[RchW]

Originally Posted by David Watts

John Means throws a no-hitter and misses a perfect game due to a guy reaching 1B on a wild pitch following a strikeout. I've already seen one article saying he was robbed and the rule allowing a batter to reach first in that manner needs to be done away with. Come on! This is part of baseball and just because it was inconvenient this one time you don't do away with the rule altogether. UGH!

Maybe we can have a first hit with 2-out in the 9th not count, just because... ...

Dave Stieb would like (not) that.

Sept. 24, 1988, Cleveland: Two out in the ninth and Julio Franco at the plate. He fouls off three pitches on a 1-2 count, takes ball two, then slaps a routine chopper ball that takes a godawful second hop right in front of Manny Lee at second base and skitters for a single.

Sept. 30, 1988, Exhibition Stadium: In Stieb’s next start, six days later, Baltimore’s Jim Traber flares a two-out hit curveball — “my third-best pitch instead of going to a fastball’’ over first baseman Fred McGriff’s glove into right. No no-no.

Aug. 4, 1989, SkyDome: Stieb is perfect through 8 2/3 innings, 26-up, 26 down, striking out 11. Two Yankee pinch-hitters go down swinging on nine pitches. That brings centre fielder Roberto Kelly to the dish. And — because this has become the story of Stieb’s life — he lines a sharp double to left. Afterwards, Stieb — called Cy by his ’mates, as in Cy Young (the eponymous award he’ll never win) — says, sighs, “If I haven’t gotten a no-hitter after three times, I doubt if I ever will.”

Three scotched 2-out-in-the-ninth, no-hit flirtations can break a guy’s heart.