Texas History Headlines - 1993 - Robin Ventura Charges Mound, gets Whipped by Ryan

Today in Sports
Bob Gibson stikes out his 3,000th Batter
CINCINNATI, OH

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(1974)

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On this date in 1974, Cesar Geronimo of the Cincinnati Reds, became the 3,000th strike-out victim of Bob Gibson. Gibson played his career with the St Louis Cardinal, taking them to 3 world series championships from 1964-68, winning 7 of his nine games. Today, Gibson is considered by many to be the Greatest Picture in baseball history.
Geronimo, however, his 300th victim, would have another rendezvous with history in 1980, when he faced Nolan Ryan pitching for the Houston Astros. Houston lost the game, but Geronimo became the only batter in history to become a 3,000 strike out victim twice.

Both Benches Clear
ARLINGTON

(1993)

On his ranch, famed Texas Ranger pitcher, Nolan Ryan gets plenty of work, wrestling and branding cattle. So when Chicago White Sox batter, Robin Ventura, got hit in the arm by one of Ryan's brush-back pitches on this date in 1993, Ventura made the ill-fated mistake of charging the mound, and trying to take on the 46 year old Texas cattleman/pitching ace.
   Immediately, Ryan put Ventura into a head lock, and delivered seven upper-cut punches to Ventura. Both benches cleared, but not before Ventura had already lost the bout. Moments later, it was Ventura who was ejected for charging the mound.
   At the time of the famed dust-up, Nolan Ryan was doing radio ads for pain reliever Advil. The ad ended in Nolan's famed Texas drawl "After two Advil, I feel like I could go another nine innings".
   The day following the Ventura whipping, Hal Jay and friends of Nolan's at WBAP radio in Arlington, ran a parody in Ryan's own voice "After two Advil, I feel like I could go another nine rounds".
    When Ryan became President of the Texas Rangers, the famous fight scene became part of the big-screen excitement during each game. But in 2012, when the White Sox, under the leadership of their new manager, Robin Ventura came to play in Nolan Ryan's Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the fight scene was deleted from the big-screen sequence.
   Welcome back, Robin.