Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Historical no-no

In case you missed it, last night Justin Verlander pitched a no-hitter, the first no-hitter by a Tigers' pitcher since Jack Morris did in back on April 7, 1984 and the first no-hitter IN DETROIT (Morris' gem was at Comiskey Park against the White Sox) since Virgil Trucks did it against the Washington Senators on May 15, 1952.

A no-hitter in baseball is such a special thing, something you may never see. And, thanks to Kevin, I didn't miss it. Although I wasn't at the ballpark (I am SO jealous of all those people who were plus it's hard with a toddler to just get up and go, you know), I did get to catch it on TV. After our nightly walk, I turned the game on while I was getting Harmon ready for bed. We were up 4-0 and I knew Verlander was having a hell of a game (he struck out his 10th batter just as I started reading Harmon's his bedtime stories). Once Harmon was asleep, I came into the den and Kevin asked me if I was going to turn the game on in there. I told him no because a) it was on in the other room and b) I knew we needed to clean (Tuesday nights are cleaning nights at the Bergquist house). He then said, so matter-of-factly, "you know he's got a no-hitter going, right?" I must have not looked at the hits column when the game went to commercial and, after reading today's papers, I know the Tigers' radio and TV announcers were doing their best NOT to point it out and thus jinx it. At any rate, I tuned in for the last two innings and was lucky enough to witness history. When Magglio caught that final out, I got tingles up and down my spine (only baseball can do that)!

There was so much information and so many stories and photos to sift through this morning, it was so exciting. And, congrats to Verlander who, at 24, has done one of the things pitchers dream of their entire lives.

OK, some fun links about the no-no:

CBS SportsLine story

ESPN story

Detroit Free Press info

Detroit News info

Detroit Tigers web site