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A Really Very Nice and Good Kind of Game

George: Is there a pinkish hue?
Jerry: A pinkish hue?
George: Yes, a rosy glow.
Jerry: There's a hue.

Seinfeld, "The Fix-Up" (original airdate February 5, 1992)

Go figure that the Mets are heading into the All-Star Break playing a brand of baseball unprecedented in modern times (this 3 hits or fewer in five straight games thing). The Mets got "fixed-up" albeit in a different manner from George Costanza. And for all those bloggers that put together First Half Report Cards, those can be ripped up right about now.

In that same episode, Jerry made this notation in the opening monologue.

I tell ya, I never really understood the importance of the conductor. I mean between you and me, what the hell is this guy doing?

Well, apparently ours is doing something right these days. Enough to give me both a rosy glow and a pinkish hue when thinking about the team for which I root.

On to the minutiae about Saturday's game (our next post will come after the All-Star Break)...

* This was the Mets 33rd one-hitter (including postseason) and they've come in all shapes and sizes.

* The 5-inning cheapie that John Maine threw last July 29 counts just as much as Terry Leach's marathon 10 innings against the Phillies in 1982.

* The first 14 Mets one-hitters were of the complete game variety (Tom Seaver had five), but the last three the Mets have thrown in games lasting nine innings required multiple moundsmen, including this most recent one needing five.

* There's no guarantee of a Mets win with a one-hitter, though they have emerged triumphant in 31 of the 33 instances (losses to the Cardinals in 1991 and the Astros in 2006).

* As a wise woman named Elaine Benes said to the friend she was fixing up with George: "You know, maybe you need somebody between good and mediocre." The Mets have gotten one-hitters from both the goodest of the good (Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Dwight Gooden) and the mediocrest of the mediocre (Jack Hamilton, Shawn Estes).

* The one hit can come at any time, be it at the beginning (Joe Amalfitano's 1st-inning single was the only hit against Al Jackson on June 22, 1962) or the end (hello, Jimmy Qualls and Leron Lee).

* It can be a dinky dribbler (Keith Moreland, Paul Hoover) or a legitimately clean shot (most, though not all, of the others).

* It can be by a Met of the future (Ray Sadecki, 1966, Trot Nixon, 2001, Luis Castillo, 2005) or a Met of the former (Jeff Kent, 2000 NLDS Game 4).

* It can be by the ultimate no-name (Hoover, Chin Hui Tsao, Kit Pellow), an average-joe (Von Hayes, Ray Lankford, David Eckstein), or a megastar of Hall of Fame caliber (Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Tony Gwynn).

* Some who have been on our side for such an event have since turned to the dark side (current Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell tossed three hitless innings in a combo effort with Sid Fernandez in 1985), while in other instances, there may be an enemy who eventually becomes a friend (Luis Aguayo had the lone hit in the Terry Leach game in 1982).

A full list of Mets one-hitters can be found here:
http://www.nonohitters.com/onehitters/

True Metstanzas know...The two-hitter thrown on April 11, 2008 was the 102nd two-hitter in Mets history. Exactly 100 of them have come in the regular season (the two in the postseason were in Game 2 of the 1969 World Series and Game 2 of the 1973 NLCS).

For those wondering about the title of this entry, it comes from another quote within that Seinfeld episode, where Jerry is describing the body of one of Elaine's friends.

Also, if you like reading "almost no-hitter stories" than read this gem from the Faith and Fear archives.

http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/16/1141154.html

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