Henry Rowengartner came out of retirement last week, signed a deal with the Tulsa Drillers and made an appearance on the mound at ONEOK Field. However, the star of the movie Rookie of the Year, got pulled before the game started.

The Tulsa Drillers dreamt up a great promotion, which included actor Thomas Ian Nicholas reprising his role as Henry Rowengartner while speaking with the media last week, and then he suited up in a Drillers uniform as the starting pitcher Thursday night against Northwest Arkansas. The Drillers topped it off by handing out Rowengartner bobble head dolls to the first 1000 fans in attendance, and Nicholas greeted fans and signed autographs throughout the game.

Nicholas, as Rowengartner, did everything you might expect a starting pitcher to do, leading up to the umpire signaling to “play ball.” He stretched in the outfield, then warmed up in the bullpen. He took the mound following the National Anthem and threw four warmup pitches before Drillers manager Scott Hennessey didn’t like what he saw and pulled “Rowengartner” before the game began. The real scheduled starter for the night, J.D. Martin, then took the mound and the game proceeded as usual. Tulsa beat the Naturals, 8-3 in the first game of a four-game series.

Nicholas, whom I met and interviewed last September when he was in Tulsa to appear at the Wizard World Comic and Pop Culture Convention, made a brief appearance at a Drillers game at that time to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but this time around he was excited about the opportunity to get back on the mound as a player.

“You saw in the division championships against the Mets in ‘93 I lost my heater,” Nicholas, I mean Rowengartner said during the press conference. “So now I have the changeup, I have the floater and I’ve got all my tactics, hidden-ball trick, you name it. I’m going to goad the other players into outs if they’ll let me.”

I pointed out that the Drillers have even created a bobble head to mark the occasion.

“I’ve got a bobblehead,” he said. “Why haven’t the Cubs ever made a bobble head? Leave it to the Drillers for making a Henry Rowengartner bobble head.”

Plus, he was happy to be able to do this in his former teammate Chet Steadman’s hometown. Steadman, in the movie, was from Tulsa and was played by Tulsa native Gary Busey.

Following the press conference, I was able to interview Nicholas, now out of the Rowengartner character, and he said he was impressed with how this all came together, and especially gave the Drillers management a lot of credit for “concocting this” idea.

 “It’s pretty amazing, I mean it’s Henry Rowengartner Day, and it’s all something we discussed last September when they wanted me to throw out the first pitch then,” said Nicholas. “I said listen, I can’t do the whole appearance thing because I’m here with Wizard World, but I’ll make you a deal, if you bring me back next season, then I’ll do it for you, so they agreed and they really just turned it up to 11, with it being Henry Rowengartner Day, and a bobble head, and drafting me to the Drillers. They’ve gone above and beyond, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Last year when I interview Nicholas, he couldn’t tell me many of the details about a movie he was working on, but now he was more at liberty to give me some of the insider information.

“I can tell you a little bit more about it now,” he joked. “It’s called Adverse, it’s starring myself, Mickey Rourke, Penelope Ann Miller, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sean Astin, the list goes on and on from there. We just screened at Cannes Film Festival, in France, we did a private screening for distributors, so we’re looking to partner with a bigger company and hoping to premiere at one of the upcoming festivals at the end of the summer and then hopefully come out in theaters in the fourth quarter.”

This movie is different from the comedies and dramas Nicholas is known for, such as; Rookie of the Year, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women, American Pie, and Grey’s Anatomy.

“The story line is a very dark, neo-noir drama slash thriller, and I play a ride-share driver that in order to save my sister I have to infiltrate a dangerous crime syndicate,” Nicholas explained. “The crime syndicate is run by Mr. Rourke, and Lou Diamond Phillips plays my parole officer, because I’m a reformed criminal on parole. It’s a very different role for me.”

If you’d like to listen to my entire interview with Nicholas, find the link on my Twitter feed, or go to www.spreaker.com/episode/18074732.