WELL. I can’t wait for THIS one. It has “me” written all over it.
Years ago, I reviewed the doc Fastball – which I highly recommend. It’s about the history of the fastball, and profiling the great fastball pitchers. The best part was the interviews with current and past players about what it was like to face off against one of these guys. Some of them still shiver – literally – at the memory of being “pitched to” by Bob Gibson. He was, by far, the most intimidating pitcher any of them had ever faced. These big burly jocks are saying stuff like, “I felt like he hated me.” Gibson pitched with hatred. He wanted to humiliate you, make you look stupid. Bob Gibson is interviewed for Fastball (he passed away just a couple of years ago) and he said, giving a glimpse of who he was as a player, “Half of that plate is mine. Now you gotta figure out which part I’m coming after.” (I wrote a thing about Bob Gibson once.)
Another part of the doc I remember is when fastballs started to creep up into the 100mph range, as opposed to the more standard high 80s, low 90s. 100 mph, or at least high 90s, was unheard of back in the day – deemed unattainable – but it’s now a regular thing. Brandon Phillips described what the difference is as a batter. He said that at 90mph he can see the logo on the baseball. At 100 mph, the baseball looks like a golf ball.
If you love this kind of stuff – and I do – MADLY – Fastball is like crack.
Facing Nolan came on my radar because it’s screening at SXSW. It’s about – of course – Nolan Ryan – a name who comes up again and again in Fastball (Ryan was also interviewed for Fastball). Ryan’s stellar heyday – where he set records which probably will never be broken, it was almost otherworldly what he did – was decades ago and the players interviewed remember their at-bats vividly and how frustrating and often frightening it was facing Ryan. You just could not defeat him, you could not get a piece of his fastball. It was unhittable.
“You don’t face Ryan without your rest. He’s the only guy I go against that makes me go to bed before midnight.” – Reggie Jackson
Facing Ryan looks to be similar to Fastball, featuring interviews with players about Ryan as a pitcher, their memories of at-bats against him, their analysis of who he was as a player.
I can’t wait.
