April 18, 2021: The No No

What a way to start the next decade. 1990 brought us a total of 7 no hitters, which doesn’t include the other 2 games where no hits were allowed (Andy Hawkins pitched 8 no hit innings against the Sox, but lost the game, so he didn’t pitch the full 9, while Melido Perez for the Sox didn’t allow any hits through a 6 inning, rain called game… kind of BS… those should count no?). Anyways, 7 in one year… that still has to be some kind of record…

It all started off on April 11 when Mark Langston and Mike Witt combined for one for the Angels. Next up was the Big Unit; Randy Johnson recorded the first of his two career no hitters. The next guy up had a few more. Yep, Nolan Ryan at the age of 43, recorded his 6th no hitter in 1990; he would record one more to finish with 7 of them, which leads the majors. Speaking about records that will probably never be broken… Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela followed… on the SAME DAY! Actually, this was the 2nd time this happened. Terry Mulholland was up next for the Phillies, and finally, yes, finally, Dave Stieb turned one in for the Blue Jays. I say finally because Dave Stieb was one out away three times before this, without completing the deal. That got me thinking…

I started looking up Dave Stieb, and found a couple interesting articles; he also has an auto-biography titled “Tomorrow I’ll be Perfect” which was written BEFORE these near misses; that’s kind of crazy. Anyways, one of the articles talked about the three near misses. If you think about it, if he did convert those, and got those 3 extra outs, he’d have finished with 4 no hitters, which would have tied him with Sandy Koufax for 2nd all time. Would this have made a difference in his Hall Of Fame results? He did finish with the 2nd most wins in the 1980s, only trailing Jack Morris. Anyways… then I ended up on this other website, “Nonohitters.com”… what a cool website. It breaks down all the no hitters thrown over time, and yes, it has been updated to include the latest Padres 1st franchise no hitter and Carlos Rodon’s for the Sox. I’ve browsed around and probably will some more. There have been 307 no hitters in major league professional baseball. If you think about how many years baseball has been in existence, since 1876, quick math tells me that’s 145 years ago… that’s about 2 per year. And how many games per year? I know this has changed over 145 years, but for argument’s sake, 162 x 30 teams divided by 2 since there are 2 teams per game comes out to 2,430 total games divided by 2 no hitters per year comes out to 0.1% end up with that result… approximately. Man, it would be cool to be in attendance for one of those… I came close this year actually, at the Cubs game, when Woodruff from the Brewers took it into the 7th inning. Not exactly how I’d like to see it go down, but still… any no hitter is baseball history… that’s why I even got some enjoyment seeing Rodon throw his for the Sox… then I immediately switched the channel.

OK, we started rambling a bit… back to 1990, where the As made their 3rd straight World Series appearance. This one would be a bit like 1988, losing to the Reds by the sweep variety. That As team was so good, yet only captured one World Series title; it ain’t easy… makes me feel a little better about only seeing one from this current Cubs team… a little bit. As we get further into the 90s, we’ll be talking about the Braves and all their trips to the end of the line, only being able to bring one home. Winning a World Series title, after navigating an 162 game season, then having enough gas to beat the best in the playoffs, is not for the faint of heart. Regardless that the Cubs “only” did it once, I’m just happy they did it once. I couldn’t imagine if that longest drought in professional sports was still counting… nah, I’ll pass. And I’ll be happy about 2016 forever… but as far as 1990 went, it was Sweet Lou and the Reds with Eric Davis, Chris Sabo, Billy Hatcher, Jose Rijo, and the Nasty Boys leading the way to their title, which was their last one to date. In fact, neither team the Reds or the As have even participated in the Fall Classic since 1990… who’ll get back first? Up next, 1991.