[ICAB9USA]

"Not once did Haddix shake off his catcher; Burgess made just three visits to the mound. In fact Haddix barely uttered a word to anyone. There weren't even words exchanged between Haddix, a three-pack-a-day smoker, and Groat, who lit a cigarette for the pitcher in the dugout between every inning, a ritual that began after the second. "It got to the point where he'd just sit there with [a cigarette in his mouth] and wouldn't move until I came over and lit it," says Groat. "Then I'd just run away."" -------

LOL

[BluesDuke]

On the flip side of Harvey Haddix's jewel, there was Lew Burdette, who went the distance for the Braves and won. Notorious as a practical joker, Burdette used the game to wangle a raise from the Braves for the following season, deploying this argument: That guy pitched the greatest game in baseball history and he still couldn't beat me---so I must be the greatest pitcher in the game!. Burdette got his laugh---and his raise.

Not once did Haddix shake off his catcher; Burgess made just three visits to the mound. In fact Haddix barely uttered a word to anyone.

Some pitchers are like that when they think they have a big one going like that. Others are a little more loosey-goose:

* When Jim Bunning sensed he had a shot at a perfect game on Father's Day in 1964, those who were there say he was as loose as it got, almost laughing and joking between innings. (In the seventh, he had reason to laugh and joke---by that time, the Shea Stadium crowd had done the unthinkable: they turned on the Mets and began rooting openly for Bunning to finish what it looked like he started, including giving him a standing ovation when he came up to hit in the seventh inning.)

* Mild-mannered, sober Sandy Koufax wasn't above a little dry humour in the middle of a no-no. It's said that when he was two-thirds of the way through his second such gem, against the Giants in 1963, he called John Roseboro, his catcher, to the mound, and said wryly, "Let's just feed them fastballs and get this no-hit thing over with."

* When Dennis Eckersley, then a Cleveland Indians starting pitcher, was an out away from finishing his no-hitter, he barked at the next batter in the on-deck circle: "Get in there and hit---you're the next out!"

* Back to the Koufax no-no against the Giants: Mindful of the tradition that you don't even utter the thought of a no-hitter (unless you're the pitcher who might pull it off, and even then), Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges absolutely refused to utter the phrase until Koufax nailed it. He came up with about a hundred ways to allude to what was happening without saying the words.

And, a classic from just after a pitcher has finished a no-hitter: When legendary pitcher-playboy Bo Belinsky nailed his no-no, his fourth straight major league win, the first question he fielded from the writers after the game was, "Bo, when did you first start thinking about a no-hitter?"

"This morning at five o'clock," Belinsky replied, deadpan.

It was a reference to his date the night before the game. The dear boys in the press had no idea what he was talking about.

Another classic: This sign was held up after Koufax pitched his first no-hitter, against the 1962 Mets: SANDY KOUFAX'S PERFECT GAME: 0-FOR-4, referencing Koufax's only too-well-known inability to hit. (For a guy who couldn't hit, however, his first major league home run was a beauty---he hit it off the same man who surrendered Willie Mays's first major league home run over a decade earlier, Hall of Famer Warren Spahn.)