(This story originally appeared in the June 2021 edition of Yankees Magazine.)
For all the baseball games I’ve been to in my life, I can only count one no-hitter to my ledger. Fortunately, it was an extremely weird and memorable one, when the Astros used six pitchers to no-hit the Astros in 2003. I was sitting in the stands at the old Yankee Stadium that night, about 13 rows back, right behind the plate.
The night was amazing partly for how weird it was. My impression of a no-hitter had always been a dominant effort by a starter, one that had you humming in anticipation from about the fifth inning on. That night, it took a lot longer to realize what was happening, because Roy Oswalt had been knocked from the game in the second inning.
History is obviously kinder to the more singular no-nos. It’s easier to attach the feat to a single pitcher. But I’ve long wondered what type is worth to be on the losing end of? Would you rather just tip your cap to a pitcher who was rolling that night, acknowledging that everything he did was working? Or do you want to reckon with the reality that even no-name relievers were shutting you down on one particular night. I’m still not sure what the answer is.
Either way, on May 19, 2021, when Corey Kluber was starting in Texas, we had all but closed out our June issue. I had the cover story, about the Yankees up-to-that-point untouchable bullpen. For the July issue, I was thinking of writing about Corey Kluber, which was why I decided I wanted to watch that night’s story very closely, asking my wife to handle bedtimes and things like that so I could plant myself in front of the TV.
By about the sixth inning, I was worried that we might have to fit some mention of the game into the June issue. By the ninth, I was worried we might have to scrap the cover. So it goes with no-hitters.
The next day, I wrote an entirely new cover story, about the Yankees’ first no-hitter in a couple of decades. Corey Kluber had a rocky, up-and-down year in pinstripes, with a few injuries and some incredible outings, but the no-hitter will live forever. As much of a hassle as it was to have to recreate our cover and write a story on the fly, I was incredibly grateful to get to write this one. It’s a story that I hope people will go back to when they think about great moments in Yankees history, and it’s nice to have had the chance to tell it.
https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-magazine-corey-kluber-no-hitter