In one of the first pitch ceremonies in the World Series this year, announcer Vin Scully feigned a torn rotator cuff and called in a lefthander, which was Fernando Valenzuela.

Back in the summer of 1990 I worked as a coder for ABF in Fort Smith. They had shut down the furniture plant where I was Customer Service Manager on 48 hours notice, and I was on the street, with five children at the time. Six weeks later I got the ABF job. It was a no-brainer type job. We were allowed to listen to the radio as we did the work (all on 2nd shift), so I got to listen to most of the Cardinals games, which were carried by an AM station in Ft. Smith. Because of that, I got to hear in its entirety the no-hitter thrown by Valenzuela against the Cards in June of that year. It really was quite a thrill. Not something you get to be a part of every day, even as a fan.

Obviously, that was a tough period in our lives. Only the grace of God and my wife's amazing domestic skills got us through it. But one of the few bright spots was that no-hitter.