Ryan, Ventura,...Winfield?

Cross-posted on www.devshirme.com

Phil Mushnick has an article today on the 16th anniversary of Robin Ventura charging the mound against Nolan Ryan (and getting pummeled). I remember watching this while on summer vacation from college. I think Mushnick leaves out the real context of the brawl - Ventura was the first guy since Dave Winfield in 1980 (!) to dare charge the mound against Ryan, who was an institution by the time Ventura did his thing. Interestingly, Mushnick, who truly is the voice of the average fan in showing how leagues and teams take advantage of fans, schedule games at times making it impossible for kids to watch, etc., mentions Winfield in another context later in the article. The long time between people charging Ryan was the main theme of Sportscenter that night, as I remember. I wrote the author an email on the subject - I am interested to see if he remembers this angle and/or thinks it was as significant as I remember.