Why Hideo Nomo's No-hitter Was Impossible

Intro hideo nomo pitched a no-hitter in coors field on september 17 1996 and i'm gonna talk about it here's some background coors field is home to the colorado rockies who were in their fourth year of existence as a new expansion team and had just come off a surprise appearance in the post-season in 1995. this is coorsfield's second year as the first two years the rockies played in the aptly named mile high stadium for their first two years coors is what you would call a hitter's Coors Field paradise because of the low air density and the dryness baseballs experience much less drag and fly very far when hit also pitches that rely on more spins such as the curveball are less effective in thin air compared to at sea level adding another layer of difficulty combine that with the beginnings of the steroid era in baseball and you have a recipe for a baseball stadium that is hell for pitchers to pitch in Park Factor now there's a nice statistic on baseball reference known as park factor which gives basic indications of a bulk park being either a hitter's ballpark or a pitcher's ball park with 100 being average higher being favorable to pitters and lower being favorable to pitchers Notable hitters parks in 1996 notable hitters parks are fenway park yankee stadium the ballpark in arlington and wrigley field here are their park factors for 1996 so we'll start with an average of 100. wrigley was at 101 yankee stadium was what 102 fenway park was at 106 the ballpark in arlington at 108. and here's coors field at 129. Run scoring environment to give you an idea of how ridiculous that actually is that's the run scoring environment you use for neutralized batting statistics to get the really stupid career stats of barry bonds like if you put him in coors for his whole career how much could he have hit and how many home runs could he have hit it's dumb and i love it anyway it was hell for any pitcher to pitch there didn't matter who you were even if you pitched for the rockies that year none of the rocky starters had an era under 4.93 no pitcher on the team had an era under 3.96 Offense rockies offense was incredible to say the least that year at home they scored 658 runs 141 more than the second place boston red sox they are one of three teams with an above 300 batting average at home with a 343. now if you look at their slash line it's very similar to ellis burke's 1996. wait what team did ellis berks play on that year oh okay Context let's bring some context the los angeles dodgers were in the middle of a pennant race where they would eventually finish second make the playoffs and lose in the nlds to the atlanta braves The Story here's the focus of the story hideo nomo he had just come off a stellar rookie campaign where he led the national league in strikeouts and won rookie of the year over other notable players such as chipper jones kilvioveras and jason izringhausen he was pitching another great year in 96 which leads up to this start near the end of the year at coors Last Time field last time noma was here he gave up nine runs five earned in five innings which is not good i mean just look at this mess ugh Colorado Rockies you gotta remember that the colorado rockies lineup had names such as the previously mentioned ellis bergs he had dante bechet andres galaraga and vinnie castilla and also some guy named larry walker was on the team too how did hideo nomo do this day he flattened them Nomo was dominant to put it mildly he was dominant the whole time he struck out eight of them he induced eight brown balls and picked off a batter which meant that 17 of the 27 out here is responsible for did not leave the infield in terms of the people Walks that got on base there were four walks he walked quinton mccracken in the first inning andres galaraga in the second ellis berks in the fourth and eric young senior in the sixth he retired the last 11 batters in a row Conclusion basically he contained one of the most potent offenses at their home ballpark where they were best at by a long shot a ballpark which has only had 10 one to nothing games in its history and nomo is one of seven pitchers to pitch a complete game shutout and not give up an extra base hit or any hit and more than four walks and that is what you would call a hideo no no i don't know how to end this but i thought this was pretty cool please remember to like and subscribe thank you [Music] [Music] you