This Date in Mets History: June 1 — Johan Santana is THE man, throws first no-hitter in team history

Between April 11, 1962 and June 1, 2012, there were 209,127 regular season MLB games played. Of those, 8,120 involved the New York Mets. Between April 11, 1962 and June 1, 2012, MLB pitchers threw 131 no-hitters, seven of which came at the expense of the New York Mets.

Seven former Mets pitchers happened to throw no-hitters in that timespan. That cohort includes Hall of Famers like Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan and Cy Young Award winners like Dwight Gooden, Mike Scott, and David Cone. It also includes Phil Humber.

In the 8,120 games the Mets played between April 11, 1962 and June 1, 2012, 17 different New York pitchers tossed complete game one-hitters. That number includes most of the names list above, plus Cy Young Award winners Tom Glavine and R.A. Dickey, rotation stalwarts on pennant-winning teams like Gary Gentry and Jon Matlack, and somehow, Steve Trachsel. Twice.

Since June 1, 2012, it's been just 162 games and 365 days since the Mets' last no-hitter and it's thanks to one man who is a man...NO-HAN!

Watch it here. See Mike Baxter transform into a human battering ram here. Listen to Johan talk about it here. Read what we had to say here and here.

Now commit it to memory, if you haven't already. Revel in the fact that you never again have to hear about the curse of Nolan Ryan or any other flimsy narrative constructed to explain 51 years of flukey baseball luck. And if you're feeling magnanimous, pour one out for poor Padres fans.

Birthdays

• Rick Baldwin, one of the many pitchers to never have thrown a no-hitter for the New York Mets, is 60. Rick, however, does have the excuse of being used exclusively as a reliever during his time with the club, which spanned from 1975 to '77.
• Dean Chance turns 72. A standout pitcher for Northwestern High School in West Salem, Ohio, from 1956 to '59, Chance threw 17 no-hitters during his student days. He'd throw another one eight years later as a member of Johan Santana's former team, the Minnesota Twins. He too is one of the many pitchers to have never thrown a no-hitter for the Mets, though like Baldwin, he's got a valid excuse. Chance appeared in just three games with the team, all as a reliever, at the tail end of the 1970 season. Fun fact: Chance won the Cy Young Award in 1964 and was the youngest recipient of the plaque until a 20-year old Dwight Gooden trumped him by three years in 1985.

Game of Note
NO-HAN! NO-HAN! NO-HAN!

Amazin'-ly Tenuous Connection
Back on this date in 1794, the British and French fought the Third Battle of Ushant, the largest naval conflict between the two long-standing rivals during the French Revolution. It's become known as the Glorious First of June, though its the personal believe of this writer that Mets fans should appropriate the term to celebrate the date on which the first no-hitter in the history of the franchise was thrown.