What A No-Hitter Means To A Met Fan
By Jerry Durney
On Friday night, Johan Santana did what Met fans both my age and much, much older thought they would never see as he threw the first no-hitter in Mets history in 8-0 win over the Cardinals. In a vacuum, a nice accomplishment for a franchise that had dubiously gone into its 51st season without a no-no and for a pitcher capping his long road back after years’ worth of injuries. But for Met fans, this night means so much more than that.
Of the many jokes the Mets have become over the last 5 years, the franchise’s lack of a no-hitter may be the only one they could laugh at. It had become a routine for fans to point out when the streak would continue, even after a leadoff single in the first inning, thanks to the new world of social media and websites like the very funny and informative nonohitters.com. As it can be so often in baseball, these things happen because of dumb luck or some would believe fate, or even both. Coming into Friday, the Mets had thrown 35 one-hitters in their history, none more famous than Tom Seaver’s brush with history on July 9, 1969. By any standard, Seaver was throwing one of the best games ever pitched as he was 2 outs away from a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. Up stepped Jimmy Qualls, a backup outfielder who went on to play two more seasons in the majors, have a career .223 average, no home runs and exactly 10 RBI. Qualls then knocked a single to left to end Seaver’s bid and until recently, remained the most memorable close call. Here’s what I mean when I talk about what this streak means to Met fans: there isn’t one Cub fan who could tell you who Jimmy Qualls is, but EVERY Met fan is very aware of his existence.
Some believed there was a curse against the franchise following an ill-fated trade on December 10, 1971. In his first five years in the major leagues, Nolan Ryan had some promising moments as a starter but constantly battled command issues. Met management became convinced that he would never overcome them and traded him to the California Angels for all-star shortstop Jim Fregosi, whose career did an immediate nosedive upon arriving in Queens. What did Ryan do? Throw 7 no-hitters over the course of the next 21 years.
Many more close but not quites would occur in the next 40+ years from the likes of Dwight Gooden, David Cone, John Matlack, Gary Gentry and more recently with John Maine, Jonathon Niese and R.A. Dickey. Many believed that the Mets would never throw a no-hitter after the franchise traded away the king of them.
Simply put, the streak was something that was as much a part of Met culture as “Meet The Mets” or the home run apple. As silly or ignominious as it might have been, it was something that was ours, whether we wanted it or not.
Fate was on my side Friday night, I was slated to call a minor league baseball game but it was rained out. Even in a best case scenario with a short game, there’s absolutely no way I would’ve been able to make it home in time to see history. I ended up doing a one-hour show from my station’s studio. On my way home, at a stoplight, I saw on the ScoreCenter app that the Mets were up 6-0 in the 6th. Of course, in my excitement of seeing them taking it to the defending champs, I went to check the box score and saw J. Santana: 6 IP, 0 H. My first immediate thought was “WHOAAAAAA! NO WAY!…..wait, wait, wait, I’m not falling for the banana in the tailpipe again. Good that Johan’s doing this but it ain’t happening.” Still, I did about 10-15 MPH over the speed limit to get back home. You know, just in case it was still happening.
I arrived home shortly after Mike Baxter’s rib-splitting catch (http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21940177&c_id=nym) in the 7th and that’s when the thought first entered my mind. Every no-hitter has to have that Dewyane Wise/Rusty Greer moment where an improbable defensive play keeps it alive. Side note: I would bet every dollar I’ve ever made that that ball would’ve gone over Jason Bay’s head for a double.
The game kind of encapsulated what it means to be a Met fan. You keep your guard up because you know the gutpunch is probably coming, but you keep just enough faith in case the glory comes.
And to those of you complaining about Adrian Johnson’s missed call of a would-be Carlos Beltran single in the sixth inning: Really? Really? You can’t let it slide this one time? As we saw with Baxter catch, you need a little luck with these things. Besides, after 50+ years of almost, the Mets deserved one of these breaks, so you can place an asterisk next to it if you want, but I’ll tell you I don’t care.
When the Cardinals came to bat, I had my family stay in the exact spot they were sitting in, while I was rocking back and forth like Leo Mazzone. In the meantime, I paced around my house like an expecting dad while rubbing my head Roy Hodgson style (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aav46Lek0Rs).
Before the 9th, I called my cousin and I said, if this is going to happen, it has to be like this, where Santana was slated to face Matt Holliday, Allen Craig and David Freese. So many no-hit close calls have been ruined by the likes of Qualls, LeRon Lee, Kit Pellow and Paul Hoover. This time, it would be three guys who played an integral role in a world championship. It’s destiny that it would be the 3-4-5 spots of one of the best hitting teams in the league, the impossible final level in a video game if you will.
Five of the final six outs were near break-down inducing. Tyler Greene’s bleeder into left to start the 8th nearly caused a collision between Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Omar Quintanilla. Carlos Beltran nearly split the infield but the defensively-challenged but lovable Daniel Murphy caught it on the run to end the inning. Holliday and Craig hit floaters to center and left respectively that held up just long enough to be caught for outs #25 and 26.
Then it came down to World Series hero David Freese. Terrifying. I’m hyperventilating at this point as the count runs to 3-2. The SportsNet New York camera does no favors as they pan to the on-deck circle where Yadier Molina, the man who crushed our championship dreams in 2006, on deck. It was at that point, I started shouting “please God, no, it can’t be (freaking) Molina!!!!” When strike 3 hit Josh Thole’s glove, I leapt up and down continuously 7 feet high, 40 feet across my living room shouting “HE DID IT! HE DID IT! HE DID IT!”
