Glavine’s one-hitter was nearly perfect

Glavine’s last no-hitter? That came in American Legion baseball play when he was 17 years old.

“It was a perfect game,” Glavine’s father, Fred, told the Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., of his son’s gem in Legion ball. “You know, I thought he was going to do it again.”

Glavine came tantalizingly close to perfection – and to what would have been the first no-hitter in Mets history. He retired the Rockies in order through six innings on just 62 pitches before Denny Hocking began the seventh with a full-count walk. By then, the Mets had a 4-0 lead – thanks in part to first inning home runs by Kazuo Matsui and Cliff Floyd and later an RBI single by Glavine himself that gave New York a four-run cushion – and the outcome was largely decided.

Glavine regrouped to retire the next three batters he faced in the seventh, then got Jeromy Burnitz on a fly ball leading off the eighth before striking out Matt Holliday.

Up stepped Pellow, who debuted with the Royals in 2002 and played a little more in 2003 but still retained his rookie status in 2004.

He would total 52 hits in his big league career. None meant more than this one.

“The pitch was in a pretty good spot,” Pellow told the Journal News, “and I hit it pretty well.”

So well, in fact, that Mets right fielder Shane Spencer had no chance at a play.

“That ball was going over my head, and I was wishing and wishing, but there was no way,” Spencer said. “It’s a shame. I think we were all hoping to be part of something special.”