Jinx

One of baseball's longest standing traditions is that if a pitcher starts taking a no-hitter in the latter innings, no one is supposed to mention it.

Last night, a national TV audience tuned in for the ballyhooed home debut of Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. He didn't pitch poorly, but his mound opponent, the Mariners' Felix Hernandez, stole the show by hurling the first seven innings without giving up a hit.

Around that time, my son came upstairs, annoyed at the poor performance of his favorite Pittsburgh Penguins in their playoff-opening loss. I told him, "Hey, there's a no-hitter in progress."

"Who?"

"Hernandez," I said. "The good one, not Livan or ..."

At that point, J.D. Drew whacked a single up the middle for what turned out to be the only hit off Felix. My son shook his head and returned to the Penguins' agony of defeat.

I watched Hernandez wrap up his one-hitter, and kudos to Seattle manager Mike Hargrove for letting him pitch all nine innings. (Hargrove was a teammate of Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, who tossed 29 complete games in 1974 and 22 in '75 for Texas.)

And next time I watch a no-hitter in progress, I plan to keep my mouth shut.

Trivia question 16: Felix Hernandez celebrated his birthday on Easter. How old is he now?