A no-no

My first no-no. And no, I'm not talking about something I shouldn't do, because if you tell me I shouldn't do something, I'll do it. A no-no is a baseball game where the pitcher allows no hits and no runs. That means, one team comes up and in nine innings, no one manages to get a single hit. It's also called a no-hitter, and they are fairly rare. According to Wikipedia, only 262 no-no's have been thrown since 1875, on average of 2 a year. Given that there are 30 teams in the major leagues, and each team plays 162 games that's a total 2,430 games played a year. On average, two are no hitters - which is 0.008% of the games. So, uh, yes, they aren't common.

The last time a no-no was thrown in Giants history (and if you don't know by now, I am a huge Giants fan) was 33 years ago by John "The Count" Montefusco. And last night, a soap opera worthy performance, was on display in San Francisco.

I was in my car driving to go see "Up" and was listening to the game. When I parked, I left the radio on to listen to the last of the 7th inning. Once it was over I realized the pitcher, Johnathan Sanchez, had a perfect game going into the 8th. For those that don't know, a perfect game is one where there are no hits, no walks, no errors, no baserunners, no runs - nothing. 27 people up (3 men in an inning for 9 innings) and 27 people out - perfect. Very, very rare - only 17 have ever been pitched. Sanchez needed two more innings, needed to get 6 more people out, for a perfect game.

My brain went into freeze mode for a minute. The movie was calling me, but if Sanchez pitches a perfect game and I missed it, knowing that it was a possibility, I would never forgive myself. If I had completely missed the game entirely, from beginning to end, that's one thing. But knowing the possibilities ahead, oh, I would have hated myself Saturday morning. I would have torn my hair out " Why, why, why? - I have netflixs." There are always previews at movies. I could be 15 minutes late and not miss a thing. So I sat in my car, radio on, head on the steering wheel, and fists on the dashboard. Part of me hoped for a hit so I could go to the movie without guilt - part of me wanted to hear history in the making.

The 8th inning came and went. No hits, but an error. The third baseman missed a play and a guy got on base. According to the error, it's not the pitchers fault - it's the outfielders fault. He should have had the ball, he should have made the out, but he screwed up. The perfect game was out of the picture - but a no-hitter was not. I couldn't go to the movie. There was no way I could miss the 9th inning. Backing my car out of the spot, I worked very hard to remain safe in a parking lot (darn pedestrians always get in the way), but get home as fast as possible to hear the end. And I listened.

Why do I care - don't know. But my stomach was in knots, my hands were either in my hair on in a fist being bitten on, and I was either in a ball on the couch or pacing back and forth. Yes, I care.

The first out, awesome. The second out - an exceptional, amazing play by the center fielder. The third baseman lost the perfect game, the center fielder kept the no-hitter. And then the third guy in the inning, the last guy, number 28 in the game, he was up. I couldn't move. I listened. 2 balls, 2 strikes. The tension building, the stomach hurting. The pitch. Called strike three, out. Strike out. The guy struck out looking, he didn't even swing the bat! Sanchez had a no-hitter. If you watch the video, which I have several times, the ump totally gets into it. He call the pitch a strike and took two paces to the left to actually, physically make the "You're OUT," call (usually they don't move from behind the catcher and he hadn't before in the game.) I think he was as excited about calling a no-hitter as Sanchez was throwing it.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Not Sanchez. Cain, maybe. Lincecum, probably, but Sanchez? No, nope, no way. He had pitched so inconsistently earlier in the season, he was removed as a starting pitcher and demoted to the bullpen. He needed to "work on some things." Well yeah. He'd lost 8 games and won 2, never finished a game, and allowed 5+ runs per game (on average). He had (has) good stuff, but never seemed to have two good innings in a row.

But then one of the starting pitchers was hurt and Sanchez was given a second chance. And as luck would have it, the hurt pitcher was the very one Sanchez grew up idolizing (but of course, how you could not idolize Randy Johnson, a future hall of famer, if you are a baseball pitcher). He took over for his favorite player.

To make matters even more meaningful, Sanchez had flown his father from Puerto Rico to watch him pitch. This was the first time his dad had watched him start a game. Ever. Once he saw him come in as a reliever in a game a couple of years ago, but he had never seen him start. This time he did, and he watched history in the making. The coolest picture is Sanchez the pitcher hugging his dad after the game. Someone was smart enough to let the dad on to the field to be there for his son.




How soap opera-y, and yet, how real.

I love baseball. I really do.

Go Sanchez. Go Giants!