Who am I? Name that Cardinal

The 2012 campaign is just right around the corner.  Even thought our Cardinals played the maximum number of games they could have played in 2011, it still seems like it has been an eternity since the final out was made in game 7 in the World Series and we walked off of the field as World Champions, once again.  This time of year always provokes the thoughts of what will happen this year?  What milestones will be reached, records broke and memorable moments will made.  Arguably one of the most memorable individual performances that can happen is the No Hitter.  The “No-No” will be the focus of this week’s installment of Who am I?  Name that Cardinal.

Some will say that a game without hits is a boring affair.  I argue that point.  I find that it presents one of the most exciting transpiring feats that can be accomplished on the diamond.  For a pitcher to go out and face the absolute best in the game and prevent them from getting a hit for 9 innings is a miraculous event time that is happens.  There are 2,430 regular season games played each year.  There have been 272 no hitters thrown since the first recognized one was tossed on July 15, 1876.  It just so happens it was thrown by George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings.

Nolan Ryan holds the major league record with 7 no hitters during his career.  The Cardinals have thrown their share as well.  Bob Gibson has one under his belt and Bob Forsch has two.  Forsch holds the franchise record with that total.  So how does thing bring us to the topic of “Name that Cardinal” you ask?  When Bob Forsch threw his franchise record no hitter in 1983, it would be 16 years before another Cardinal would accomplish this feat.

Here are the clues:

I was drafted by the Cardinals as amateur free agent by the Cardinals in 1991.

I made my major league debut on September 9, 1998.  I would appear in only 4 games that year.  In 1999 I became a starting pitcher for the Birds.

My career would only last 7 years.  I played 2 seasons with the Cardinals, 4 with the Rockies and 1 year with the Indians before I retired in 2004.

I never won more than 6 games in a season during my career.  In 1999, I would win 5 for the Cardinals.

The 1999 season did not look to promising for me.  In my 11 starts prior to my no hitter I had an overall record of 1-7, with an ERA of 8.04 in 59 ½ innings.

The highlight of my career would take place on June 25, 1999.  I was facing the Diamondbacks.  The great Randy Johnson was toeing the rubber for them on that day.  It was probably assumed that this game was not going to work out for the Cards.  But on that day I brought my “A” game.  I would only face 28 batters in 9 innings.  I walked two and struck out 8.

My No-No was saved twice by Eric Davis making diving catches.  One of those came in the 9^th inning on a sinking line drive off of the bat of David Delucci.  We won the game 1-0.  This game etched my place in Cardinal baseball history.

In my 2^nd start after the no hitter, I faced Johnson and the Diamondbacks again.  This time I threw a 2 hit shutout for the win.  The irony of it, these were the only two complete games of my entire career.

Who am I?  Click here for the answer.

You can ‘Like’ Redbird Rants by clicking here. You can follow Redbird Rants on Twitter at @FSRedbirdsRant and you can follow Dennis McHawes on Twitter at  McHawes Photo.