Which leads us to the man who made the seemingly impossible possible.
There was much discussion going into the ’07-08 offseason as to how the Mets would address the glaring hole at the top of the rotation. They needed a man who they could depend on every fifth day, the stopper if you will, something they sorely lacked the previous September. Pedro Martinez was dinged up once again going into the final year of his contract with the team and Tom Glavine exiled after the legendary choke job he committed on the final day of the regular season to cost the Mets the NL East title and then treating it like a business presentation afterwards. Johan Santana’s name was the one most discussed as it appeared Minnesota was willing to trade the 2-time Cy Young Award winner with his contract set to expire following the ’08 season and having nowhere near the money he was set to earn on the free agent market.
Met fans, as you’ll see again later, treated this with guarded optimism. The team couldn’t compare with the major league talent or prospects that the Yankees or Boston were willing to trade for him, but still they had a chance. Fortunately, Twins GM Terry Ryan couldn’t pull the trigger and eventually started to get desperate. That desperation led to the Twins giving away Santana for Carlos Gomez (now in Milwaukee), Phillip Humber (who, ironically threw a perfect game earlier this year, on his 3rd team since Minnesota), Kevin Mulvey (who retired on May 26th) and Deolis Guerra (now a reliever in Triple-A). For all the flack Omar Minaya rightly deserves for his time as Mets General Manager, give him credit for that heist. The deal almost fell apart as the Mets had trouble negotiating Johan’s contract extension in the 72-hour window MLB had allotted them. When it came down that the deal was official, it was like Christmas morning for Mets fans. Wait, it’s a real life ace? For us? We get to keep him? AWESOME! Everyone believed he was the piece that would bring them their first world championship since 1986.
I went to Johan’s first start as a Met on March 31, 2008 in Miami against the Marlins. He dominated over seven innings, giving up three hits, two runs and striking out 8 in a 7-2 Met win. One of the things I remember from that day was the last song I heard on the radio as I pulled into Dolphin Stadium. The song was “Superstar” by Lupe Fiasco, its chorus goes like this:
If you are what you say are, a superstar, then have no fear, the crowd is here and the lights are on and they want a show.
Given the hopes and expectations Mets fans had for him and everything that comes with being an ace in New York City, Johan, when healthy, has been the superstar we all thought he’d be and Friday night was his best show to say the least.
His first year in NY was a major success for him going 16-7, a 2.53 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 206 strikeouts in 234 1/3 innings pitched. He also left 7 different games as the winning pitcher of record but thanks to the semi-pro bullpen that’s plagued the Mets post-2006, those were all wiped out. His finest performance coming in Game 161 with the Mets needing a win to remain tied for the wild card lead. Santana, on three days rest, pitched arguably one of the greatest games in Met history: A complete game 3-hit shutout in a 2-0 Mets win. Of course, the rest of the club saw Johan’s example and proceeded to do the exact opposite the next day and complete a second straight September fade.
Weeks later, it would be learned that Santana pitched that game (and at least his previous start) with a torn meniscus in his left knee. At no point during the injury did he complain or give himself an excuse to fall back on if he came up short. He thought “I was brought here to win these games and if I don’t go out there and do my job, we will lose.” Simply put, as I will point out later, he got what it meant to pitch for this fan base. Upon that revelation, I decided that no matter what happened from there on out, he would have my utmost respect as a fan.
The next few seasons would be bittersweet. In 2009, Santana would go 13-9 with a 3.13 ERA but his season was ended in late August after having to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips in his left elbow as the Mets championship window slammed shut and they finished dead last in the NL East at 70-92. He would return to form from the start in 2010, going 11-9 (should’ve had more but was routinely betrayed by an underwhelming offense) with a 2.98 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 4 complete games. However, his season would once again be halted early by injury, and this one would be much more fearful, as he would undergo surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder in mid-September. The effects of the surgery would linger well into 2011 as there were several rounds of false hope of his imminent return, as well as stop and go rehab stints ultimately costing him the entire season.
Several whispers began to develop not only in the media, but the Met fan base as to whether he would ever pitch again. Even more, the bust label was starting to be tossed around and that he wasn’t deserving of the 7-year, $137.5 million contract he signed to come to Queens. Simply absurd. A bust who is someone who struggles and doesn’t care that they’re falling short of expectations. Bobby Bonilla was a bust, Mo Vaughn was a bust, Jason Bay IS a bust. Johan was unfortunate. As the stats above indicate, when out there and healthy, he was still every bit the pitcher we saw in Minnesota.
As the possibility of the no-hitter grew throughout the night, the more I kept thinking it has to be Johan who breaks the streak, for all that he’s gone through to get to this point, it needs to be him. When it finally happened, I wanted to re-enact the moment at 12:43:
What makes this so special is that Johan always cared about the fans and always felt like he was cheating us by not being out there. The best moment immediately following the no-hitter was Johan in the post-game interview saying to the Citi Field crowd “I’m very happy for you guys”. All we ever ask of our athletes is to give maximum effort and be appreciative of the fans. The fact that Johan Santana has exemplified both to the best of his ability, it made Friday night’s accomplishment mean just a little a bit more and why June 1, 2012 is one of the greatest days of my sporting fan life.
Please follow @jerrydpxp86 and myself @MikeVmos on twitter
Four Quarters with Mike Vamosi 
No trackbacks yet.