The Mariners’ Felix Hernandez’s work Wednesday against the Red Sox inspired comparisons by Terry Francona when he was a player facing Nolan Ryan’s legendary heat.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

BOSTON — Mother Nature may be a baseball fan, but she wasn’t in the mood to watch the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners conclude their three-game series yesterday.

Instead, she dumped enough wind and rain across the region, especially at Fenway Park, to force the Sox to postpone the game and reschedule it for May 3. In a weird sort of way, it turned out to be a pretty special day at Fenway Park. It’s just too bad the fans couldn’t have been a part of it.

What began as a dreary day at the storied ballpark, concluded as a day of nostalgia.

The Red Sox were scheduled to wear green jerseys and hats to honor Boston Celtics great Red Auerbach, who died in October. On hand for the event were many current and former Celtics players, led by legend Bill Russell.

He was candid and told some beautiful stories.

Prior to Russell’s from-the-heart comments, Red Sox manager Terry Francona and former Sox second baseman and current broadcaster Jerry Remy reminisced about pitching great Nolan Ryan earlier in the afternoon.

Just after 1 p.m. the local media went into Francona’s office for his daily pregame meeting. Because Seattle’s Felix Hernandez threw a complete-game shutout against the Sox on Wednesday night, the 21-year-old’s performance was a topic of conversation.

It began when a reporter asked Francona whether he had ever faced former New York Mets superstar pitcher Dwight Gooden during his dominant stage, Francona acknowledged he had faced him and said Doc was pretty impressive. But, comparing Hernandez to the Gooden is a little difficult.

Gooden was younger and had a different breaking ball, the Sox manager said. Hernandez has a slider from hell. Gooden had the over-the-top curveball that was a little different. … [Hernandez’s] stuff is electric.

In the first inning of Wednesday’s game, Francona said to his bench coach, Brad Mills, that he didn’t think Hernandez’s stuff seemed that electric.

“Nice comment,” Francona said yesterday of his false observation. “Maybe I was just hoping. Everyone has their own opinion how you see the ball. Gooden was 19. But for me, nobody — and I mean nobody — came close to Ryan. I don’t know if those [radar] guns were right, but nobody came close to him.”

Francona told a story about when he came into a game as a pinch hitter for the Chicago Cubs to face Ryan late in a game. Francona told everyone on the bench that he was going to sit on the first fastball. He stepped in and Ryan threw him a nasty first-pitch curveball that Francona missed.

The whole field got quiet, Francona recalled. You could hear him [laughing]. You know how serious Nolan was on the mound; he got up on the mound put his glove up [to his face] and had to step off. I struck out, and when the game was over everyone was running to the clubhouse, and I thought there was a fight, because we were the Cubs and used to fight all the time. I asked where everyone was going, and someone said they were going to see that at-bat on video. I missed it by 4 feet.

Francona has a knack to poke fun at his own career, one marred by injury. The Sox manager had everyone in his office yesterday enjoying the stories of Ryan.

“Ryan is the only guy who I ever remembered when he threw one up and in, it was the only time in my whole life I thought if that hit me, it would have broke my ribs. I had to step back for a second and regroup. You knew it would have gone right through you, and it didn’t look like he cared.”

Remy, who always sits to the left of Francona during the manager’s pregame scrums in his office, quickly responded: (Ryan) didn’t.

Remy played with Ryan during their time with the California Angels, then against each other. The former Angels and Red Sox second baseman said when Ryan was pitching, it was like having a day off.

“Only if he walked a lot of guys, then you had to cover second every once in a while,” Remy said, smiling.

Francona recalled when Ryan would throw the last warm-up pitch before a game and then would walk over and check the footing along the third-base line.

Then he would glare into the opponents’ dugout, almost telling the batters not to bunt. If someone did drop one down, one of their teammates would wear the next delivery in the ear.

Again, Remy seconded the notion and told another great story.

“The first time I faced him here,” Remy recalled, “he called me that day and said ‘Don’t even think about doing it.’ I didn’t bunt because I didn’t need his stuff in my ear.”

When scouts first started using the radar guns, the machinery wasn’t as accurate as those in use nowadays. If Ryan was in his prime today, Francona and Remy both said he would easily reach 102 and 103 mph on the guns.

“He had to have been,” the Sox’ skipper said. “It just exploded.”

Because of that, Remy explained, every lineup would have at least two guys taking a day off when Ryan was on the hill.

“It was like [the ball] came out of a gun,” Francona said. “Then he came up with a changeup that was just unfair.”

Opposing hitters didn’t have too much luck with Ryan, and Brad Mills also learned that firsthand.

On April 27, 1983, Mills was playing for the Montreal Expos when he became part of history. Ryan struck him out to record his 3,509 strikeout, breaking Walter Johnson’s all-time mark.

“He threw Millsey a curve ball and he nearly tore his groin,” Francona said. “In Montreal, there were all these shadows and you couldn’t see anyway. He threw a curve ball that was just unfair.”

That’s how Hernandez treated the Red Sox on Wednesday. Even though yesterday’s game was a rainout, it turned out to be a riveting day at Fenway Park. Maybe more games should be rained out.

jmcdonal@projo.com