This Date In Mets History: September 8 — No Hits for the Mets, No Fun for Butch Huskey

There were many low points for the Mets during the 1993 season, but the team plumbed Death Valley-like depths on Wednesday, September 8 of that dismal year. Facing the Astros' Darryl Kile in the monstrous above-ground cavern that was the Astrodome, the Amazins found themselves on the short end of a no-hitter for the sixth time in franchise history. Playing one day after losing Bobby Bonilla, the team's most productive hitter, to a season-ending shoulder dislocation, the Mets offense consisted of a single walk drawn by Jeff McKnight.

To replace Bonilla, manager Dallas Green–a man who almost certainly taught his kids to swim by tossing them in the deep end of a pool filled with Portuguese man o' wars–plugged into the lineup Butch Huskey, a rookie making his major league debut. As his name suggested, Huskey was a big kid and a moderately touted prospect who could hit the ball a long way every 20 at-bats or so and not much else. Predictably, Darryl Kile's sharp curveball left him befuddled and he struck out in all three of his plate appearances.

At the time of Kile's near-perfect game, it had been 18 years since the Mets were no-hit. That stood as the longest streak of avoiding complete offensive shutdown in team history until this season, which moved the mark to 19 years. Hopefully stating this fact doesn't act as a Gary Cohenesque reverse jinx on the club.

Birthdays

• Don Aase, the man who appears at the top of the all-time Mets roster when its listed alphabetically, turns 58 today. This is the only interesting fact about Don Aase's one-year tenure with the team.
• Today is also Bobby Parnell's 28th birthday. Fun fact about Parnell: He shares the same first and middle name as Robert Allen Dickey, meaning the Mets actually have two R.A.s on the roster. Should we ever tire of Parnell's Captain Fastball nickname, we can always start calling him Sun God Jr.

Game of Note
It took 15 innings, but the Mets defeated the PIttsburgh Pirates 3-2 on this date in 1979. The notable element of this game happened in the bottom of the sixth, when Ed Kranepool took Bert Blyleven deep for the 118th and final home run of his career. A Met since 1962, Kranepool retired at the end of the '79 season as the team's all-time leader in long balls, though Dave Kingman would surpass him just three years later. Today, Steady Eddie is tenth on Mets' career home run list.

Amazin'-ly Tenuous Connection
On this date in 1504, Michelangelo's famed statue of David was unveiled in Florence. It is the greatest artwork to bear that name until the Mets' David Wright is unveiled in Flushing almost exactly 500 years later.