Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: One of the reasons I disliked the Santana hitter was how the spectre of the Mets history as having never had one was interpreted as a black eye for the Mets when it needn't have ever been, and really imo spoke to the paranoia and low self esteem that marked the Wilpon Era. No hitters should be random and earned, not forced into existence to slay some imaginary dragon, willfully pretending that Beltrans hit was foul. I disagree. The Santana no-hitter was a pure moment of joy in what was run of really bad years. I mean, take a look at the IGT that night. Was there as fun a game in 6 seasons between 2009 and 2014? http://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/17900/f14_t17982.shtmlhttp://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/archives/17900/f14_t17982.shtml I guess we can worry about a missed call (and there unquestionably have been other missed calls in other no-hitters) but I have a really tough time accepting that it was “forced into existence.” Maybe that's easier to say now that there was a second one this year, but I don't buy that narrative. It was a tremendous achievement and a great moment for the franchise. I'll admit my own part in being extremely fed up with the Mets and ownership and lots of various missteps that were made in this time period. But not everything has to be forced into a “LOLMets” or even a “it's just not quite right” narrative. I always took JCL's view on that no-no and I'm sure I even wrote about it here. First of all, the no no-hitter streak never bothered me. I never saw it as.a source of shame. Any knowledgeable baseball fan should understand that no- hitters are extremely lucky events and that in the 50 years of the Mets existence up until that day, their pitching heritage was about as good as any other baseball team's. In fact, wish that streak was still intact. Just like I hope no other team ever loses more than 120 games in a season. Plus, Santana 's no- hitter, as far as I'm concerned, really isn't one. It's a fake. A fugazi. And if it is a no-hitter, it's extremely tainted. That's my experience.