Off Topic
Just What is a No-Hitter, Right?
September 2, 2058: Vancouver – Reliever Bill O’Connor almost pulled of the most interesting no-hitters ever thrown. It started on August 8th in a game in Valencia, in which the newly-acquired reliever retired the last two batters he faced.
He didn’t face another hitter until a week later as the club hosted Long Beach, when he pitched eight outs of hitless baseball. Three days later he added another two outs as the Krill lost in Portland, but then tossed six more hitless outs as the team beat Portland on get-away day.
At this point, he’d thrown 6 innings of hitless baseball.
Things got even more interesting a week later when he got four more outs when Sacramento came to town.
So this means that Bill O’Connor’s personal no-hitter had fully entered the 8th inning when the day he strode to the hill to face Vancouver’s Angel Gonzalez. Not an easy task.
When Gonzalez drilled a liner into left, the no-hitter was gone.
If he knew about it, he didn’t let on, proceeding to gather seven more outs before allowing another hit. Adding it all up, that’s 9.2 innings, with only that one Gonzalez hit to mar the surface.
Sigh.
Still, next time you see O’Connor give him the tip of the cap to signify you know what he did, and that this was pretty danged cool.
September 2, 2058: Vancouver – Reliever Bill O’Connor almost pulled of the most interesting no-hitters ever thrown. It started on August 8th in a game in Valencia, in which the newly-acquired reliever retired the last two batters he faced.
He didn’t face another hitter until a week later as the club hosted Long Beach, when he pitched eight outs of hitless baseball. Three days later he added another two outs as the Krill lost in Portland, but then tossed six more hitless outs as the team beat Portland on get-away day.
At this point, he’d thrown 6 innings of hitless baseball.
Things got even more interesting a week later when he got four more outs when Sacramento came to town.
So this means that Bill O’Connor’s personal no-hitter had fully entered the 8th inning when the day he strode to the hill to face Vancouver’s Angel Gonzalez. Not an easy task.
When Gonzalez drilled a liner into left, the no-hitter was gone.
If he knew about it, he didn’t let on, proceeding to gather seven more outs before allowing another hit. Adding it all up, that’s 9.2 innings, with only that one Gonzalez hit to mar the surface.
Sigh.
Still, next time you see O’Connor give him the tip of the cap to signify you know what he did, and that this was pretty danged cool.