IGT - June 1 - Mets v. Cardinals, Beltran Returns

[Centerfield]

It'll be a shame that this will be overshadowed by the World Series Championship in October.

Still, I guess it's kind of special.

[Frayed Knot]

Partly lost in the shuffle -- this was Johan's 2nd consecutive complete game shutout.
And those come in his 10th & 11th games after sitting out for more than a year.

[bmfc1]

I was sitting in my parents house in Jersey without a computer handy so I missed the CPF but I just got chills all over again reading the IGT from page 1. Thanks.

[Centerfield]

I'm so giddy, it doesn't even bother me to hear David I. Pankin tell me that bankruptcy is not the end, it's a new beginning.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

metirish wrote: G-Fafif wrote: I continue to not believe this actually happened. No pressure on your next blog post, you have to have envisioned this day?

I predict an all-nigher in the G-FAFIF household -- and worth every moment.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: G-Fafif wrote: I continue to not believe this actually happened. Ya gotta disbelieve!

Bad ass! (and there are bad asses flying all over the forum tonight!)

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Edgy MD]

Brilliant, baby.


I traded for and signed him, know'wha'm sayin'?

[Edgy MD]

metsmarathon wrote: that really was a great takedown on the guy who ran onto the field.

That was a little disconcerting, especially with the security wearing old Phillies maroon windbreakers.

That wasn't KC getting tackled, was it?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Edgy DC wrote: metsmarathon wrote: that really was a great takedown on the guy who ran onto the field. That was a little disconcerting, especially with the security wearing old Phillies maroon windbreakers. That wasn't KC getting tackled, was it?

It made me think of the guys who ran with Hank Aaron who've become part of that historic moment. And they were white dudes who could've had bad intentions, but they weren't taken down like that. (They did spend a few hours in jail though).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: Anybody else open a little bubbly tonight?

Just did.

[Edgy MD]

Terry's gotta give him an extra day's rest before the next start. And an erotic massage for that matter.

But when his 2011 timetable was for a late-June, early-July return, and then he didn't even get back on the field at all except for a few innings in St. Lucie, it wasn't far-fetched to think it was all over. Who'd've thougth we'd be here now?

[Fman99]

I watched innings 1-5 while getting the kids snacked and pajamed, and then took off for my semi-regular poker game with the guys. None of which are sports fans.

Listened to the 6th in the car on the way thanks to XM and I had not realized, until then, that it was a no-no.

Watched innings 7-8 via sports ticker on my iPhone. When I saw that the no-no was intact I folded my shit poker hand and listened to Howie call the last 3 outs on headphones. What a great call.

Sorry I wasn't on here sharing it with all of you but glad to see that it finally happened.

[G-Fafif]

On this night at the opera.

Not that I wasn�t already succumbing to my more lachrymose tendencies, but what opened the floodgates good and wide up in my eyeballs where I couldn�t believe what I was seeing was the SNY camera shot of a mother holding a son of maybe five years old. They were smiling and they were cheering and I realized something about that kid: If this happens, he won�t have to grow up with this. To clarify the pronouns, the first �this� was the no-hitter Johan Alexander Santana was closing in on with (I think) one out in the ninth. The second �this� I seriously doubt I have to specify. Because it existed like hell for 50 years and two months and it has ceased to exist as of June 1, 2012, the night of the real and true First No-Hitter in New York Mets History. Of course it�s an upper-case affair. It�s an up-in-lights affair. It�s an above-the-marquee event that will forever front this 51st season of New York Metropolitan baseball. Like Bill Haley & The Comets; like Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods; like Huey Lewis & The News. Like the First No-Hitter in New York Mets History & The Rest of 2012. Whatever comes along, the Mets have a pass. 29-133? Oh, that�s not gonna happen, but you know what I mean. Every season in which the playoffs don�t seem particularly possible, I make a little bargain with Whoever might be in a position to do something about it: Give me a no-hitter and I�ll accept anything else that befalls the Mets. As if I had a choice. As if, for 8,019 games � the vast majority I have witnessed in one form or another � I had something to say about this most holiest of grails eluding our grasp. As if I could have revoked all those miserable clean singles. As if I could have turned Tarzan Joe Wallis around at the players entrance of Wrigley Field. As if I could have told Leron Lee to take off the Fourth of July forty years ago and have himself a leisurely Independence Day. As if I could have convinced Mr. and Mrs. Qualls to do no more than hold hands. You�re a Mets fan. You don�t really need me to be specific about who and what I�m talking about here, either. Those names � Wallis from 1975, Lee from 1972, Qualls from 1969 � used to mean something to us. Paul Hoover, Kit Pellow, Cole Hamels, Ernie Banks, Wade Boggs, Keith Moreland, Chris Burke�the whole miserable club. Those names mean nothing now. The only name that matters now is Johan Santana.

