Facing Nolan
What is it that makes a legend? Is it the records? The character of the player? The impact on the nature of the game? Everyone has a different definition and every take focuses on a different aspect. But that’s just the why, why they were different, why they mattered. We mostly all agree that a legend was a legend when we see them. And we mostly all agree that Nolan Ryan was a legend. Maybe not the greatest pitcher of all time, for all that the records say, but certainly worthy of discussion in any history of baseball. As director Bradley Jackson notes in his overview of Ryan’s life and career, Facing Nolan, “only 1% of professional baseball players ever make it to the Hall of Fame” and that 1% matters.
More importantly, and more telling about Ryan himself, is the sheer number of fellow Hall of Famers willing to tell their own stories about Ryan and the qualities he brought to the game: Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Pete Rose. From their shared perspective they remind what made Ryan great and what his heyday – nearly 50 years gone now – was like. In they process they, and Nolan, personify the transformation of baseball in the latter half of the 20th century as Nolan goes from having to have summer job as an insurance salesman in the off season in his first years in the majors, to singing one of the first $1 million dollar contracts in the free agency period.
Facing Nolan tends to be very numbers oriented that way, focusing heavily on Ryan’s records and other noteworthy statistics; his 5,714 strike outs (the most ever), his 7 no-hitters (the most ever) his 51 baseball records (the most ever), the 0 Cy Young Awards. There are periods where it can and does easily devolve into hagiography and recitation, like the expansion of a baseball card, with occasional comments from colleagues. It’s when it moves away from just the numbers and into real insight about Ryan himself (whether from himself or others) that Ryan the man takes shape, particularly when not everything is glowing. So far now from his prime it can be hard to look at the avuncular Ryan and see the hard-charging, aggressive pitcher who would intentionally hit batters to build fear of himself, or the ruthless competitor who hated to leave a game even after being smashed in the face by a line drive. There’s not much comparison to the way the game is played today (or the environment in which it exists), just good-natured acceptance that this was what you did and what you put up with when you played professional sports at a high level.
As interesting as it is to view Ryan through the eyes of his peers and the lens of history, the real insight comes from his family’s view of his career, particularly his wife Ruth who followed through his career with an eye towards both practicality and career that Ryan himself sometimes lacked. When he is locked out of winning a Cy Young award in his best season, Ryan takes it in easy stride claiming it doesn’t matter but Ruth, with one eye on the future, knows better. She gives the clearest view of the man himself and of a reality beyond just facts and numbers; it’s easy to feel a documentary focused entirely on Ryan’s homelife and the strain it went through along his career would have been more illuminating. As it is major events such as his sons near-fatal accident as a child are glossed over as Facing Nolan rushes to important milestones like the all-time strike-out record.
For whatever it misses out on, Facing Nolan is a fascinating record of a time in baseball and America that is easy to forget, of the people who made it up and of how we have all changed during that time. More than that, it is a record of greatness while everyone who witnessed it is still around to talk about it and remind us how fleeting these things really are.
7.5/10 stars. Directed by Bradley Jackson. Featuring Nolan Ryan, Ruth Holdorff, Reid Ryan, President George W. Bush, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Rod Carew, Dave Winfield, Craig Biggio, George Brett, Roger Clemens and Pete Rose.