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Brain-cell overload? No Runs, No Hits -- One ErrorBy Rick Horowitz There's a perfectly good reason, he tells himself, why he can't remember every trivial little something new that comes along: All his brain cells are already occupied. With important things. Like the other
evening, for instance, when he's sitting at his computer and he decides
to make one last pass at ESPN.com before he packs it in for the night.
The first thing he notices is the Red Sox score -- they're trouncing
the Orioles, 10-0. Then he happens to notice the Orioles line score:
0 0 0
It's the middle zero that catches his eye. The Orioles haven't managed even a single hit. Then he notices it's the ninth inning. The Orioles still don't have a hit, and they're down to their last turn at bat. "Somebody's throwing a no-hitter!" he thinks to himself. "I wonder who it is." So he clicks on the box score, and what he sees is "Buchholz." "C Buchholz." And what he also sees in the box score is that "C Buchholz" has now completed the ninth inning, and that he still hasn't given up a hit. The game is over -- "C Buchholz" has done it! But he still doesn't know who "C Buchholz" is. Why, he wonders, wouldn't he know that the Red Sox have a starting pitcher named "C Buchholz"? Then his brain goes to work. He remembers that the date is September 1st. He remembers that major-league rosters are allowed to go from 25 players to 40 on September 1st, and that teams often call up a bunch of promising kids for the final push. Maybe this "C Buchholz" is one of those. But his brain keeps working. If this "C Buchholz" has just been called up to the big leagues, he thinks to himself, maybe this was his very first big-league start. And if he threw a no-hitter in his very first big-league start... "Why, that's only happened once before!" he announces to no one in particular. "Bobo Newsom did it. And that was years ago!" This entire process has taken only seconds -- less time than it takes you to read about it. Now, how he happens to remember that there's only been one pitcher in all of modern major-league history to throw a no-hitter in his very first start, and that that pitcher's name was Bobo Newsom... There's a lone brain cell, apparently, or maybe even a tiny cluster of them, storing these particular nuggets of information for decades, just waiting for the chance to step up and strut their stuff. "What dedication!" he's thinking. ("What a waste of brain cells!" you're thinking.) And so to bed. The very next morning, he checks the newspaper and discovers it was all a false alarm. Buchholz -- the "C" stands for "Clay," he reads -- was indeed a rookie, and a September call-up. But it wasn't his first start. It was his second. He'd had a brief visit to the big leagues earlier in the season. Which still made Clay Buchholz, the story said, only "the third pitcher since 1900 to throw a no-hitter in his first or second major-league start." Wilson Alvarez of the White Sox threw the only other second-start no-hitter, in 1991, the story said. And the only first-start no-hitter? None other than Bobo -- "Is this amazing?" he's thinking. He absolutely nailed -- Holloman. Bobo Holloman, the story said. Back in 1953, pitching for the St. Louis Browns. He had the wrong Bobo. It wasn't Bobo Newsom at all. It was Bobo Holloman. And now he's trying to decide how he should feel about that. About those brain cells getting it wrong, that is -- embarrassed, or relieved. Maybe he can finally clear out some room up there. Posted 9/4/07. Rick
makes waves twice a week right here -- spread the word!
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Rick Horowitz
