Lead Story - 10/30/2023 Why We Love BaseballFrom Joe Posnanski's new book: Bo Jackson (May 23, 1989) "I'm going to get him this time," Bo told his teammates. He had faced Nolan Ryan six times in his young career. He had struck out all six times. This time would be different, Bo promised. This time. The situation did not matter. the Rangers already lead the Royals 10-2. But it is moments like these that make baseball sublime. You had a titan on the mound, a folk hero at the plate--yes, this is certainly why we love baseball. They battled back and forth until the count was full. Ryan faced a choice. He was set up to throw his knee-buckling curveball. He knew Bo could not hit it. Bo had all sorts of trouble against curveballs. All Ryan had to do was flip a curve, get Bo to chase, and that would be the end of that. But Ryan could read Bo's eyes, which seemed to say: "Come on, old man, you're supposed to have the best fastball ever. Let's see that fastball." No. Ryan wasn't about to throw a curve. He threw the hardest fastball he had in him. There was nothing wrong with the velocity; it was plenty fast. But the location was---well, nowadays they call that kind of pitch middle-middle. It was right where Bo Jackson wanted it.
"As soon as it left my hand," Ryan would later tell reporters, "I knew I was in trouble."
Bo Jackson swung as hard as he could. He always did. When the bat connected with the ball, the sound was like the liberation of Paris. Jackson hit it to straightaway center field, the deepest part of the ballpark, and none of the outfielders even moved. There was no reason to move. The ball soared over the fence and two-thirds of the was up the bleachers; nobody had ever hit a baseball there before.
As Jackson rounded the bases he looked over at Ryan and offered a smile that said, "I finally got you?"
Ryan was not amused. He glared back. After the game, someone asked Ryan if it was the longest home run he ever gave up. He was not about to give Bo the satisfaction. "You don't pitch twenty-two years and not give up longer ones than that," he said with an edge in his voice.
The next day, though, when Ryan came out to stretch, he looked around the field and couldn't find any of his teammates. Then he looked up in the stands and there they were, sitting way off in the center-field bleachers, where Bo Jackson had hit his homerun.
"Hi Nolan'" they shouted, but he could barely hear them.
"OK, yeah." he would later admit. "he really did hit that one a pretty long way." |
