Jonathan Sanchez fired the first Giants no-hitter since Sept. 29, 1976, in an 8-0 whitewashing of the Padres.
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I can't say much about the purity of the sport as I became a fan in the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire and the like.
I did so like to watch them play!
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On the other hand, this was a pitcher on his way out. He'd recently lost his place in the Giants rotation and was only pitching because the regular pitcher was injured.
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His father had flown in (from Costa Rica I think) to see his son pitch in the majors for the first time. Seeing the emotion on his (the fathers) face at the end of the game (he was crying, so proud of his son) is something I will never forget.
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This was shot as part of a series with the camera on Ch - ripped off 8 frames from the windup through the release. http://www.pbase.com/mkrauss/image/114841186) The penultimate moment before release seemed to catch the intensity of the moment.
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By the way, only a fielders error by Uribe stopped J. Sanchez from having pitched the mythical "Perfect Game".
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Play Ball!

Mark

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The story may be found at: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090710&content_id=5806136&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=sf