[Edgy MD]

Paul Hoover, Kit Pellow, Cole Hamels, Ernie Banks, Wade Boggs, Keith Moreland, Chris Burke�the whole miserable club.

Who are these guys and what is their significance? Just a buncha stooges who didn't play for the Mets, I think.

[Edgy MD]

Jay Horwitz: PR Machine.

[Guest GYC]

I love you all very much.

[Valadius]

I'm very pissed I actually slept through it. Then I woke up, saw a text from my dad, saw Howie's call and cried like a baby. Outside of a Mets championship in my lifetime, this is what I most wanted to see. And frankly I'm stunned that it happened at all. I felt like we were doomed to never see this day. I'm so happy the curse has been broken.

[Ceetar]

mother in law's 70th birthday celebration at a Hibachi place. Caught the Beltran intro to see the crowd reaction and then figured I'd skip a game since it was family time. Peaked at the score occasionally because I'm an addict and have a smartphone. Saw Duda's home run and noticed the Cardinals didn't have a hit but noticed Johan's pitch count and mostly dismissed it. Was there for his last start as a mere mortal and knew he'd been dealing and figured this would be just more of that, lifted after 7, great game, love the comeback, etc.


Kept checking. still no hits. ponder the pace of dinner. Will the guy behind the bar over there change the stupid nascar race? Can I duck over to the corner and stream it on my phone? will 3G hold up for the live lookin via the app or should I just put on Howie? We're done with dinner. it's the bottom of the 8th now. just pay and go, can watch the end right? where's our waiter? oh waiter..yeah, that's my credit card sitting there waiting for you...oh waaaiter! Hey busboy, where's our waiter? (someone else eventually takes and runs my card. Probably cost himself $10 there. Get to the car for the start of the top of the 9th, and am pulling up to the house for the final out. Everyone else goes in and I figure I'll go in at the first commercial and switch to SNY but they never go to commercial. I don't think anyone really understood why I sat in the car for 15 minutes, but screw 'em. My wife just watched the last 2 innings on SNY (I loaded up the remote Verizon FIOS DVR app from my phone in the 7th) with me and I think managed, between that and my mood/antsiness all night, to grasp how big a deal it is.

I just want to stay up all night and read all the recaps and listen to highlights and whatnot.

[G-Fafif]

I root for a team that's thrown a no-hitter in its history.

Just confirming.

[Ceetar]

G-Fafif wrote: I root for a team that's thrown a no-hitter in its history. Just confirming.

i keep pinching myself, but I don't wake up, my leg just hurts.

I kinda feel bad for Josh Lewin for missing it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Look who's #5. (in ERA)

[Ceetar]

Best I could find for Mets donut on short notice.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Are there any other sets of pitchers that hurled no-hitters after they were traded for each other, besides Johan and Humber?

Edited June 2, 2012 by Guest

[Piggiestomatoes]

Woke up about 6 for golf and the first thing I did was turn on WFAN from my bathroom Internet radio to make sure last night wasn't just a dream. They're still talking about it. I was never so happy to hear Richard Neer's voice.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've never been one of those who were desperately longing for a no-hitter. Sure, I wanted it to happen, but I also thought that the lack of one was one of those quirks that made the Mets interesting. And if I had heard about the no-hitter after it had ended my reaction probably would have been, "Huh! How about that?"

But I turned the game on in the seventh inning, just as Baxter was being led off the field. (I was so glad that it was a Gary/Keith/Ron game, and not one of those games where Extra Innings only gives me the opposing team's broadcast.) Like all of you, I was considering the pitch count, and I was also wondering if the first Mets no-hitter would be one of those (I assume) less-satisfying combined efforts. I didn't want that.

