Bill Conlin: Where Halladay's gem ranks in history
WHEN I'M KING of the World . . . Fans attending Roy Halladay's next start will be obliged to read up on Johnny Vander Meer . . .
WHEN I'M KING of the World . . .
Fans attending Roy Halladay's next start will be obliged to read up on Johnny Vander Meer . . .
Cover sports in this town for a half century, you are bound to luck into some amazing events: Ranked heavyweight Sonny Banks dying of a massive subdural hematoma after being knocked out by Leotis Martin in my first assignment as boxing writer for this newspaper in May of 1965 . . . Subbing for honeymooning Stan Hochman on a Phillies trip to the Coast that summer and landing in Los Angeles with the Watts Riots raging . . . Bill Stoneman no-hitting the Phillies in Gene Mauch's first game here in 1969 as Montreal Expos manager . . . Covering Pete Sampras' first Wimbledon singles title and Martina Navratilova's last . . . Team USA's minor leaguers - including Roy Oswalt - ending Cuba's three-decade international tournament victory streak in the 2000 Sydney Olympics . . . Being ordered to vacate Fidel Castro's seat at the bowling finals in the 1991 Pan Am Games . . . The trauma of Black Friday in 1977 and the triumph of Game 6 against the Royals in 1980 . . . The World Series earthquake in 1989 . . . The five-ring circus in Lillehammer, Norway, featuring figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan . . . Stuck on a stalled Fenway Park elevator when Carlton Fisk hit his famous Game 6 homer against the Reds . . . Then along came Roy.
When Roy Halladay threw his first pitch Wednesday night - a strike, of course - I had covered five no-hitters. Stoneman, George Culver, Rick Wise, Ken Forsch and Bill Singer. By the luck of the scheduling draw, I had missed no-hitters by Phillies lefthander Terry Mulholland and righthander Kevin Millwood. Nor was I in Montreal for Tommy Greene's 1993 no-no.
When Reds manager Dusty Baker played the infield up in the first inning with one out and Shane Victorino on third, you knew he had seen something scary in the top of the inning. By the fifth, you figured half the NLDS Game 1 mob was talking no-hitter. Around the sixth, I suggested to fellow columnists Rich Hofmann and Sam Donnellon that if Halladay pitched another no-hitter we could each take three innings.
Carlos Ruiz saved the single-most mesmerizing pitching performance of my career in sportswriting with his remarkable kneeling throw to Ryan Howard after plucking the ball off the Brandon Phillips bat that had propelled a swinging bunt several feet. How would the play have been scored had the ball been thrown away? The official scorer is happy he didn't have to make that call.
Given the grand stage, the setting, the 747 jet-engine din, 46,000 towels waving, a robust rain shower, all those factors considered, this was the best pitching performance I have covered. Ever.
But it was not the most overpowering. Lefty wins that designation for an obscure early 1972 performance witnessed by 6,092 frozen souls in Candlestick Park, baseball's Alcatraz. Steve Carlton vs. Juan Marichal. Chris Speier led off the Giants' first with a clean single to center. Tito Fuentes forced Speier at second, then was caught stealing.
The Giants didn't have another baserunner until Carlton walked third baseman Chris Arnold with one out in the sixth. And that was it.
The Phils clawed three runs off the great Marichal.
Carlton struck out 14. He faced 28 hitters, the same 1-over par total as Halladay. Game time: 1 hour, 49 minutes. But that was an April game between a Phillies team destined for last place and a Giants team that had an aging Willie Mays and no longer had Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda or an Alou brother.
Few remember that distant game in the world's largest outdoor refrigerator. But nobody who was at the Bank on Wednesday will never forget Halladay's epic performance. So, save your ticket stubs. Ten years from now, 200,000 fans will claim they were there.
When I'm King of the World . . .
A knotty NFL question will be answered: Do all the 2010 teams stink? Or are they all mediocre-to-good in harmony with the Rozellian dream of absolute parity? . . . So, what is it, if the Eagles and Michael Vick plundered the pathetic pass defense of the Jaguars, how had that cripple managed to stomp the Chargers the week before and upset the AFC-favored Colts the week after? The answer is possibly in the standings, where going into Week 5 the Chiefs are the only unbeaten team. And the Lions are the only winless one . . .
Got some sharp rebukes from Haters wanting to know howinhell I could pick Steve Carlton over Cliff Lee as the starter on the All-Phillies World Series team I assembled for Wednesday's NLDS wrap. Real easy. If you played for a Phils team that won a World Series, that trumped an equal record for a World Series loser. So I don't care if Lee had pitched double no-hitters to win the only two Phils games last year. Lefty's 2-0 record led to a parade. Maybe if Lee had volunteered to pitch on 3 days' rest, he would still be here.
But don't get me wrong . . . Blessed are the Haters, for they read every word and all hits to the website are created equal.
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