Reese Kaplan -- Mike Puma's If These Walls Could Talk Part 6 of 9

In If These Walls Could Talk: New York Mets author Mike Puma devoted an entire chapter to the saga and legacy of Johan “No-Han” Santana who is currently the only pitcher in Mets history to have delivered a full 9-inning no hitter after having failed to get the same from Tom Seaver, David Cone, Doc Gooden, Jon Matlack, Jerry Koosman and a slew of other high quality arms who took the mound for the team.  The tale is both enervating and aggravating as everyone wanted to see it happen, but the end result of the toll it took on Santana’s arm (and career) may not have been worth the price.

Understand first that the New York Mets had gone over 8000 games without a no-hitter, so to say their fans were chomping at the bit is an understatement.  The club had enjoyed 35 one-hitters since its 1962 inception, but by 2012 they were still looking for a no-no.  Four years earlier John Maine took one into the 8th inning, but it ended there.

Johan Santana had been injured and was just in his 11th start since returning to the field from shoulder surgery.  On June 1st the Mets were playing the St. Louis Cardinals and no one knew what was about to happen.  The fans truly adored Santana despite his health issues after arriving.  He was regarded as the next elite level pitcher after winning a pair of Cy Young Awards for the Twins.

The other thing about Santana was his personality.  Bobby Ojeda said, “I think the guy legitimately loved being a Met...I don’t think (Santana) was saying cliche bullshit like -- I’ll go back and just say it -- Glavine.  (Glavine) never loved the Mets.  He’ll lie to this day, probably, but that’s a crock of shit.  He was from Atlanta...he was doing what he was doing to get paid and to keep pitching.  But I think Santana legitimately loved being a Met, and he was a winner and he would have loved to do some postseason action here with the Mets.”

Even Terry Collins tells the story of how impressed he was with Santana as a man even more than as a pitcher.  One Spring Training he was putting the various pitchers through drills at half speed and Santana spoke up to say, “If we’re going to be here, let’s do it right.”  Collins added, “And that is when he captured me.  That is when I said, ‘This guy can pitch for me, anytime.’”

Jeff Francoeur remarked, “The energy Johan brought was awesome.  You have pitchers when they are pitching that day, you can’t even talk to them.  You can’t even say, ‘hi.’  With Johan you could go in there an hour before he pitched and have a full-fledged conversation with him.  I always appreciated that about him.”

It’s been suggested that the greatest performance of Santana’s Mets career up until that June 1st game was a September 27th game against the Marlins in 2008 when the team was desperate for a win to remain in the race.  Santana took the ball on short rest, threw 117 pitches and earned a three-hit shutout when the team needed him most.  

David Wright volunteered that despite having been there for some truly outstanding efforts, it ranked as his top pitching recollection ever.  He said, “I got lucky to play behind Matt Harvey during a couple of those years, Jake during some of his years, Pedro, R.A. Dickey when he won his Cy Young award...but Santana’s might have been the greatest -- under the circumstances and pitching on short rest -- one of the greatest games pitched I’ve ever been on defense to witness.  He was magical that day.  Had to win and went out and pitched a three-hit shutout.”  

Billy Wagner declared, “He was Clayton Kershaw.  It’s max effort for nine innings.  He was one of those rare guys, he wasn’t going to be satisfied with going seven innings and giving up three runs.  He was looking to go nine and give up none.  He was that one you wanted having the ball.”

The Mets lineup that night was nothing to brag about to anyone.  You had Ike Davis at first base, Daniel Murphy at second base, Omar Quintanilla at shortstop and David Wright at third base.  Josh Thole was catching.  The outfield consisted of Mike Baxter in left, Kirk Nieuwenhuis in center and Lucas Duda in right.  Going into the game it was not a grade A lineup they put on the field.  

Santana started off the game without his usual excellent control and finished the game with five walks.  Because people were getting on base it wasn’t immediately evident that there had been no hits.  However, it slowly dawned on folks what was happening and they started scoreboard watching for every indication that the possibility of a nine-inning no-hitter was indeed possible.

One great benefit the Mets got during this game was a drive down the third base line by Carlos Beltran (then with the Cardinals) that the umpires ruled a foul ball despite the ball having chalk marks on it where it hit.  This call in the Mets favor preserved the bid for Santana and the game continued.

The huge defensive play that everyone remembers is a drive off the bat of Yadier Molina.  It was Santana’s 102nd pitch that evening and Baxter said he knew it wasn’t going out because it didn’t have the height necessary to clear the fence.  Baxter caught the ball running full tilt, crashing at that speed into the left field wall, dislocating his collarbone and tearing the cartilage above two ribs which required him to be taken off the field with assistance from the medical staff.  

Many felt at the end of that inning with Santana now at 107 pitches he might come out of the game in his scheduled at-bat.  Collins had set a pitch limit for the recently injured Santana at 115 and he was close to that number while the Mets held a 5-0 lead.  Many advocated it would have been the smart thing to do to preserve Santana’s long term viability in the rotation.  He was not in the on-deck circle, arriving quite late as he had gone to check on Baxter in the trainer’s room.  

When he came out to hit, most people felt maybe he had another inning in him.  Everyone wanted to see a no-hitter in its entirety, but they also knew his shoulder was hanging on by a thread.  

Writer Mike Vaccaro had a scheduled day off but found himself repeating an oft-suffering ritual of heading to the ballpark in the attempt to see the final out of a no-hitter.  He’d done it many times but never achieved witnessing a pitcher’s 9th inning immortality.  Vaccaro arrived in time for this one.

Pitcher Bobby Ojeda related to the arm fatigue resulting from throwing so many pitchers and observed that the longer he went, the more Santana came to rely on his soft stuff to preserve his arm.  

Many were wondering how long Santana could last with his pitch count approaching the final total of 134.  In the ninth inning Johan got Matt Holliday to line out to center field.  He then induced Allen Craig to fly out to left.  The fans were crazy with emotion and they knew he needed just one more out to achieve history.  

At 9:48 PM Johan Santana worked a full count to David Freese before getting him to swing and miss on the 134th pitch of the night.  The no-hitter was real and people couldn’t believe their eyes upon seeing it.  

After all of the celebrating was done, people went after Terry Collins about his decision to allow a recovering pitcher to exert such an effort and what it might do to his arm.  Collins said, “I’m excited for him, but if in five days his arm is bothering him I’m not going to feel very good.  You just don’t jeopardize the whole organization, the season, for one inning, so we’ll have to see how it is.”

The answer, unfortunately, was not a good one.  He was terrible in his next three starts, rebounded a little, but then fell back to obviously pain-induced pitching.  He was shut down for good in August after going 3-7 with an 8.27 ERA in the 10 starts after the no-hitter.  It really ended his career as he returned in Spring Training but once again tore the anterior capsule in his left shoulder. He attempted coming back again with the Mets and then the Orioles, but his last major league work was that August of 2012.