A Grip on Sports: When is a no-hitter not a no-hitter? Despite all logic, giving up a hit is not the only disqualifier

A GRIP ON SPORTS • How would you define a no-hit game? Sounds pretty simple, right? It isn’t. And you can thank Major League Baseball’s archaic and misguided rules for that.

•••••••

• Personally, a no-hit game would be easy to define. It would be a game in which an official winner is declared and one of the teams has no hits. Simple.

It doesn’t mean the pitcher (or pitchers) won the game. Or that the length of the game is nine innings or more. Nope.

Rain comes after five innings? It’s a no-hitter, albeit with a note.

Eight no-hit innings for the visiting pitcher though his team loses? It’s a no-hitter, albeit with a different note.

And what the Diamondbacks’ Madison Bumgarner did Sunday, throw seven no-hit innings in the second game of a doubleheader is certainly a no-hitter. After all, the game was scheduled for seven innings. He wasn’t given an opportunity – by rule – to pitch the required two more to fulfill baseball’s declaration a no-hitter has to last nine innings.

Just how stupid is that?

Why does this matter, especially in a season in which two pitchers have already thrown the requisite nine-inning no-hitters? It really doesn’t, except it does.

It’s just another example of how the powers that be running the game have more authoritarianism running through their bloodstream than common sense. And have since at least 1991. (Honestly, though, it has been that way since the game began, but that’s more of an existential discussion than we want to address right now.)

Back in 1991 Fay Vincent was running the game. Like all commissioners, Vincent made some good choices and some bad. Convening a panel to look at no-hitters was among the latter. Who cared if a pitcher only threw five, six, seven or eight no-hit innings? As long as the game was an official one, why the heck isn’t it a no-hitter? The committee didn’t agree. It cited the integrity of the game’s records at the time. Actually, though, the ruling by Vincent’s committee changed more than 100 years of baseball records.

Up until that point, for example, there was an exhibit in Cooperstown dedicated to no-hitters. Still is, actually. Every no-hitter was listed, including those who lasted five innings. After all, the game’s result was listed in the Hall’s records, so why not? Integrity, said Vincent and his committee. The exhibit was changed.

Guess what else was happening in 1991? Yep, steroids.

The helpful little guys finally made baseball’s banned substance list that year. The drugs were about to rip the game’s record book to shreds. But did baseball institute testing? Nope, that wouldn’t happen for more than a decade. Instead of the game finding out why all its players were ripped and launching balls 500 feet, they ripped a bunch of names out of the Hall for following the rules as written. And still do.

Cool.

Yes, I have a stake in this. A pitcher I caught in high school, Matt Young, threw an eight-inning no-hitter in 1992 for Boston. He walked seven hitters, gave up two runs and lost. He was credited with a complete game. But not a no-hitter. Go figure. They only guy who I ever caught who tossed a no-hitter in the show and he doesn’t get official credit for it. It’s a cross I bear every day.

Yesterday Bumgarner did everything he can do under the rules. He throws a complete game. Gets all 21 outs without giving up a hit. Wins. Only an error by his shortstop on a routine ground ball kept the game from being perfect.

And yet he’s not going to get a spot on baseball’s official no-hitter list.

What a bunch of malarkey.

•••

WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college sports, the commissioner search lost another candidate this week. … Spring football this year is different, even for Colorado. … Utah has a lot of depth on its offensive line. That’s a good thing. … In basketball news, there is a story in the Tucson paper about Gonzaga Prep’s Will Reeves committing to Tommy Lloyd’s program at Arizona. … The UCLA program certainly seems to be on the rise again. … Finally, this WNBA story is worth reading, though expansion may have to wait until the league starts turning a profit. Meanwhile, there are many overseas opportunities for American players.

Gonzaga: Former Zag Louise Forsyth has decided to continue playing college basketball. She’s moving down the road to Idaho. That news leads our local briefs today.

Idaho: No matter what the Vandals’ record was this spring, no matter how tough it was to get through the season, coach Paul Petrino feels they received something positive from the experience. Peter Harriman has more in this story.

Preps: Brandon Thomas was one of the best football players in the Greater Spokane League as a sophomore. Then cancer hit. The Central Valley linebacker attacked it as he would a ball carrier, wrestling with it and taking it to the ground. He lost part of his right leg in the process, but never the battle. Ryan Collingwood has more on the comeback Thomas is trying to craft.

Mariners: It was a good weekend in Boston for the M’s with one caveat. And that came yesterday when starting pitcher Nick Margevicius couldn’t get out of the first inning and may be injured. The M’s rallied but lost 5-3. … Ljay Newsome may be the replacement if Margevicius has to miss a while. He’s been part of an exceptional start for the bullpen.

Seahawks: We’ll say it again. The draft can’t be over quick enough.

•••       

• If there were an MMA fight between the NCAA and MLB for America’s least-responsive sports organization, who would win? Up until a few years ago, my money would have been on the NCAA. Now I’m not so sure. Until later …