Savage Words: These don’t come around that often

You can’t plan for them, you can’t schedule it on your calendar, and they’re pretty rare.

But every once in a while, you see something special on the baseball diamond. And every time, it’s simply by chance. It’s a true “you-had-to-be-there” moment.

I’ve seen three no-hitters from the mound in my career. 

The first came 34 years ago, in what was one of the first baseball games I ever covered for a newspaper. At 23 years of age, I thought I’d see plenty more. I was wrong.

I graduated from college in May of that year and took the job as the sports editor of the weekly Lyon County Reporter in Rock Rapids, Iowa. That paper covered Central Lyon High School in Rock Rapids, West Lyon High School in Inwood, and George-Little Rock High School, a consolidated school just east of Rock Rapids.

It was a George-Little Rock pitcher in the summer of 1992 where I saw my first no-hitter. I do wish I could remember his name. I’ve saved a lot of things over my three decades of covering sports, including several of the Lyon County Reporter papers that I wrote for. But for the life of me, I can’t find that no-hitter story, but it was memorable for me.

It was probably two more decades before I’d see another, and trust me, I covered a lot of baseball over that time. Working for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, I covered a game – I think in 2013 – where three Sioux Falls Canaries pitchers combined for a no-hitter. That was cool when I saw it unfolding, and my mind went immediately back to George-Little Rock 20 years earlier.

Those three guys, I wish I could remember their names, too. I know for a fact I don’t have that newspaper tucked away somewhere, but driving away that night from Sioux Falls Stadium, I knew I’d remember it forever.

And my third no-hitter?

That came last Tuesday when Jake Halseth crawled into the Brandon Valley record books when he registered the feat against Renner in the first no-hitter of the season for the Lynx.

It was a funky little no-hitter, and it didn’t seem like Halseth might get there early on. He gave up a walk in the first, hit a batter in the second, and Renner actually went up 1-0 on a sacrifice fly.

But the 16-year-old settled in, and methodically worked through the seven innings into a place very few can say they’ve been. Since they began playing baseball on the Major League level in 1875, there have been only 327 no-hitters recognized. 

According to MLB.com, the total number of at-bats across all players in a season is around 140,000. A little rudimentary math over 151 years of Major League Baseball, and that’s a tick over 21 million at-bats. 

And there’s been 327 no-hitters. 

Indeed, rare.

I talked to Jake last week, a few days after his no-hitter. I always wonder how players – kids especially – are going to take their accomplishments. I was hopeful Jake understood what he did. I was hopeful that he would appreciate what actually happened last week at First National Bank Field.

He clearly understood, and it was obvious the gravity of the moment had sunk in. I could tell, just by listening to him talk, that he appreciated what had just happened.

“You just never know when you’re going to see one of those,” I said to him. “It’s so rare, and so cool, I don’t think people realize what you did the other night, and I hope you do.”

After a bit of a pause, his answer was spot-on.

“I do, I really do,” he said. “And it’s so awesome. It will be a lifelong memory.”

For me, too.

As the final out came on Tuesday, I looked around. Kids were running around between diamonds, like always. People were at the concession stand, like always. Fans in the stands slowly made their way down the aisles, like always.

I’m not certain everyone understood what just happened in front of them.

It’s so cool that Jake does.