Since the first time I went to a Major League Baseball game in 1976, I’ll guess that I’ve been to over 1,000 games. Add in little league games, legion games, high school and college to go with a bunch of minor league games and it could be another thousand ballgames.
Whatever the actual total is, it’s a lot of games.
Yet of all those games I’ve seen exactly one – ONE – no-hitter. I watched a few on TV, but as far as being in the park to witness a no-hitter that honor goes to Kevin Millwood when he blanked the Giants at the Vet in 2003. I saw Eric Milton get to within three outs of getting one and Vicente Padilla come four outs away. I also saw one-hitters from Jim Gott/Roy Lee Jackson in 1982 and Randy Wolf at the Vet against the Reds in 2001.
I’ve seen more cycles at the Bank (David Bell and Brad Wilkerson) than no-hitters, ever.
Nevertheless, I thought I was going to witness one last night, though in the end it really didn’t get that close.
Cole Hamels, of course, carried a perfect game into the seventh inning and came within nine outs of finishing the no-hitter. That’s close, but still an inning away from it really getting interesting. Regardless, in facing one of the better hitting teams in the Majors (the Brewers lead all of MLB with 51 homers) Hamels seemed like he was the Harlem Globetrotters with the bucket of confetti and the ball on the string against the Washington Generals.
Quite simply, Hamels can pitch the way most people breathe, eat or go into out-of-control credit debt.
But what’s most interesting about this fact is that Hamels knows he is very, very good and doesn’t mind saying so. Better yet, he does this without arrogance or coming off as too overbearingly cocky. Instead, he’s just refreshingly confident and candid. In the clubhouse after the game last night, Hamels was asked if he thought he was going to get the no-hitter and if he believes he will get one in sometime soon in the future and he didn’t even hesitate with the answer.
“Oh course,” he said. “I try to think that every night… ”
Or:
“Of course. Every year I go out there and try to get at least one.”
It doesn’t sound outlandish that Hamels will someday toss a no-hitter, but then again people used to say it was just a matter of time before Steve Carlton threw one, too. When his career had ended, Carlton had six one-hitters to his credit and zero no-hitters.
***
Last night Brett Myers pitched in the third game in a row and his fifth of the last seven despite the Phillies holding a comfortable four-run lead and a bullpen full of relievers waiting to get a little work in. Manager Charlie Manuel has always maintained that he views four-run leads as save situations in cozy Citizens Bank Park, but even so using Myers in such a situation was a little curious.
Sure, Myers is stretched out and pitched around 200 innings for the last few seasons, but there has to be a delicate balance for how much a reliever can pitch…
Right?
Nevertheless, when asked if he would be ready to go today if he got another call in the ninth, Myers was succinct.
“Yep,” he said.
Meanwhile, much has been made about Myers’ choice of entrance music that is played over the PA as he makes the jog from the bullpen to the mound for the ninth inning; though it wasn’t queued up for last night’s outing because no one thought he’d get into the game.
Anyway, Myers wants “Children of the Grave,” the White Zombie version of the Black Sabbath song, to be played as he comes into the game. Apparently, in some sort of faux machismo, Myers believes Rob Zombie and the gang get the crowd “pumped up.”
“Doesn't it have that aura about it?” Myers asked.
Uh, no. No it doesn’t.
If you're going with Sabbath, it has to be "War Pigs."
However, here’s an idea – instead of some pretend phony toughness delivered through the majesty of song, maybe it would be more of a mind scramble if Myers entered the game to Lesley Gore's "Sunshine and Lollipops?"
Better yet, I have always believed that if a player was going to take the time to select a song in which to choreograph his appearance in a baseball game, that player should also perform an interpretive dance or performance art piece using the song on their way to the batters’ box or mound.
Hey, it’s a game, right? Let’s have some fun.
Here we are now, entertain us.