A No hitter is a rare thing to most baseball fans. To them it’s a sign of dominance to the pitchers who throw them. In 2007 there have been six different pitchers, who have either thrown one or got as close as you can get in baseball. Three of the pitchers have succeeded, where three of them failed. This story will highlight the different journeys of each pitcher.


The first pitcher to attempt a no hitter this year was Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox on April 18th against the Texas Rangers. At first the attention wasn’t given to Buehrle, but to the sluggers of the White Sox. Jim Thome started out the third inning with a homerun and in the fifth inning Jermaine Dye hit a grand slam, which gave the White Sox a five nothing lead. Then the attention turned to Mark Buehrle, who after five innings had a no hitter. The only base runner had been Sammy Sosa (He had a walk.) In the sixth inning, Buehrle continued to baffle the Texas Rangers into the ninth inning. Buehrle set down the first two hitters and then the last hitter, catcher Gerald Laird came to the plate. He hit a ground ball to third. The third baseman Joe Crede got the ball and threw to first base. The play was close and the umpire called Laird out. Mark Buehrle threw a no hitter! The Chicago fans screamed with pure joy as Mark Buehrle was mobbed by his teammates.


On May 5th, Chien-Ming Wang took the mound against the Seattle Mariners on a Saturday afternoon. To some Yankee fans, magic seemed to be in the air. Wang started out strong going five innings of perfect pitching and the Yankees offense was giving Wang a good game. In the eighth inning, Wang was pitching a perfect game. However that changed when Ben Broussard came up to the plate. He hit Chien-Ming Wang’s pitch out of the park for a homerun. As Broussard was running the bases, the yankee fans stood up and were cheering as much as humanly possible. Wang gave up one more hit and left the game after eight innings. Brian Bruney pitched the ninth inning and the yankees won eight to one.


June 7th seemed like another game for the Red Sox and Athletics. It was a midseason game that didn’t really matter to Boston because they were about ten games ahead of the Yankees in the standings. What happened after the game, Red Sox fans will be talking about for a while. Curt Schilling took the mound for the Red Sox against the Athletics in Oakland. Curt seemed to find a groove on the Oakland mound because after 6 innings he was throwing a no hitter. However, in the first inning, David Ortiz hit a two out solo homerun. That would be the only run of the game for either team Curt Schilling continued to pitch well, not giving up a hit into the ninth inning. With two out in the ninth inning Shannon Stewart got a single of Curt Schilling to ruin the no hitter. Curt got the next out to get the complete game one hitter. In baseball, sometimes you get the short end of the straw and that’s what Schilling got at the end of this no hit attempt.


Justin Verlander has a lot of good things on his pitching record in his two-year major league career. Last year he won AL Rookie of the year and he led the Tigers to the AL Pennant. Now you can add a no-hitter to the list. It happened on June 12th. The game was at home for the Detroit Tigers, and they were up against the Milwaukee Brewers. At the time the Brewers were in first place in the NL Central. Justin was pitching a good game and the offense started with a third inning Brandon Inge homerun and the Tigers took a one to nothing lead. He (Justin) had a little bit of control problems because he walked four people. He also struck out twelve batters. Eventually the game came into the ninth inning and Verlander was pitching a no hitter. Justin got the first two men out. It all came down the last pitch and that pitch counted as Verlander got the batter to fly out to right field. The game was over and Justin Verlander threw a no hitter. It took 112 pitches but to him, they were all worth it!


Scott Baker is a good major league pitcher. He’s nothing special like a Roger Clemens, but he’s a good pitcher in his own right. On August 31st he was being compared to Roger Clemens because Baker was close to doing something that Clemens has never done. The Minnesota Twins were at home against the Kansas City Royals. In 2007, the Royals were a below average hitting team and that is what Scott Baker knew and he took advantage of it. Scott pitched the game of his life as he kept getting outs. As the game went on the fans and the players began to notice that Baker was throwing a no hitter. The game went from six no hit innings to eight no hit innings. In the ninth inning with one out, pinch hitter Mike Sweeney came to the plate. Sweeney hit a shallow fly ball in centerfield and it dropped in for a base hit. The no hitter may have been gone, but Scott’s performance wasn’t forgotten as the fans cheered out loud for their pitcher. Baker finished the game with a one hit shutout. For being a good pitcher, Scott Baker turned out great on that night.


Can you imagine that in your second career MLB start that you pitch a no hitter? The Red Sox rookie Clay Bucholz took the dream and made it reality. On a night in Fenway Park in Boston, the Red Sox took on the Baltimore Orioles. Clay Bucholz was making only his second career start and Baltimore was thinking how they could take advantage of the rookie’s nervousness. They couldn’t do it. Clay just kept retiring the batters one, two, three in each inning. The game went into the ninth inning and Clay was pitching a no hitter. Once Clay was one out away, the Boston fans were all one their feet cheering. The final pitch was a curve ball that was called strike three and just like that Clay Bucholz became part of baseball history and it was only his second start.


As I’ve said before, a no hitter is a rare thing in the eyes of baseball fans. It could be a one-time deal in your life where people can know your name, or it could just slip out of your hands. No one knows when a no hitter will happen to them, all they know is that if it happens they better enjoy it!