Today is the 25th anniversary of Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura

Lest it be forgotten, it's time to remind everyone that 25 years ago today, Nolan Ryan (in the final year of a career known for being a wild pitcher) hit Robin Ventura with a pitch, and Ventura decided to charge the mound.

The YouTube video is titled "Nolan Ryan fight Robin Ventura", but really Ventura just gets punched in the face repeatedly by a guy old enough to be his dad.

Apparently this has been a popular subject recently, googling "nolan ryan beats up robin ventura" reveals yearly posts about it in the run-up to the 25th anniversary.

Colchester triathlon 2018: Leroy says send a picture

Official results are in, and I've updated my spreadsheet that has all the individual results from the last 8 races (2014 canceled due to storms the morning of).

During the race I thought I had pretty good swim/bike splits (self-seeded too low on the swim and passed a few people), but the shocker is that this was a personal best on the run (it didn't feel that way during the race).  I'm still a shit runner (128/219 participants) and that's the avenue for improvement next year, but getting under 1:20:00 overall was fantastic.




Also, VTSportsImages has their photos up!

The best shots of me from this year are Baywatching in my farmer's tan with some other competitors.  This is technically part of the swim, since we haven't crossed the line between the swim and the transition area yet.  



,You'll note that, unlike the others, I leave my goggles on until I reach my bike in the transition area, because they're prescription goggles.

Colchester triathlon 2018: new rules, and try not to step on the clams

From the 2016 tri, no longer allowed... but look at that form!

One of the changes this year was that, near the end of the swim leg, once you crossed the pink buoys, you were required to stop swimming and wade in.  I guess they didn't want a mix of people wading and people swimming until they were in a couple feet of water?  Maybe there are dangers that aren't apparent to me, but...










...one of the reasons why I liked to swim as long as possible is that I'm faster swimming than wading.  The other is that Mallets Bay has a lot of clams, or zebra mussels, or something, and while Colchester Parks and Rec did a great job clearing away as many as they could, I still sliced my foot open on one while wading in.

Colchester triathlon 2018 playlist

The goal this year was to finish before Bono sings, and while the official results aren't in yet, I almost finished before Laurie was done singing.

0:00:00  TLC - Creep
0:04:28  Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise
0:08:30  Technotronic - Pump Up the Jam
Finish swim (during Pump Up the Jam)
0:13:54  Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer
0:17:35  R.E.M. - Harborcoat
0:21:28  Weezer - Surf Wax America
0:24:34  pill - mars meteorite
0:29:07  Bananarama - Every Shade of Blue
0:33:20  Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)
0:36:59  Matt Sweetman - Watermelon Hills
0:42:06  Elton John & Ru Paul - Don't Go Breaking My Heart 
0:47:06  The Cranberries - Salvation
0:49:27  Blink 182 - All The Small Things
0:52:14  Weezer - Dope Nose
0:54:31  20 Fingers - Lick it
Finish bike
0:58:42  The Go-Go's - Vacation
1:01:41  Lipps Inc. - Funkytown
1:05:36  Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
1:10:28  Laurie Anderson - O Superman
1:18:53  Michelle Shocked - Anchorage
Finish race
1:22:19  U2 - New Year's Day
1:27:54  Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
1:30:20

What happened to Luminara Unduli?

Cleaned all the crevices of a chair the other day and discovered what happened to Master Luminara.  Her Lego figurine had been missing for some time.

Also featured:

• A sword from Great Mazinga
• A U.S. infantry unit from Axis & Allies
• A couple of play beaded necklaces
• A nickel and 6 pennies
• A Nerf Zombie Strike dart
• Two non-matching halves of a plastic egg
• A 6-sided and a 20-sided die
• Some other assorted Lego pieces
• A "green army man" plastic figure cowboy, colored orange

Note: I originally posted about this to friends on Facebook back in 2018; added it to the blog on 2025-07-27 and backdated to the day the photo was actually taken.