King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Reds rookie Cueto debuts with five perfect innings. There's nothing like a brewing no-hitter. Plus: The Final Four overdogs.
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April 4, 2008 | Cincinnati Reds rookie pitcher Johnny Cueto took a perfect game into the sixth inning in his major league debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks Thursday. Justin Upton homered to lead off the top of the sixth, leaving Cueto with one of the most spectacular first games ever: Seven innings, one run, one hit, 10 strikeouts, no walks.
After five innings, with Cueto still perfect, the front page of MLB.com had him as the lead story. "Reds' Cueto impressive in Major League debut," read the headline. There was a photo of Cueto pitching and an image of the line score, including, plain as day, Arizona's totals in the runs, hits and errors columns: 0-0-0.
The subhead read, "Rookie flamethrower Johnny Cueto is racking up the strikeouts against the defending NL West champion." At the time, Cueto had struck out eight. And he had a perfect game going.
Kind of burying the lead there, wouldn't you say?
MLB.com was following the baseball tradition of never mentioning a no-hitter while it's going on. The meat and potatoes of that one is in the dugout. Teammates of a pitcher throwing a no-no not only won't mention the no-hitter, they won't talk to him about anything. They won't even sit near him.
You can see the logic around that. The guy's in a zone, you don't want to make him start thinking about what he's in the process of doing by talking about it. Then again, the total cold shoulder can have the opposite effect. A pitcher can be sailing along, feeling like he has his good stuff that day, then all of a sudden notice that everybody's at the other end of the dugout, which, given his mainstream bathing habits, could only mean one thing. Now he's in a cold sweat. Holy crap, I'm throwing a no-hitter.
More than one pitcher has mentioned this phenomenon after taking a no-hitter into the middle innings.
When it moves beyond the dugout is when this kind of thing gets a little silly. Whether the TV or radio announcers should mention it is a subject of debate. Most won't, or they'll talk around it: Cueto really has something special going on here, folks, if you know what I mean. Whole bunch of zeros up there.
Mention a no-hitter by the home pitcher in the stands and someone nearby will hit you with a withering glare west of the Mississippi, a high-volume lecture east of it.
MLB.com's tiptoe around the subject Thursday was the first time I've noticed a print or Web entity respecting the tradition. A no-hitter in progress is an eye-catcher, and most sports-related sites aren't shy about trying to grab your attention when one's going on.
Next page: Observe my awesome powers: I can jinx a no-hitter. Plus: The Final Four favorites