When I was asked to review Facing Nolan, I may have squealed a little because Nolan Ryan was a face on my athletics Mount Rushmore. Growing up in North Texas, I learned to love the Texas Rangers baseball team and its larger-than-life players. I’m talking about people like Rafael Palmeiro, Rusty Greer, Bobby Witt, Kenny Rogers, Will Clark, Michael Young, Juan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, and our all-time great Pudge Rodriguez.
Yet, high atop on three teams’ lists of greatness sits a man who not only broke the mold of pitching but ensured no one will ever reach that level of feared bravado and rugged strength–Nolan Ryan!
Drafted by the New York Mets, Nolan Ryan made his way across the country to the California Angels, the Houston Astros, and my Texas Rangers. When the Ryan Express came to Arlington, Texas, he single-handedly tripled attendance at the Ballpark within months (known lovingly as ‘The Temple’). It even motivated one such cinephile and logophile to get a job on the Texas Rangers Security Team.
Rocking the latest in polyester and starched cotton during 104-degree baseball games sucked out loud, but I didn’t care. I was (a tiny, minuscule) part of the team! The feelings of walking in the locker room, escorting players to the garage, and sneaking a couple of autographs were sports euphoria.
And then, there was my moment of Facing Nolan.
Imagine a young man sitting on the baseball field on the first-base line during Big Tex’s 7th no-hitter. Some drunk could have leaped on the field, and I would have never seen him because I was facing Nolan. More on that later.
The kind of reverence I’m alluding to in that situation is what it was like for many MLB hitters and sharpshooters to discuss what it was like Facing Nolan. Millions of fans and thousands of players understand holding a place of respect for Nolan Ryan.
Still, only a few know what it means to have a showdown with a guy who
- played for 27 seasons
- hurled 5,714 strikeouts
- won 324 games,
- owns 7 career no-hitters
- holds an insane 2.91 career ERA
- had a whopping 81.3 WAR
- threw a fastball that traveled 108.1 MPH,
- possesses 51 MLB records
- won a single benches-clearing fight with a punk in Robin Ventura (who was 20 years younger than Nolan)
- and could still burn a hole in a backstop net 90 feet away!
The Strength Behind Facing Nolan
Amid the interviews with baseball legends like Cal Ripken, Jr., Randy Johnson, Rod Carew, Dave Winfield, George Brett, and Pete Rose, one person put it all into perspective — Nolan’s beloved wife of 55 years, Ruth. We discover during Nolan’s early years that it was Ruth who kept Nolan from quitting baseball. It takes her to put this mythic documentary into perspective. (And so, Heaven has a special place for her.)
Filmmaker and director Bradley Jackson interviewed everyone, including Ruth. While sitting on their ranch in Alvin, Texas (35 minutes southwest of Houston), he asks Ruth, “Did you ever think this would happen to you?” There is so much in that question to unpack, but for Ruth, the answer was simple, touching, and graceful.
“I never dreamed this would happen,” Ruth Ryan says. “But then again, I just wanted to be with him.”
There’s the summary of the film. God blessed Nolan Ryan with an ICBM launcher for a right arm, but the reason he was able to throw the way he did and act how he did was her. Texas Monthly asked Jackson about way the documentary turned out.
“As we were filming, we kind of started to understand that we had this other story—a family story, a marriage story,” Jackson said. “It’s not more interesting than all his major league records, but those are things you can see. It’s the intangible stuff—him working cattle on the ranch, him with his family on the Fourth of July—that stuff is pretty magical. It’s nice to see an athlete who is a superstar but who has kind of remained the same person that he was when he started out.”
Nolan Ryan was the most respected and feared pitcher during his 27-year career. Since then, he has held top executive positions with the Astros and the Rangers. And, all the while, there was Ruth. For Jackson to go beyond the brawn and glitz of the diamond, it was refreshing to see him tackle what mattered to Nolan the most.
The Ryan Express
Nolan Ryan was a man of mystique and mystery. He shied from the spotlight, even though he was in the middle of it for most of his adult life. The documentary perfectly poises Nolan, the rocket launcher, against Nolan, the man. It’s a delicate balance, and Bradley Jackson nailed it.
This is a documentary people want to see, even if you think a sports biography would have the kind of emotion you seek in a doc. There are the highs of striking out Rickey Henderson for his 5,000th strikeout and the lows when the Ryan Express was taken off the tracks for good in 1993 when he tore an ulnar ligament in his throwing arm and elbow. At the ripe age of 46, Nolan hung them up and never looked back.
He is known for so many things–the field general he was, the friend he could be, and the banner of what it means to play baseball in the majors he will always be considered.
And if you wanted to see more about the iconic scuffle Nolan Ryan won after he plunked Robin Ventura for his mouth, it’s all in there–and it was lovely.
In the Ballpark (or Temple), whenever the crowd needed to get hype, that open can of whoop-ass was played so much that Nolan asked for it not to be played anymore. He wanted to move on, so Rangers fans did what the man wished to because it’s Nolan! If you consider yourself a baseball purist, casual fan, or even just a Texan (which is so much more than folk realized), this is a documentary you need to see.
I laughed. I even cried. Ryan’s career wasn’t scarred by scandal, rumors, or social media. He was an old-school baseball player who did it the right way, and Jackson captured every moment he could to present the best version of Nolan Ryan he could — the real one!
Oh, I almost forgot…
My own time of facing Nolan was the 7th no-no. I sat on the first-base line monitoring drunk fans. Well, that’s what I was supposed to do. There wasn’t a person in the stadium who was going to disrespect this moment. The buzz was in the air and bubbles were in everyone’s gut. Then, a fitting moment when a future Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar took the mound. Nolan didn’t flinch. It was a 2-2 pitch, low and outside, and it was nails!
The crowd went nuts. Security was needed near the clubhouse, so I ran everyone over to get there…eh, volunteered my services. A couple of days later, Ryan was at the Ballpark. I saw him, peed a little, and said, “Nice shootin’ the other night, Tex.” He looked at me, tipped his hat, and walked away. Who needs words?!
In a sport that has celebrated two Iron Men in Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken Jr., it’s high time we joined together to celebrate the sports’ Superman, Nolan Ryan! This documentary captures the man’s life as if it were shoved in a time capsule. In the trailer, there’s a quote from Nolan in his early years, “I guess I was born to be a pitcher.” You damn right, and the baseball world was a better place for it.
Facing Nolan is a tribute to not only one of the best pitchers to ever stand tall on a mound but an homage to a game that will never be the same now that he’s off the mound.
Facing Nolan is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Utopia. The film will available on Digital platforms on July 19th.
Facing Nolan is a tribute to not only one of the best pitchers to ever stand tall on a mound but an homage to a game that will never be the same now that he's off the mound.
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