sportsjabber.net

Mired by revelations of players succumbing to performance-enhancing drugs, the game of baseball reared a purer, more*nostalgic head Saturday.

Ubaldo Jimenez threw the first no-hitter*and Busch*Stadium housed an epic 20-inning affair. The only temptation within baseball this day*was to change channels for first-round NBA Playoffs action and risk*missing baseball history.

“Call your neighbors!” said St. Louis Cardinals play-by-play radio voice, Mike Shannon, somewhere around the 18th inning.

The last time baseball beckoned like that? Last year, when longtime Chicago White Sox play-by-play man, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, inspired a television audience with the same exact words to*spread the news of Mark Buehrle’s pending perfect game.

“Call your neighbors!” he said. I picked up the phone, and Buehrle came through.

All was good again in baseball Saturday when Jimenez nearly matched Buehrle’s*feat with the first no-hitter of the young season. Then, on Albert Pujols’ home field, where nobody*suspects the Cooperstown-bound first baseman of anything besides God-given*talent and hard work, the Cardinals and Mets engaged in a pitching*dual for the ages.

No score through 18 innings, both offenses matched single runs one*frame later to set up the game-winning score in the 20th, resulting in a*2-1 Mets win.

More…