family, but that's easy enough to forgive once you're aware of it. They do a good job of framing the context for the Ventura fight, which I seemingly have been kind of reading incorrectly all these years.

[metirish]

Yeah, I liked the context given to the Ventura running the mound , unlucky him I guess.

[Edgy MD]

Sorry to have no Seaver content. His contemporary pitchers — Carlton, Jenkins, Palmer, et al. — generally are absent as commentators, but they load up on Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.

[metirish]

Yeah, I think Nolan's wife mentioned Tom once , his wife came across as very nice, as did the whole family. Nolan seems loyal , his ranch manager working the ranch for 30 years etc. I was stunned that Ryan never won a Cy Young.

[Edgy MD]

I also kinda wish they did it as the title suggested. Instead of a straight bio, I was kind of expecting just the testimonies from 27 years of batters who'd faced him.