Facing Nolan

Just want to clarify as mentioned in the documentary about Nolan Ryan being the only player in any sport to receive a million dollar contract. Bobby Hull playing hockey on the WHA 1972 had a million dollar contract before NR. Was a well presented documentary, absolutely mind-boggling how Nolan Ryan did not win a Cy Young award . I watched Nolan Ryan pitch a few times and it was always an amazing display how hard he can throw that ball. Nolan Ryan and Ferguson Jenkins are my two favorite pictures of all time. 108 mph fastball is just incredible considering he did not have much training in regards to weight training or coaching. Congratulations on a great career and Hall of Fame enshrinement.

A nostalgic view of Nolan Ryan's amazing career, and sort of an old fashioned doc about days gone by - BUT they revel in how great he did after turning 40 and totally ignore the many accounts of his possible steroid use, in an era of baseball and steroids, which would also go a long way to explaining that late career surge. There's also an annoying hagiography where anything remotely controversial is just glossed over, and one of his most famous moments -- a fight after he went head-hunting at a batter -- is not even included. Enjoy, but it's more of a lovelyromantic homage than a real, honest doc.

Facing Nolan (2022) maintains its integrity and consistently delivers the life and career of Nolan Ryan in a way that keeps even the non-baseball fans intrigued. This documentary says it take a slight curve of the typical biographical documentary, but its still pretty similar. But as its description implies, Nolan Ryan's life and career is told from the perspective of the "batters" he faced in his life whether they be family setting him up for a challenge, coaches and executives questioning his ability to pitch , or actual baseball players he had gallantly opposed while on the mound. Ryan could not have had his career without these challengers constantly pushing him to improve and compete against his competition. This is a pretty solid documentary. I liked the narrative , the many interviews (like the many batters he pitched against), and the use and explanation of the numbers fans and enemies use to describe is Hall of Fame career. My only complaint is that it while it remained truthful, this movie could be a little too sentimental making it stray from main narrative. But it always came back eventually. Give it a watch. Even if you don't like baseball, you will be astonished by Nolan Ryan's career and legacy.

I paid attention to Ryan's career. I hope it was more dynamic and better organized than this documentary. If you go strictly by this film Ryan was a yawner who did stuff that was great. No discussion in any depth of his style, his attitude, his thought processes while pitching, what drove him, what kept him going. It's almost as if everyone got together at the start and agreed to keep it superficial and worshipful and to hide any insights or complexity from sight. Too bad. I was happy when I saw the documentary was available. Helped me pass a small piece of a Saturday night. Very bland, lifeless portrait with way too much Mrs. Nolan Ryan Amateurish and dull.

Facing Nolan is the 2022 documentary of the story of one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history, right hander Nolan Ryan. Ryan was from Texas but was originally drafted by the New York Mets baseball club but did not find great personal success there. The team did find collective success winning the 1969 World Championship though!! Ryan was mainly used out of the bullpen as a Met, and the hard throwing right hander always saw himself as a starting pitcher so after three seasons in the big apple the tall Texan was traded to sunny Southern California where he became a member of the then California Angels. It was there that Ryan met up with a pitching coach, a coach that he did not have with the Mets or in high school. Ryan started to have tremendous success. First off, the Angels were a bit of a struggling franchise so they put the right hander in their starting rotation and after his work with the pitching coach Ryan's strikeout numbers grew exponentially, so much so that he threw over 300 per season for his three years in Anaheim!! Things eventually soured with the Angels and Ryan wanted to go back to Texas and play there professionally anyway so in the mid 1970's the Ryan Express signed professional sports first million dollar contract with the Houston Astros. Ryan found immediate success with the Astros, throwing a no-hitter for the club and taking a team that had never seen the post-season to the post-season and within one game of the World Series in 1980. In the mid to late 1980's though, Ryan was asked to take a pay cut with the Astros to sign more players to the team, and the team itself was going in a different direction, so the fireball throwing right hander decided to test free agency and signed with the upstate Texas Rangers. Ryan's success continued with Texas, firing two more no hitters and compiling some 51 major league records all told that still hold up to today!! The documentary is very well done. The testimonials in it are great as are the baseball highlights. You get a great sense of who Nolan Ryan and his family are and there is a great sense of nostalgia as you see the highlights throughout his career. 8 out of 10 stars.

If you even like baseball and you haven't seen it, you don't know what you are missing. Those who have been around a while will appreciate the wonderful history that keeps coming. From Tom Seaver to Bo Jackson and every where in between. The longevity of this man is an anomaly at the least. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to see in person this "anomaly" we were witness to as good as it gets along with the personal character we all hope we can have and instill into our own children. I personally am proud to say I have met Mr. Ryan, and he is just as you see. Facing Nolan: It's worth every God-damn second of your time!

