Mets' Appeal of R.A. Dickey's No-Hitter a Waste of Team's Time

Here's the problem with the fact that the Mets are appealing the first-inning hit that stuck R.A. Dickey with a one-hitter instead of a no-hitter: Would they still be appealing it if he'd given up another hit later in the game?

The joy of no-hitters is that they're stressful and they're suspenseful and they're so impossible to attain that they happen, oh, almost never. You can't try to force your way into gaining a no-hitter after the fact, especially if you had no intention of challenging the play in question when it first happened.

In the first inning, B.J. Upton hit a high bouncer toward third that David Wright tried to bare-hand. He couldn't get a handle on the ball, Upton reached base and the play was scored a hit.

Whether or not Wright had managed to get control of the ball, Upton would've beat the play to first anyway. No matter how you look at it, that was a hit.

Still, after the game, Mets manager Terry Collins told the Associated Press:

"

We said in the ninth inning that we've got to appeal that play. We're probably not going to win it, but…what the heck. What have you got to lose except to have somebody say no? …If anybody deserved a no-hitter or a perfect game tonight, it was him.

"

But plenty of players pitch well enough to "deserve" no-hitters. Plenty of pitchers leave games with two outs in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game, and after the bullpen blows it, they still deserve to get the win. But do they get it? No. Because that's not the way the rules work in sports.

Manny Pacquiao deserved a win on Saturday. Dan Marino deserved a Super Bowl ring. Sometimes, you just don't get what you deserve, and Collins' insistence on appealing that first-inning hit cheapens the value of a no-hitter. You can't just decide after the fact that you're going to try to finagle your way into one of the most exciting accomplishments in sports. It's lame.

Moreover, this all went down on a night when San Francisco's Matt Cain pitched the first perfect game in Giants history, fair and square. Talk about trying to steal someone's thunder. If you're R.A. Dickey, how could you not be embarrassed by that? If he wants a no-hitter, he shouldn't give up any hits.

Dickey should just say thanks, but no thanks to the appeal. He’s a professional, and he’s a competitor. Someday down the line, he might really have a chance for a legitimate no-no, but he should have enough pride to say, “Today was not my day.”

There are plenty of things for Dickey and the Mets to celebrate after Wednesday's 9-1 win. For one, Dickey became the first 10-game winner in baseball and is a lock to make the All-Star team. He extended his shutout streak to 32.6 innings before an unearned run in the ninth inning. He showed up David Price, who leads the American League in wins.

He didn't, however, pitch a no-hitter. When you pitch a no-hitter, you know. And no appeal is going to change that.