Zambrano Pitches a No-No

Congrats to Big Z on the no-no.

Here are a few facts about this particular no-hitter:

-Zambrano is the first person whose last name begins with the letter "Z" to throw a no-hitter.

-This is the first no-hitter pitched by a National League pitcher since Florida's Aníbal Sánchez in 2006. Zambrano is also the first Venezuelan since Sánchez to achieve the feat.

-A Cubs pitcher hadn't thrown a no-hitter since Milt Pappas on September 2, 1972.

-This is the 8th no-hitter thrown by the cubs since 1900 and Zambrano is the 7th man to accomplish this (Ken Holtzman threw 2). The Cubs franchise also recorded 5 no-hitters between 1880-1898, however the franchise was known by a different moniker.

-Since Hurricane Ike forced Houston to leave Minute Maid Park and play in Milwaukee, this is the first no-hitter to be pitched in a neutral site.

Read more!

MLB's 250,000th Home Run

Thanks to the guys over at BaseballReference.com, it has now come to my attention that Major League Baseball is on the verge of its 250,000th home run of all time.

That's a quarter of a million dingers for those of you who get flummoxed by numerous zeroes.

It all started on May 2, 1876 when Ross Barnes (pictured) of the Chicago White Stockings (Chicago Cubs) took Cherokee Fisher of the Cincinnati Reds yard. BR doesn't count postseason homers in this stat, as far as I can tell, so some may argue that we have already eclipsed this milestone. However if you go with their numbers we stand at 249,810 through the end of August 31st.

Who will hit the historic shot? Only time will tell, but an interesting side note to these numbers is that 1/5th of the 250,000 have been hit since 1999, only 9 years ago.

UPDATE!:

Read more!