Cubs' Zambrano No Hits Astros.

I just got home from Miller Park still feeling the thrill of Carlos Zambrano's 5-0 no hit victory over the Houston Astros in Milwaukee's Miller Park. The experience was electrifying and for personal live sporting thrills, I put it up there with the White Sox World Series game one in 2005, the Badger Rose Bowl victory in 1994, and the Badgers clinching the Big Ten basketball championship in 2003.

When Astros' leadoff hitter Darin Erstad, with two outs in the ninth inning, swung at his third strike, clearly a ball, low and away, the crowd of 23,000 erupted. Total strangers were hugging each other, the woman behind me was crying.

We had seven tickets behind home plate.  

Saturday night I was driving back from Wausau listening to Chicago's  WGN radio.  The station's sports director  informed the audience that two of the games rained out by hurricane Ike were to be played in Miller Park on Sunday night and Monday afternoon.

The Astros were not happy about the situation. Their stadium was playable, but Commissioner Bud Selig did not feel it appropriate to play in a city in chaos dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Ike.

I called Bill Kessler and he too was determined to attend Sunday night's game.

He went on line, while watching the Badgers play Fresno State, but could not find any site for ticket purchases.

I called my cousin Audrey. Last summer we discussed meeting at Miller Park for a ball game. She and her husband Walter had never been to the Brewers' home. We agreed it would be great to not only see a game at Miller Park but a Cub-Astro game to boot.

By this time WGN was reporting that tickets were available on line at the Brewers' website.

Bill and I conferred again and decided to buy seven tickets.

Sunday morning we started making phone calls. We called about a dozen friends. Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus of The Capital Times, fresh in from the LA red eye having attended the Badger game in Fresno already had tickets. So did our friend, Lenny Mattioli, another long suffering and tormented Cub fan. Len was taking his wife to Milwaukee.

By noon all the tickets were spoken for except one. Then Jim Anixter, The Pink Hat Guy, my high school classmate and softball teammate called to claim the last ticket. We would meet in front of the Hank Aaron statue.

Sunday, before a single pitch was thrown, was like having a free extra day added to our lives. When the the Angels and Indians were snowed out of Cleveland, I went to their April 9,2007 game played at Miller Park. Every ball game is exhilarating, no matter the time of year, the ballpark, or the teams.

There is something special about a game rescheduled on short notice shifted to a different ballpark.

It is like your birthday, the holidays and a canceled day of school rolled into one. There are no troubles, no worries, just the feeling that you were blessed with a most cherished gift. An extra baseball game. To add to the spontaneity was the opportunity to pick up great seats on short notice.

Most of us have seen games with no hitters through three innings. I was keeping score and the line was clean.

By the fifth inning the game was getting interesting. The Cubs four run third inning had the crowd electrified and Zambrano's pitching was strong. 

When he struck out two batters in the sixth and got Erstad to ground out 6-3, the excitement captured even the most cynical fans. Including me.

I was still calm in the eight. It was scary when Geoff Blum hit a sharp liner to right that required Mark DeRosa to chase it down on the run.

When Carlos Zambrano came out to pitch the ninth we were all on our feet. At this point I was captured in the moment. As I watched Zambrano, I realized that if the no hitter ended, I would feel bad for not witnessing history, but I would feel even worse for Zambrano who had pitched so well and deserved the honor.

There was joy among Cub fans and baseball fans all over the world, and especially in Milwaukee, which was the home of neither team.

Hurricane Ike killed dozens of people, caused billions of dollars in damage, and left thousands homeless. If the Houston Astros and the people of that city wanted to play their game at home, there was no reason to question the appropriateness of their decision.

Once again, as with his embarrassing decree that the resulted in the 2002 All-Star Game ending a tie, Bud Selig managed to blow a call with major consequences.

2008 will long be remembered as the year of the devastating hurricane that slammed Houston, major league baseball, and created an improbable set of events that led to the Cubs getting a game at Wrigley Field "North" and the first no-hitter thrown in a ball park that was home to neither team.

Comments

[Audrey's Brother]

Paul,
Audrey must have lowered the average age of the 7 of you to 59 1/2.