Baseball: Nice to Have MET You

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They are hapless. They are hopeless.

But one thing nobody can deny: the New York Mets are fun.

Just ask Cincinnati's Jim Maloney, 25. Then duck. A hard-throwing righthander, the Reds' best pitcher (23 victories in 1963, 15 last year), Maloney had the easiest of tasks to perform last week: beating the Mets, who had lost ten games in a row. He started off with a whiz, throwing three straight strikes at the first batter he faced: Outfielder Billy Cowan, 26, who walked away muttering "I never even saw the ball." One after another, the Mets paraded to the plate; one after another, they slunk back to the dugout. Third Baseman Charlie Smith struck out three times and sighed: "Nobody has ever pitched a baseball faster." First Baseman Ed Kranepool, the Mets' only .300 hitter, insisted—with a tendency toward the cliche—that "Maloney should be in a league by himself." After nine innings, all the Mets had to show for their efforts was a walk—and no runs, no hits, and 15 strikeouts.

That should have been that. But the Reds were not tearing the cover off the ball either. Into the tenth inning the game went, with the score tied 0-0. Maloney retired the Mets in order, striking out two more. Again Cincinnati failed to score. Then it was the eleventh, and up came Met Outfielder Johnny Lewis, possessor of a .245 average. The count went to two-and-one before Maloney made his only mistake of the night: a waist-high fastball, straight down the pipe. Bang! Home run. Final score: Mets 1, Reds 0.

Maloney will still get credit in the record book for pitching a ten-inning no-hitter. And he could take some solace from the fact that nine other pitchers have hurled nine-inning (or longer) no hitters and lost, including two still active in the major leagues: Baltimore's Harvey Haddix and Milwaukee's Ken Johnson. What's more, Cincinnati Owner Bill DeWitt announced that he was giving Maloney a $1,000 raise (to $31,000). It would take more than that to comfort him. "I haven't a thing to be proud of," he said. "I just lost to the New York Mets."