It’s as rare as the proverbial white elephant. Or a Halley’s Comet sighting.
It’s happened twice in my lifetime – check that – twice in the first half of my lifetime and none since.
We’re talking about no-hitters, and more specifically a no-hitter here in St. Louis.
Dakota Hudson flirted with one Monday night, although four walks kept him from seeing the seventh inning.
Of course, he probably wouldn’t have lasted into the ninth in any case; or into the seventh for that matter. That seems to be the new normal these days, but more on that in a minute.
As my friend and colleague Corey Miller pointed out, if it wasn’t for Bob Forsch, nearly a century has gone by without seeing a no-no here in the city limits.
Thanks to a little perusing of Baseball-Reference.com I threw some observations together:
- We haven’t seen a no-hitter at Busch III since it opened in 2006.
- Forsch pitched the only two no-hitters at Busch II, in 1978 and 1983. A quick aside: We have video of Jay Randolph walking off the field with Forsch after the final out of his 1978 gem against the Phillies; being the Cardinals flagship station at the time had its advantages. At one point, Jay asked Forsch about the support from the crowd of twelve thousand (12,000! Can you believe that?) and he waves his cap as the fans cheered their approval.
- I was present in the asterisk of all asterisk no-hitters, in 1981 when Montreal’s David Palmer retired all fifteen Cardinals he saw until rain ended the game. That’s as close to that kind of history that I’ve been an on-site witness to.
- Jesse (Pop) Haines threw the last pre-Forsch no-hitter in St. Louis back in 1924 at Sportsman’s Park. If you go back far enough you’ll see that the legendary Christy Mathewson threw a no-hitter in St. Louis, but that was at the predecessor to Sportsman’s, Robison Field – located at Natural Bridge and Vandeventer. That was back in 1901.
So now it’s time for a couple of beefs I have. Tell me if you agree:
A lot of the buzz went out of the event for me when Mike Shildt came out to remove Hudson from the mound.
For me, a no-hitter is an individual achievement. There have been combined no-hitters in the past and it’s just not the same to me for a handful of pitchers filing in to keep a no-hitter alive. Maybe it’s because you can’t personalize the achievement.
When a Nolan Ryan thrusts his fist in the air it’s because he achieved something big, a momentous mark in time. It’s just not the same thrill for a closer to come in, throw ten pitches and end the game, no hits allowed or fifteen.
But that’s the way of the times. The no-hitter is being escorted to the same dinosaur park as the complete game.
Back in 1970, San Diego’s Clay Kirby was throwing a no-no through eight innings but was trailing on the scoreboard and so his manager, Preston Gomez, pinch-hit for him. There was a lot of furor over taking out a pitcher still wrapped up in potential immortality, but now the damned 100-pitch marker is the currency; efficiency over a sacred milestone. Walking out of the ballpark that day in 1981 after the announcement came that the game was called official after five innings with no hits on the Cardinals ledger line. I’d be willing to bet that only a handful of people realized David Palmer had a no-hitter working; the drama hadn’t even had a chance to get warm, let alone come to a boil. There’s a reason MLB Network or ESPN cuts in if there’s a no-hitter going after seven innings – the live look-in was born out of that moment.
By the way, the reliever following Kirby allowed a hit and the Pads lost the game; they still don’t have a no-hitter in their 51 years of play.
So that brings me to my other beef – and it’s a minor one. It’s been a long-standing tradition that there is no mention in the dugout if a pitcher has a no-hitter going; he develops an immediate case of leprosy and is an island unto himself lest acting otherwise would jinx the effort. It’s one of those quaint traditions that makes baseball such a grand game in my eyes. But how far does that quaintness extend?
To the broadcast booth?
I think Dan McLaughlin is terrific, and he’s worked hard at his craft. However, he seems to go to great lengths to not mention a no-hitter in the works. Wait – isn’t his job to report what’s going on?
Fox Sports Midwest even put up an addition to their upper corner scoreboard, telling us that Hudson, and then the Cardinals, had a no-hitter through x-number of innings. It seems to me that if Dan happens to mention what’s going on, it’s not going to affect whether Dakota Hudson suddenly throws one over the heart of the plate or Christian Yelich pokes a great pitch over the infield and the no-hitter is gone. I’m not feeling a butterfly effect here.
Other than that, I’m okay with seeing Hudson’s effort go the way of Michael Wacha’s two near no-hitters, and all the other near misses since Bud Smith blanked the Padres (yes, the Padres again) back in 2001, the last time a Cardinal pitcher threw a no-hitter.
Let the anticipation continue.
