[tdarko]

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I'm just so tired of hearing about every media darling how much heart and courage they have.

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yeah the media is very annoying, but watching him pitch after taking a ball back up the middle from bo jackson and splitting his lip open (needing stitches) is something that i respected as a kid, to me that is heart...no matter what the media said, cause back then i didn't have the internet and i rarely paid attention to what the media said.

i remember watching him pitch (i was at the game) one night, he was in his mid 40's, he got roughed up in the first 2 innings and the pitching coach had already made one mound visit and nolan gave up a double down the line that made the score 0-5 and the pitching coach was out of the dugout to make his way to the mound (obviously to take him out since you only get two mound visits) and nolan motions for him to go back. my mom charted all the games we went to (she said it helped make the game pass) and he ended up getting to the 8th inning, throwing something like 140+ pitches and when he left the game the score was 5-5.

see i got so much out of watching that that someone reading the sports page wouldn't the next morning. the guy reading the sports page thinks, "hmmm nolan didn't get a win and his ERA went up and he walked 6 guys, good thing the rangers came back and saved his butt." what i saw was a middle aged man leave his heart on the field and give his team a chance to win the game and save his bullpen for the rest of the series. yeah he walked 5 guys in the first 2 innings and gave up 5 runs but he didn't quit and he didn't fold and there were plenty of pitchers on those early 90's ranger teams that would, cause i watched.

anyway, i like talking about nolan cause he was a childhood hero of mine (i guess nolanfan and i have something in common [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]).