“It's kind of a culmination of thoughts. First, it's just the gratification of knowing you hit the ball well. Then, you realize that you broke up a no-hitter and it's your first homer and it's off Pedro Martinez. When I got into the dugout, I really kind of had to sit down for a second.”
— Chris Burke
Tonight's culmination of thoughts: The flirtation with the no-hitter was nice, though we've become pretty used to disappointment on that score over the decades. But that's OK. After all, we got the electric stuff, we got the base hit to help his own cause, we got his awareness of the crowd and acceptance of it and eagerness to let it take him and bear him up to an even higher level, and we got the four strikeouts to finish the thing just when we were thinking dark thoughts about Grady Little and 100 pitches and Looper's failings. Silly us for worrying. That impossibly surgical fastball on the inside edge that ate Orlando Palmeiro alive in the ninth? It was a thing of almost terrible beauty,a piece of kinetic art to be gawped at, to leave you shaking your head in mute amazement.
Yep, young Mister Burke, he makes us feel like we have to sit down for a bit too.
When the little rugrat was rounding the bases, I was spitting with rage. He gets back into the dugout and I yell at the TV, “…AND YOU ARE???”
(As the no-no progressed into “this might really happen” territory, I have to admit my first thought was what highbrow cultural event Greg was attending instead of watching the game. It's always the way.)
Emily and I were attending dinner at a Mexican restaurant for the first five. Walking out I turned on the radio and handed her an earbud (awwww), asking, “If Pedro throws a no-hitter and we missed the first part, do we get to say we heard it?”
Little did we know….
I think we as Mets fans have the right to start thinking about a no-no after a 1-2-3 first, but do we all basically agree that the sixth inning is when things really start to matter? In my Met-watching experience, the sixteenth out is when the crescendo really starts to build…and each out after that just gets bigger…huger, even. I find myself unable to get “into” a potential no-no any time before that, even as it pervades my every thought. And then, suddenly, the first out in the sixth is like the first out of a World Series game. Is that about right?
And- did you smirk or curse when you saw that Qualls was warming up in the pen? Funny game, this.
I agree. I don't see it as a potential no-no until the 6th.
I've just broken the habit of saying “24 to go,” “21 to go,” etc. after each no-hit inning (it's literally never worked), so you can tell when I start thinking about it. If I recall correctly, the wire services send an alert after five no-hit innings. Personally, I start really sweating when the 7th begins.
I've flaunted it. I've hidden it. I've done everything in between. It may be up to the pitcher, the catcher, the fielders, the batter and the official scorer after all.
in its way, the homer was to be preferred to a dinky little hit that squeegied into the outfield.
until that point pedro had faced the minimum number of batters. the one walk was erased in a double play.