Fans of the New York Mets finally got to see someone on their team pitch a no hitter last night, ending a 50 year drought that plagued the ball club, and drastically altering the life of a website.
RELATED: The Widening NFL Bounty Hunt; Hideous Home Run Structure Under Siege
The reaction from Mets fans on Twitter was bordering on delirious. Anthony De Rosa, the normally composed Reuters social media editor, apologized to his followers, and said the game was, "sort of like the moon landing for me."
RELATED: Mets Will Settle with Trustee for Madoff Fraud Victims for $162 Million
The New York Times' Michael Rolston wished the newsdesk "G-dspeed" after he announced they were redesigning the front page after the game. For the single-service website NoNoHitters.com, the game meant the website, as they said on Twitter, is finally obsolete.
RELATED: Peyton Manning To Denver; The Mets Dodge a Bullet
NoNoHitters is (was?) a website dedicated to "obsessively tracking the New York Mets' continued futility in no hitters." They have complete histories of Mets pitchers who've pitched no-hitters before or after leaving the club, but never in the blue and orange. They gave a quick history lesson of Mets' fans frustration with their pitchers and no hitters in their initial post after last night's game:
Johan Santana threw a no-hitter Friday to accomplish what Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and David Cone could do only for other teams – not the Mets.
The Mets drought stretched into the team’s 50th season, starting when the St. Louis Cardinals’ Julian Javier singled to left off Mets starter Roger Craig on April 11, 1962, during the Mets franchise’s first Major League game.
In addition to Ryan, Seaver, Gooden, Cone, Mike Scott and Hideo Nomo also pitched no-hitters after leaving the Mets. Nomo is the only pitcher to hurl no-nos both before (Los Angeles Dodgers, 1996) and after (Boston Red Sox, 2001) his stints with the Mets.
The response after the game directed so much traffic to their website that it crashed late last night. Despite their purpose being taken away from them, but they said on Twitter the site would live on in some form.