Rich Harden, No. 4: A Near No-Hitter And A Frowny Pitch Face

On August 23, 2010, Rich was 6.2 innings into a no-hitter when manager Ron Washington made the tough decision to send him to the showers. Had the Rangers’ bullpen been able to preserve his no-no, it would have set a modern-day record for most pitchers involved. Relieving Harden, each with 0.1 innings pitched, were Darren O’Day, Nolan Ryan, the last person Nolan Ryan shook hands with, the huge guy who wanted to kill Pee-Wee in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Mike Tomczak, the kid in The Wonder Years who was Kevin’s best friend for, like, one episode (not Paul), and Neftali Feliz. Feliz surrendered the first and only hit of the game, and as punishment, his locker has been re-purposed as Nolan Ryan’s personal spittoon. Meanwhile, Rich went to the clubhouse, opened the May 24 issue of Sports Illustrated to this article, and ground his teeth into chalk dust.