JoePo on Jon Lester’s no-no: There was something in the air

May 20th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

While some worried over Lester’s pitch count last evening as he threw the Red Sox’s 18th no-hitter of all-time, Joe Posnanski — who was in attendance covering the game for the KC Star — took the sit back, relax and enjoy this moment in history approach. He felt it. Something unforgettable was in his midst.

“Yeah,” I said. “That catch will be shown on SportsCenter over and over again after Lester throws the no-hitter.”

I was joking. Only I wasn’t joking. There was something about that catch, something about the night, something about being a sports fan, something about a lineup that had Esteban German and Tony Pena, something illogical happening in my mind … I could already see the headlines, and I could already hear the announcers, and I could already feel something. That catch was the moment. Lester really was going to throw a no-hitter.

[ … ]

And as I left Fenway Park, I thought again about that feeling I had, that feeling you get sometimes as a sports fan, that feeling that “Hey, I’m going to see something unforgettable.” Truth is, most of the time, the feeling dies inside you because unforgettable things don’t happen very often. Here’s the great thing, though. Sometimes, they do.

Call this sappy, lame, whatever you want. But for as much as bloggers rally against MSM for having a feeling or knowing something is going to happen when really there’s know way to really know, and numbers can sometimes give you a more accurate depiction of what’s going on, it’s nice to revel in a moment of history and just enjoy what’s going on.

It’s the reason we watch sports in the first place.