Mets No-Hitters History at NoNoHitters.com

Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com had a great column today on the Mets’ destiny to never throw a no-no.

Check it out!

John Maine becomes the 13th Mets starter to be pulled with a no-hitter intact. See our Pulled during a no-hitterpage for details.

The Mets’ Pagan-Blanco-Reyes-Davis triple play against the Nationals on Wednesday night was the team’s 10th TP in its 48-plus year history.

Here’s the full list, with some research help from the The Society For American Baseball Research and Retrosheet:

---

May 30, 1962, Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
6-4-3 triple play in top of the sixth inning

The Dodgers’ Willie Davis lines out to Mets shortstop Elio Chacon, who makes a leaping catch and throws to second-baseman Charlie Neal, who doubles up Maury Wills and throws to first-baseman Gil Hodges, who catches Jim Gilliam off first.

---

May 31, 1964, San Francisco Giants at New York Mets (23-inning game)
6-6-3 triple play in the top of the 14th inning

Orlando Cepeda lines out to shortstop Roy McMillan, who steps on second to double up Jesus Alou, then throws to first-baseman Ed Kranepool to catch Willie Mays off first.

---

April 15, 1965, Houston Astros at New York Mets
9-2-6 triple play in the top of the 2nd inning

Jimmy Wynn hits a fly ball to right-fielder Johnny Lewis, who catches the ball and throws home to catcher Chris Cannizzaro, who tags out Walt Bond after tagged up and tried to score from third, then Cannizzaro throws to shortstop Roy McMillan, who nabs Bob Aspromonte while he was trying to decide whether to advance from first.

---

Sept. 28, 1966, Chicago Cubs at New York Mets
5-4-3 triple play in the top of the 6th inning

Joey Amalfitano lines out to third-baseman Eddie Bressoud, who throws to second-baseman Chuck Hiller, who doubles up John Boccabella and throws to first-baseman Jim Hickman, who catches Ron Campbell off first.

---

Aug. 3, 1982 New York Mets at Chicago Cubs
6-4-3 triple play in the bottom of the 8th inning

Larry Bowa hits a fly ball to shortstop Bob Bailor, who flips the ball to second-baseman Wally Backman to double up Jay Johnstone, and Backman throws over to first-baseman Dave Kingman, who catches Gary Woods off first.

---

Sept. 29, 1982, Chicago Cubs at New York Mets
4-4-3 triple play in the top of the third inning

Keith Moreland hits a grounder to second-baseman Brian Giles, who tags Bill Buckner as he was running from second, steps on second base to force Jay Johnstone from first, then throws to first-baseman Rusty Staub to get Moreland.

---

June 6, 1989, New York Mets at Chicago Cubs
3-6-3 triple play in the bottom of the fifth inning

First-baseman Dave Magadan fields Vance Law’s hard-hit short-hopper and tags Lloyd McClendon running from first, throws to shortstop Kevin Elster who gets Damon Berryhill from second, then throws back to Magadan to get Law.

---

Aug. 5, 1998, San Francisco Giants at New York mets
3-6-3-2 triple play in the top of the fifth inning

J.T. Snow hits a hard grounder to first baseman John Olerud, who checks Barry Bonds at third and then throws to shortstop Rey Ordonez to force Jeff Kent running from first. Ordonez fake throws home to hold Bonds and then throws to Olerud to get the batter, then Olerud throws home to get Bonds.

---

May 17, 2002, New York Mets at San Diego Padres
5-4-3 triple play in the bottom of the fifth inning

Wiki Gonzalez grounds to third-baseman Edgardo Alfonzo, who who steps on the bag to force Deivi Cruz from second and throws to second-baseman Roberto Alomar to force Sean Burroughs from first, then Alomar throws to first-baseman Mo Vaughn to get Gonzalez.

---

May 19, 2010, New York Mets at Washington Nationals
8-2-6-3 triple play in the fifth inning

With the Nationals’ Livan Hernandez at second and Nyjer Morgan at first, Washington sent the runners while Cristian Guzman hit a short fly ball center. Angel Pagan hustled in to make a great shoestring catch, and Hernandez was already standing on third and Morgan on second when Pagan tossed the ball toward shortstop Jose Reyes in an effort to begin the sequence. Pagan’s errant throw sailed past Reyes and landed near the mound, but both runners stood still as if confused about whether it was indeed a catch. Mets’ catcher Henry Blanco picked up the ball, threw to Reyes for out No. 2 and then to Ike Davis at first for out No. 3. One of the umpires was about to rule it a single (it was clearly a catch), but a colleague overruled him and signaled three punch outs for the triple-play.

It’s well known around these parts that the New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres are the only three MLB franchises with no no-hitter (Ubaldo Jimenez got the Rockies out of that exclusive club this season).

But as I was updating the site’s pages today after the Oakland Athletics’ Dallas Braden’s threw his perfect game, I came across a tidbit of information that really illustrates the Mets’ no-no woes:

The New York Mets have played a little over 48 years in the National League and have never had a no-hitter. … the Louisville Eclipse (later renamed the Colonels) played 17 years in the American Association and the National League from 1882 through 1899 and have thrown four no-hitters.

