No Hitter

After 50 seasons and 8,019 games my New York Mets finally had their first no hitter. The man who pitched it? Johan, or as everyone is saying "No-Han," Santana.

My ESPN Scorecenter app sent the buzz to my phone around 7:06pm letting me know that the Mets game had just began. It was another fairly regular Friday night at Citi. The drama around this game was Carlos Beltran's return to NY after his 7 up and (mostly) down years. He would actually be involved in something more dramatic as the night became historic.

I get updates after the 3rd and 6th inning as well as the end of the game. After 3, Mets were up. After 6, Mets were up. I thought:"Cool, were doing out thing. Bout to get this win." Then I got another buzz. "Johan Santana has not allowed a hit after 7 innings." Then another "Johan Santana has not allowed a hit after 8 innings." Then another "Johan Santana enters the 9th inning with a chance to throw a no hitter."

Can't tell you how excited I was, but also nervous. I would have jumped to the closest TV if I could but I was at a play with Grandma so I just had to hoped for the best. Finally, I found out what happened as I got 3 more buzzes from my phone. Scorecenter let me know twice via the end of the game update and the baseball headlines update. New York Times let me know too: "Johan Santana throws the first No-Hitter in Mets history."

We finally did it. Johan "You know who big" Santana did it.



It's so awesome! I'm happy that it was Johan. He has been a beast the whole time he has been a Met. We could never give him enough run support in his first few years, years where he could have won Cy Youngs. Nonetheless he always pitched well. Unfortunately, he was shutdown in September of 2010 and had shoulder surgery. He missed all of last year due to rehab and returned this year. He is no longer the dominant (pitch speed wise) pitcher that he used to be, but he has been very good this year and now has the 1st no hitter in our history.

The no-no didn't come without controversy though. Beltran hit a sharp liner down the 3rd base line in the 6th the was ruled foul. It actually was fair, as it hit the chalk. It would have broken up the no-no and prevented history. But it was ruled foul and no-no attempt went on. It's kind of sweet that Beltran didn't break it up, payback for him not coming through when we needed him the most: final at bat of game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.

Johan didn't do it by himself. Queens native, and life long Mets fan turned Mets player Mike Baxter gave up his body to help preserve the no-no in the 7th.

Thank you Mike. Thank you Johan. Thank you Mets. History. Proud to be a Mets fan!