No hitter!

[carbonel]

Carlos Zambrano has pitched a no-hitter!

The last no-hitter by a Cub was by Milt Pappas in September 1972.

Wow. My stomach can unclench.

Oh, and the Cubs now lead by 7.5 games in their division.

I just wish the game had been available on TV for me.

Comments

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

Gah! And I had been hunting for the game on TV today, too, and couldn't find it. Phoo!

Although this is certainly quite a spectacular way to pull out of a slump.

[carbonel]

The Cubs website claimed the game was going to be televised on WGN, but it wasn't. I listened to the game on Internet radio.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip - just went to ESPN.com to watch their short highlights video.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

It's not Big Z.'s fault, he did his job.

But there's a pretty big asterisk on this one given the circumstances.

[carbonel]

Other than the fact that it was closer to a home game than the away game it was supposed to be for the Cubs, I'm not sure the change of venue makes that much difference.

And the Astros have been hot -- winning 14 of their last 15 games.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Um.

Hmmm. To fight against fanhood or not.

Imagine that the Red Sox and Oakland were going to play a meaningful game in Oakland (this would require Oakland to have a good team, but bear with me). An earthquake ravaged the city. So, MLB, helpful folks that they are, held the game in Baltimore, where Red Sox fans sometimes outnumber Oriole's fans anyway.

Then Josh Beckett threw a no-hitter.

I'd be happy, but I wouldn't be delusional enough to think that the circumstances might not have played a role.

I'm happy for Big Z and I want the Cubs to lose to the Red Sox in the world series, which means I want the cubs to win a lot of games first. But Cubs fans need to admit to themselves that MLB seriously shafted the Astros.

here's a good comment on the situation and how egregiously bad MLB's choice to put the game in Milwaulkee was. (http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3587461&type=blogEntry)

[carbonel]

Oh, I'm perfectly willing to grant that circumstances played a role. And, in fact, that Miller Park was a lousy choice given that it was supposed to be a home game for Houston. A southern (non-hurricane) venue would have been more equitable. But I'm not sure that affects anything other than the fact that (as I said) it can be treated as a home game for the Cubs when they shouldn't have had one. And a home game no-hitter is just as remarkable as one on the road.

Now if the Astros had been traveling for the past 24 hours and weren't ready to play and were forced to because of MLB, that'd be a different can of worms. Was that anything like the case?

As for the link, I can't read it because I'm not an ESPN insider.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't realize it was an Insider link. It just lays out the many ways in which the Astros got screwed.

I think players leaving their homes to be potentially devastated by a hurricane might well not be in the finest of shape to then hit Z's pitching.

[carbonel]

Now if Ted Lilly had gotten the no-no today as well, I'd be more inclined to concede your point. I'll take the 6-1 win, though.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

A no hitter requires a concatenation of really unlikely events to take place. A team being tired, stressed about real problems back home, angry at the MLB for hosing them, having a "home" game in a park filled with enemy fans ... all of these make the unlikely slightly less unlikely.

To me, and I think to most non-partisans, Z's no-hitter will always be a little tarnished by it coming on a day when MLB hosed the Astros.