Wednesday, August 1, 2012

ZAMBRANO-NO!

Last night's near no-hitter of the Cubs by Pittsburgh's AJ Burnett reminded me of a custom card I made a few weeks ago but never posted. In the same series as Darwin Barney's Sweep and Anthony Rizzo's Riz-zonkulous, I bring you:


Of course, Zambrano-no is a play on his last name and the term no-no which is used as slang for a no-hitter. Much of the 2008 season is a blur for me and I'd rather it stayed in the past. It marks the last time the Cubs went to the post-season and the second first round exit in a row. Both sweeps, too. Blech.

And the location listed on the card is no mistake. Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs no-hit the Houston Astros in Milwaukee. The Astros were technically the home team but were displaced because of a hurricane (Ike?) so they played at a "neutral" location. Of course, this was controversial for the Astros because Milwaukee is so close to Chicago that the although the Astros batted second, the Cubs definitely had the crowd behind them for a "home field" advantage.

This would have been the most I have ever seen of a real time no-hitter. I usually only get to see highlights after the fact or maybe the last inning if they do a live cut-in. I tuned in to WGN around the 4th inning so I got to see a good chunk of this game. Stark contrast to Sunday night's slug fest.

After watching Burnett's little hissy fit though, I'm glad Adrian Cardenas was able to poke one through to the outfield. Nowhere near the grace that Armando Galarraga showed during his blown perfect game and the umpire was correct in this game.

There isn't much to cheer about when you almost get no-hit. Except maybe that the Cubs extended their current MLB record of longest time period of not being no-hit (or team hitting streak if you want to call it that). The last time the Cubs were no-hit was Sandy Koufax's perfect game against them on September 9, 1965. So the Cubs may not have won a World Series in my lifetime, but they've hit in every game!

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