Perhaps no single-game accomplishment in sports is as anticipated and celebrated as the no-hitter. A basketball player who scores 50 points will probably miss at least ten shots in the game. A football player who throws for five touchdowns will probably throw around ten incomplete passes in the game. Even a baseball player who hits three or four home runs will probably get out once or twice. In comparison, there is almost no margin of error for a no-hitter. A pitcher must retire 27 hitters without giving up a single hit, and the suspense builds with every inning, every at-bat, and every pitch. Whether it is in the majors, the minors, or even in high school, to be able to say you pitched a no-hitter is to reach the pinnacle of your game. Perhaps the most fascinating part of no-hitters is the people who throw them. Players such as Bobo Holloman, who had 3 career wins, throw them, while players like Grover Cleveland Alexander, who won 373 career games, do not.

The no-hitter was brought back to the center of the baseball world this past April 18th, in a nationally overlooked game, when quick-working lefthander Mark Buehrle opposed a Texas Rangers team that couldn’t have expected what they would encounter on that fateful Wednesday night. Buehrle had been a big question mark for the White Sox coming into this season after an awful ending to the 2006 campaign. He started out 9-4 with a 3.22 ERA last year and was named to the All-Star team…and then it all unraveled quickly. Beginning with his July 2nd start at the Cubs, where he gave up 13 hits and 10 runs in 5 innings for a Game Score of 3, Buehrle blew up. He lost his next 5 starts and 6 of his next 7, posting a 9.37 ERA over that span. With the downward spiral of Buehrle came the downward spiral of the White Sox, as the defending champs began to fall out of playoff contention behind the Twins and Tigers. Buehrle finished up the year 12-13 with an ugly 4.99 ERA, well above the league average for the first time in his career. It was also his first ever year with a losing record. Critics and fans alike wondered what had gone wrong with Buehrle and if he could ever recover to become the pitcher he once was. Buehrle was named Chicago’s #3 starter for 2007 and faced the Cleveland Indians in his first start. It would prove to be a rough one for him, as a second inning line drive back up the box by Ryan Garko knocked him out of the game. However, Buehrle would return for his next start and provide a glimpse of his first six and a half seasons with a 7-inning, four-hit, 3-run performance against Oakland. However, he only struck out one and wasn’t dominant, so nobody could have foreseen what would occur in his next start.

Under their ridiculous new marketing rule with 7-Eleven that all home games would start at 7:11 CT, Mark Buehrle took the mound to face a solid Texas Ranger lineup on Wednesday evening, April 18th, 2007. Kenny Lofton and his near-2300 hits led off the lineup with the second-hottest player in baseball, Ian Kinsler in the #2 spot. Michael Young and Mark Teixeira, two of the game’s best hitters at their respective positions, filled the 3 and 4 holes, while Sammy Sosa’s almost 600 career home runs filled the #5 spot. The Rangers have normally been thought of as a good hitting team, but with the Ballpark at Arlington distorting their statistics their road numbers are certainly not quite as lofty. With an unenviable pitching matchup of Buehrle vs. Kevin Millwood, two good but not great pitchers, it’s safe to say the baseball world’s eyes weren’t exactly focused on this game; although they would be after a few innings.