When Terry went to the mound, I was thinking, "Don't you dare!" But I figure he had no intention at all of taking Santana out of the game. It was theatrics, and nicely done. When Terry turned around and ran back to the dugout, I started to think this was really going to happen.

When Johan batted in the bottom of the 8th, my daughter said, "What if he gets hit by a pitch and hurts his arm?" And I confessed that I had been worrying about the same thing.

That flare up the middle that Murphy and Quintanilla converged on: My heart was in my mouth. I had to rewind and watch it in slow-motion to see who caught it, and even then it wasn't clear, but it was most likely Murphy.

A couple of line drives into the outfield. An instant of tension, then a sigh of relief.

I've seen this play out so many times. Memories of Leron Lee, of all people. One out in the ninth. Two. I'm getting very optimistic, but bracing myself for heartbreak. I'm pacing back and forth in front of the TV like I haven't since, I figure, late 2008. That final swing-and-a-miss (a perfect ending!) and there are tears in my eyes.

Like I said, I never really cared. Until it happened, and it was fantastic!

Johan pounding his heart and pointing to the crowd. In the interview with a totally gobsmacked Kevin Burkhardt, Santana acknowledges how much the fans have wanted this (a nice touch!) and then Justin Turner comes along with a cream pie. (Go away, you fool. This isn't about you.)

It's wonderful to have such a great Mets moment in June, on a day that you weren't anticipating anything. Goosebump moments are usually for October. I'm glad we all were able to experience this.

I hope the collective euphoria lasts for a while. I'm not eager to see us all go back to bickering about who despises the Wilpons more.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Good posting there, Grimm. I was up all night and the deeper into the night/morning, the more my appreciation for Johan's no-hitter grew. But the Mets lack of a no-hitter until now never bothered me either, and I never clamored for one the way I would for a Met to win MVP, for example. No-hitters are so freakish anyway, that I never considered the lack of one as some sort of black mark on Mets pitching. In fact, if there's any team, especially an expansion team, that shouldn't feel embarrassed about its pitching heritage, its gotta be the Mets.

[Gwreck]

I have been sick all week really, with this stupid sore throat/cold/whatever that won't go away and the doctor says isn't an infection so antibiotics aren't gonna do anything. I had even briefly considered not going.

Selfishly, one of my biggest fears was that by choosing to not go to (very many) games this year, I might miss what happened tonight.

To answer a question from before, I don't know if the stadium really did shake but it felt like it might have, just a tiny bit. I was definitely the loudest I had ever heard the park (the only thing comparable was David's game-tying homer at the first ever game at the stadium).

I was so pleasantly surprised to see how everybody in the crowd got it. As said above, to have the Mets fans united again around something positive is so refreshing. I haven't walked out of a game feeling like this since the Mets were last in the playoffs.

[Frayed Knot]

Gwreck wrote: I was so pleasantly surprised to see how everybody in the crowd got it.

The only odd thing - as least as viewed thru TV - was that the ovation for Santana when he came up to bat in the 7th seemed more tepid than one would expect for a pitcher working on a no-hitter. As it turned out, the big 7th inning netted him an 8th inning AB too so the fans had their second chance and, that time, did make the most of it.





I also was among those who also never minded the lack of a No-No.
Not that I wanted it NOT to happen -- I was at the Gooden/Knight game and have lived and died with more than a few of these going back to Jimmy Qualls -- but I was certainly never embarrassed over that particular hole in the resume so to speak and even kind of enjoyed the quirk from time to time.
But it's really cool to finally have one of these come through.

[Frayed Knot]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Are there any other sets of pitchers that hurled no-hitters after they were traded for each other, besides Johan and Humber?

Al Leiter & AJ Burnett were dealt for each other but only after Leiter had already thrown his.

My initial thought was Rick Wise and Steve Carlton but it turns out that Carlton never had one and Wise's was prior to that high-profile swap.

And there's obviously a bunch of names where I have no idea of their trade histories but I'll leave that research up to Tim Kurkjian.