I Missed What?

My girlfriend, who is out of town for work, randomly called me in the middle of the afternoon yesterday to let me know that her and a co-worker were going to attend an Angels game because they were close by and the tickets were absurdly cheap. I chuckled a little bit knowing that she would know about zero and a half players on the field in the Angels-Twins match-up but I assured her that she would have a good time despite it not being at AT&T Park.

She texted me shortly after the 4th inning at 8:35pm saying,

“No hitter, 9-0. What time are Disney fireworks?”

Which was then followed by these two text messages:

“I’ve decided Torii Hunter is my favorite.”

I ask why.

“He made a great catch right in front of me and he seems like he has kind eyes.”

As you can see, her main concern was not the baseball game at hand.

After also responding that Disneyland fireworks likely started at 9:25pm (don’t ask me how I knew that off the top of my head), I started to ponder the possibility of her witnessing a no-hitter in person before I did. After re-assuring myself that it probably wouldn’t happen, I immediately went back to my game of NBA 2K12.

Sure enough, about an hour and change later, Jered Weaver completed the feat, getting Alexi Casilla to fly out to right field. The amount of angry face Emoji’s I used on my iPhone in the hours following could have possibly filled up my entire screen. This was the second no-hitter I had almost gone to but didn’t.

You see, back in 2009, I was interning for KNBR in San Francisco. There were times when the promotions department had extra tickets to a game and sometimes they would kick those tickets to the dozen or so free-loading interns with dreams and aspirations to one day work at The Sports Leader. While working a shift on July 10th, my boss turned to me and asked if I wanted to go to the game that evening against the Padres. I took the tickets only to realize that I had plans for the night. I left the tickets at will call for a friend only slightly disappointed that I would be missing Jonathan Sanchez face the hapless Padres.

As the seemingly meaningless day of July 10th wound down, I decided to check the box score in the 9th inning. I looked at the hits column. A big fat 0 occupied that space. I couldn’t believe it. Did I really just give away tickets to a no-hitter? Given the Giants history up to that point, I figured one of the Padres would play spoiler and I could let out a sigh of relief knowing that I actually hadn’t given away tickets to a historic game.

Three outs later, Sanchez tossed the final strike of the evening…and there you had it. A no-hitter. After picking my jaw up off the ground, I vowed that I would one day witness it in person to make up for the chance I had quite literally given away.

I had a chance to go with my girlfriend and her co-worker to this game as she had asked me several times to accompany them on their trip. Not wanting to roam Southern California on my own while she worked, I declined. And now here I am…no-hitter viewless.

I’m fully expecting one of my fellow Bay Area Ball writers to hit me with the “Cool story, bro” meme, but I honestly don’t care. I’ve missed the chance to see a no-hitter not once, but twice. Twice.

At the very least, I can say that I was partially involved in the viewing of these no-hitters, right? RIGHT?!

There are about 270 recorded no-hitters in MLB history which shows the rarity of the accomplishment given that some teams have existed since the 1870′s. To witness one of these on TV is one thing, but to experience it in person has to be one of the most exciting happenings in sports (according to my girlfriend, the scene at the ballpark was “crazy!”).

Yes, at the end of the day, it is merely one victory in a 162-game season. However, not allowing a single hit to a bunch of tobacco-chewing, bat-wielding men whose sole purpose is to hit that white, rubber ball you’re hurling at them throughout the course of an entire game is extremely difficult and should rightfully be celebrated after it has been achieved.

The moral of the story – always watch a bad team whenever they come into town because they can be no-hit at any time.

Or possibly, always go with your significant other when they go out of town. Magical things can happen.