This is a must watch for every sports fan, and non-sports fans will enjoy this as well. Nolan's career arc coincided with the prime of my life as an athlete and sports fan, and I feel like I 'grew up,' watching him. It is rare that an all-time great athlete is also underrated. This seems like it would be impossible, and yet when you look at his career and notoriety, I feel that Ryan is underrated and under appreciated. Ryan pitched in a day when you could watch your local team pretty much every day, but rarely did you see the superstar players from other teams almost every day, like you can today. So players like Ryan existed, mostly, in a fan's imagination; you could read the accounts in the newspaper, and imagine what a player did, and then hopefully get a glimpse of him when he played your hometown team. This documentary does a good job of making you feel what it might have been like to see Ryan pitch regularly, while gaining a better appreciation for his greatness. It was a treat to grow up watching him play, and a treat to watch this documentary.

For some reason Nolan Ryan has always been a polarizing figure. From Jim Palmer winning the Cy Young in 1973, to the six voters who didn't vote for Ryan to get in the Hall of Fame. I knew reaction to this documentary would be much of the same regardless of the quality. So, because of this I wasn't even going to bother writing a review. However, some things were said in a previous review that need to be addressed. First of the all, the incident in which Ryan goes after the batter, or "headhunting", was shown in the movie. It involved Robin Ventura. It was shown from several angles and discussed thoroughly. If Ventura didn't want to get taken to the woodshed, then don't charge the mound. The second point is the ridiculous steroid point. Anyone who didn't see him pitch a nine inning game with the Angels or his first two years with Houston... go find the old film. Radar guns did not exist back then. They were trying to clock him with equipment that was not suited for that environment. They used the same equipment on today's pitchers side by side with a radar gun and converted the number to 108 mph. His peers use the word "better" and everyone loses their mind. The first 15 years of his career he had one pitch. The next 12 he had three. Yes the steroid era happened. #1 his dominance was before the era began #2 he was a workout warrior with minimal muscle gain... not really how steroids work. Want to point at his career walks - fine. Want to concentrate on his career win loss percentage - fine. But leave the bush league stuff at the door.

I have been telling people for years that Fastball is the best documentary of all time. Not the best sport doc, but the best doc! Fastball is compelling, informative and the reveal in the final scenes pretty much set up this doc. Watching this documentary, I had one continuous gripe with this film. Instead of it being a love letter from fans, it comes off as a love letter from his family. Sorry, I get it, your dad, husband and grandfather are a legend, but family praise never comes off as genuine as fan or peer praise. I got way too much of his son which became so clear when the credit roll and you see he is the main producer, Family praise makes up at least 20% of this film and that is about twice as much that was acceptable. There is a touching scene with the whole family at one point, but that should have truly been the majority of the family involvement. Dave Winfield, George Brett and Pete Rose add amazing color. I would have loved Bo Jackson's take, but I suspect Bo doesn't like being on film, despite having the best 30 for 30 of all time. I learned a lot here and Hall of Fame players added great perspective and had they stuck with that formula, this would be an absolute 10. I still recommend this movie, just think that it unfortunately got bastardized by too much family involvement.

Nolan Ryan might be one of the most oddly-perceived star baseball players of all-time. On one hand, he was clearly dominant: 27 seasons (parts of four decades), strikeout record by a mile, 7 no-hitters, etc. His career arc (Texas native starring for both TX major league teams) also propelled him to almost mythic status. At the same time, however, he set some ignominious records-walks allowed, wild pitches, etc.-and his overall numbers (besides the big ones) don't look as "clean" as others. A fascinating figure, to be sure, and all of that-plus some great glimpses into his current/family life-is bandied about here in "Facing Nolan". At heart, this doc is a pretty standard biography of Ryan. Director Bradley Jackson begins with Nolan's Alvin, TX upbringing and then chronicles early-career stints with the Mets & Angels. Then, of course, comes the dominating return to Texas-Astros-and finally his last few seasons with the Rangers, where his legend grew to mythic status. Along the way, Jackson gathers input from Nolan's wife, sons, and daughter to flesh out who Ryan was when not at the ballpark. In fact, "Facing Nolan" has a very "family" feel to it, what with his sons-Reid & Reese-listed as executive producers. While some might say that could provide an overly-sympathetic look at Ryan's career/life, I never got those vibes here. In all actuality, I found the material on Nolan's wife to be some of the best of the entire doc. Scenes from modern-day Nolan working his cattle ranch and hanging out with his grandchildren were also quite touching and highly enjoyable in seeing where this momentous figure's life has taken him. Aside from the archival footage and familial input, interviews with Ryan himself and his contemporaries (George Brett, Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Ivan Rodriguez, George W. Bush, and many others) populate "Facing Nolan" and are always engaging. In a bit of an odd quirk, I actually found Nolan's direct input a bit boring at first, only to come to understand (over the course of the doc) that his laconic style is simply his personality and always has been. Despite my top-shelf 10 star rating, "Facing Nolan" isn't a perfect documentary. The narration can be a bit over-the-top (perhaps even corny) and there are certain themes introduced that aren't carried over throughout. But for whatever reason, the entire effort seemed to "hit" at the right time and elicit real emotion from this viewer. I learned that Nolan Ryan's baseball impact can't be measured by the pure numbers so often used to evaluate the players of today, and I smiled at his post-career journey to find purpose in his ranching and family life. In short, I had such a good time-and experienced so many different emotions-watching "Facing Nolan" that I couldn't give it anything less than the full 10 stars.