Now i’m incredibly annoyed with myself.
I’m in San Francisco, and the wife and i were thinking about going to tonight’s game, but opted instead for tomorrow’s day game.
Bummer!
Huh. Astros make history.
Ha…no. The Reds “successes” are more of a distant memory. The Cards won it all just last season!
Considering there have been just 22 perfect games in the history of MLB (and that’s counting all the way back to 1880, so a couple of those teams don’t exist anymore), it’s not all that surprising. Most teams haven’t had a perfect game in their franchise’s history.
The collection of pitchers who’ve managed the feat is rather interesting, because it goes all the way from the game’s greats and near-greats to guys who would have hardly been remembered but for their one perfect moment.
Also, five of those 22 have been in the last 3 years (and there should have been a sixth). It’s to the point where you have to wonder if there’s something systematic going on. Even the late 60s only saw 3 in 4 years (the second-biggest cluster on that list).
Just for yucks (and to answer for myself the question of whether Halladay was a hall of famer if he never pitched another inning), I looked at the Active WAR leaders. Amusing that Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt are tied at 23rd.
Also, there are 4 players from the Astros organization on that list (the most of any organization); of those, two of them were given away with zero compensation (Johan Santana, rule 5 draft, and Bobby Abreu, expansion draft). The Indians and Yankees both have 3 players on the list (Thome, Ramirez, Sabathia for Indians; Pettitte, Jeter, Rivera for Yanks); Braves, Phillies, Mariners, A’s each have 2.
7 of the players have played for the Yankees.
There is: hitting is at its lowest levels in more than 20 years, and overall . Some randomness and dumb luck is involved because these are such rare events, so the better indication may be the increase in no-hitters. There have been 20 no-hitters since the start of the 2007 season. By comaprison there were 21 no-nos from the start of 1994 through the end of 2006.
I’m not too much of a baseball fan, but I do follow the Giants enough to say I’m not terribly surprised Matt Cain pitched a perfect game. Hell, he was one hit/error from doing it earlier this year (Apr. 13 vs Pirates).
Congrats, Matt! You’re a total stud, and now the world knows it. (Can we finally put him at the Ace spot?)
Even more extreme, SI pointed out that there have five no-hitters already this season and 14 in the last two seasons plus 2.5 months.
Is is safe to call the Steroid Era over now?
Not to mention 2 perfectos already this year (or was that already mentioned?)
The Mariners announcers were commenting the other night that Safeco Field has already been the scene of two no-hitters this season. Somebody (and I’m blanking on who now) pitched a perfecto against the M’s earlier this season, and then the combined no-hitter against the Dodgers last week.
Phil Humber for the White Sox. Not the last time someone’s going to have to ask who threw that one. On the other hand Cain has come close to a no-hitter a few times before and he’s been great this year.
And, weirdly, R.A. Dickey threw a 1-hitter with no walks on the same day, that one hit being a infield hit misplayed by David Wright that could conceivably have been called an error (although I doubt very much that MLB will overturn the call, and they shouldn’t).
He’s also struck out 50 and walked 3 in his last 5 starts and hasn’t given up an earned run in the last 32+ innings. How many high school kids are trying to figure out how to throw a knuckleball right now?
I expected that hit would be a borderline call, but when I watched this morning it wasn’t. The ball was hit directly at Wright, he went to barehand it, and it bounced off him. Should’ve been an error but I’m sure it won’t be overturned. But I can tell you that this same exact thing has happened before. On my birthday in 2004 I saw Jason Schmidt throw a one-hitter for the Giants against the Cubs. The only hit was an infield single in the fifth. That’s still the best pitching performance I’ve seen in person and I was sure it was the best in the majors that night. Then I got home and discovered Randy Johnson had just finished a perfect game against the Braves.
It’s only two starts, but should Mets fans be worried about Santana’s post-No-No performance? He went 134 pitches during his gem, but he’s coming back from a big injury. The two games since have been pretty bad (5 innings each, 6 and 4 earned runs.) It’s probably too early to really worry, but it’s be a shame he hurt himself again.
Just got back from an afternoon at Miscellaneous Telecommunications Company Park, where we watched the Astros beat the Giants 6-3.
It was, of course, never going to be as exciting as last night’s game, and the real damage was done in the top of the 3rd inning. After getting Wandy Rodriguez to ground out, Barry Zito had the following results against the next four hitters:
BB
BB
BB
HR
One hit and four runs. The Giants pulled a couple back when Belt belted one into San Francisco Bay, but it wasn’t enough.
Still, there’s no way to complain about a sunny afternoon at that ballpark. The weather was great, the view out over the Bay is fantastic, and even the outrageous food prices are offset a little by the $5 concession credit that comes with each ticket.
Reds win again, and Joey Votto is becoming the best hitter in baseball.
And that AFTER signing the huge contract.
Of course he already was pretty elite.
I’ve given up on trying to keep track of all the corporate ballpark names, and can’t see any reason to refer to ballparks by anything besides [Team Name] Park/Field or [City Name] Park/Field unless a ballpark still sports its pre-naming-rights-era name.
I can understand why stadium owners (or team owners that have purchased the right to do so) sell naming rights: money. What I don’t understand is why anyone who’s not in on the gravy train goes along with the game. I’m thinking newspaper sportswriters in particular. I’ll give TV and radio broadcasters a pass, since it may well be part of the broadcast contract to refer to the ballparks by their naming-rights handles, but no such arrangement can apply to sportswriting. I suppose a team could kick a writer out of the sportswriters’ box, but that would be the extent of it.
On a more pleasant note, I’m looking forward to tonight’s Yanks-Nats game. Go Nats!!