In response to Perezfan Mark's question:
"Do you have the Armando Galarraga Ticket from when he was "jobbed" a couple of years ago? I've been meaning to ask about this, and the Harvey Haddix game as well. Even though neither qualifies as a No-Hitter, it seems like they'd make interesting additions to your incredible collection."
Here are tickets to some of the games where pitchers came within an eyelash of greatness only to have history snatched from them....
1) Harvey Haddix's 12 perfect inning masterpiece vs. the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959. Many baseball experts believe that this was the greatest game ever pitched.
The story behind how I came to own this ticket is almost as great as the ticket itself! Around 1999, a sometimes Milwaukee collector/ dealer went to an estate sale and was looking around at what they had out front of the house. The people running the sale mentioned thast there were a few more items in the house. The guy looked around and didn't spot anything that caught his eye. On a whim, he climbed down the stairs into the basement where he discovered that the incinerator was open and burning. Next to the incinerator was a small box of old Milwaukee Braves to be burned. He grabbed the box and brought them up to the people running the estate sale. He told them that he wanted to buy the box of tickets. They responded: "Why? That's just trash that we're going to incinerate..."
He bought the tickets for virtually nothing and literally saved the 3 nicest Harvey Haddix near perfect game stubs known in the hobby from burning! Mine is the nicest of the three and I bought it from the guy that discovered them, with a major assist from my long time Milwaukee collector friend Ted Sternemann. Thanks Ted!
This continues to be a highly sought after ticket by collectors. I estimate that only a small handfull of these that survived this historic game....
2) Montreal Expos pitcher Mark Gardner pitched 9 no-hit innings, only to lose to the LA Dodgers 1-0 on July 26, 1991 at LA. Ironically, fellow Expos pitcher Dennis Martinez pitched a perfect game two days later in LA on July 28....
3) Montreal Expos picher and possible HOF'er Pedro Martinez pitched 9 inning of perfection, but surrendered a hit in the 10th inning. Close but no cigar, the Expos do win this one 1-0. Ironically, Pedro's brother Ramon Martinez ends up pitching a no-hitter of his own a month later on July 14, 1995....
4) Finally, the mother of all close one's. Armando Galarraga pitches what absolutely should have been a perfect jame, but AL umpire Jim Joyce blows an obvious play at 1st base on the 27th out of the game. As Perez fan Mark says, Galarraga got "jobbed".
Here's a great story about this game and what followed. I watched this Tigers game live on TV at home with my family (not uncommon in our house!) and you wouldn't have believed how loud the groans and screams were from 4 people when this happened!
I was so pissed that one of my Tigers lost an obvious perfect game that I e-mailed Bud Selig the following day. Much to my surprise, Bud Selig (The Master of Inaction), actually responded to my e-mail with a personal letter that I received a couple weeks later. Please see the scan. I have since managed to get both Armando Gallaraga and umpire Jim Joyce to sign this letter. A great family momento of one of the ultimate sports disappointments, but ended up becoming one of the great lessons in sportsmanship. Note how many times Selig uses the word "situation". I think he likes this word. A letter writer, he ain't!
Finally, my 10 year old baseball playing son, Sam and I attended a dinner benefitting CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) athletics where umpire Jim Joyce was the key note speaker. OT- Sam's team won the 5th- 6th grade CYO Championship and tournament in 2011 and I was one of the coaches. Sam and I were fortunate enough to speak to Mr. Joyce alone about CYO sports and the Galarraga game for 10 minutes prior to him going on stage. Jim Joyce is a humble, caring man and both of us will always cherish this conversation. Ironically, Joyce was a pitcher himself in CYO sports and high school athletics. He actually pitched a perfect game in high school. Pretty cool! After the dinner there was a live auction as a fundraiser. I was fortunate enough to win Jim Joyce's signed actual locker plate from Comerica Park the night that the Galarraga "Nearly Perfect" game occured. A great momento of the game, and our conversation with Mr. Joyce. He still blew the call though!!
Enjoy!