That’s right … Louisville, which lasted about a third as long as the Mets, had four more no-hitters. That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?

And, the Eclipse/Colonels are just one of 16 defunct franchises that have thrown a total of 24 no-nos. Here’s the full list:

• 4 Louisville Colonels, Louisville Eclipse (AA, NL)
• 3 Baltimore Orioles (AA, NL – different than the current AL franchise)
• 2 Buffalo Bisons (NL)
• 2 Columbus Buckeyes (AA)
• 2 Providence Grays (NL)
• 1 Toledo Blue Stockings (AA)
• 1 St. Louis Brown Stockings (NL)
• 1 Cincinnati Outlaw Reds (UA)
• 1 Kansas City Packers (FL)
• 1 Cleveland Spiders (AA, NL)
• 1 Worcester Ruby Legs (NL)
• 1 Brooklyn Tip-Tops (FL)
• 1 Chicago Federals (Chi-Feds), Chicago Whales (FL)
• 1 St. Louis Terriers (FL)
• 1 Kansas City Cowboys (AA)
• 1 Rochester Broncos (AA)

The Mets and starter John Maine have agreed to terms of a contract, MLB.com is reporting.

That means the right-hander will return to the rotation with the opportunity to throw the first no-hitter in franchise history. Maine currently holds the third-place slot in our non-scientific sidebar poll of who will accomplish the feat. Johan Santana leads with 40 percent of our readers’ votes, trailed by “Some other guy” with 25 percent and Maine with 13 percent.

Forty-six years ago today, on Aug. 7, 1963, Jim Hickman became the first New York Met to hit for the cycle, accomplishing a feat nearly as rare as a no-hitter.

Hickman’s accomplishment at the Polo Grounds is considered a natural cycle, because he hit his single, double, triple and home run in that order during the Mets 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals – a rare victory during a 51-111 season.

Hickman led off the game with a single, doubled in the second, tripled home Mets picher Tracy Stallard in the fourth and led off the sixth with a solo home run. He got a chance to make it a 5-for-5 day in the eighth but flied out to left.

Although no Met has thrown a no-no during the team’s 47-plus years of existence, eight other Mets have gone on to hit for the cycle: Tommie Agee (July 6, 1970), Mike Phillips (June 25, 1976), Keith Hernandez (July 4, 1985), Kevin McReynolds (Aug. 1, 1989), Alex Ochoa (July 3, 1996), John Olerud (Sept. 11, 1997), Eric Valent (July 29, 2004) and Jose Reyes (June 21, 2006).

So to summarize, the Mets own 0 of the 240 sanctioned Major League no-hitters, yet 9 of the 287 hits for cycle in Major League history. So in Mets history, the no-hitter is MUCH more rare than the cycle.

For the record, only three teams (the San Diego Padres, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Florida Marlins) have never had a player hit for cycle. The Padres and the Rays are the only franchises void of a no-hitter or cycle, while the Colorado Rockies have had a cycle but no no-hitter.

We have a new addition to our No-hitters thrown before they came to the Mets page, though the accomplishment happened 15 years ago.

An oversight had omitted Scott Erickson, who threw a no-no as a Minnesota Twin on April 27, 1994, during a 6-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

We had forgotten that Erickson in 2004 made two starts for the Mets, and the oversight is not entirely surprising considering that preseason injuries kept him from ever taking his spot in the starting rotation. (Thanks to Jim for outpointing.)

Erickson finally took the mound for the Mets in July 2004 but went 0-2 with a 7.88 ERA in his only two starts. That prompted the club to deal him to the Texas Rangers on July 31, 2004 for player-to-be-named-later Josh Hoffpauir.

Just settling in back home after a great trek out to New York/New Jersey that included a trip to Citi Field for Santana and the Mets’ 7-0 shutout of the Colorado Rockies.

Huge thanks to Dave Mackey for posting the game reviews while I was out of cell coverage camping upstate on Romer Mountain in Phoenicia.

Mets Weekly dropped by our seats at Citi last Thursday for an upcoming feature on the site and the Mets’ 47-year-old no no hitters streak. I’m told it might air Saturday or during a subsequent show on SNY. I honestly thought Santana was going to accomplish the impossible that day … at least until a relief pitcher (Josh Fogg) put a “1″ in the Rockies “H” column. I can’t remember the last time a relief pitcher killed a no-no.

Citi Field is great and it was nice to drop by and see the old Shea home run apple while touring all the perks the new stadium had to offer. There were no Mets’ home runs that day, but our upper-deck seats were high enough to give us a peak at the top of the new apple in center field.

My sons and I also had a chance to visit the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown which boasts a wall of all of the Major League no-nos. Can’t wait to revisit someday to see Johan, Maine, Pelf, Livan or someone else donning a Mets cap up there.