The Cubs tossed MLB’s seventh no-hitter of the 2021 season on Thursday night,

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The Cubs to sed MLBs seventh no-hitter of the 2021 season on Thursday night, a combined effort that required the brilliance of four different pitchers against a dangerous Dodgers lineup. This season now moves into a tie atop the most official no-hitters in a single season list, along with 1990, 1991, 2012, 2015 and 2021.When the 1990 season ended, though, the official count for that year was nine. At the time, that was far and away the record; the previous mark was six in a year, done in 1908, 1915, 1917 and again in 1969. So what happened that knocked two no-hitters off the list of official no-hitters? The historic plethora of no-hitters led to conversations in the league office.One of the guys who worked for us dealt with all of the baseball rules and regulations, and he came to me and said, We have this problem with defining what is a no-hitter, then-MLB commi sioner Fay Vincent told Sporting News in a phone interview the day after Corey Klubers no-hitter earlier this season. He said, I think we should get together and make some decisions and clean up some of that, and I said 'fine'.Two of the no Evan Engram Jersey -hitters in 1990 were, lets say, non-traditional. Melido Perez had a six-inning no-hitter the last three innings washed out by rain and Andy Hawkins had an eight-inning no-hitter. In that bizzaro baseball game, a combination of errors and walks Nate Solder Jersey in the bottom of the eighth inning allowed Chicago to score four times, and when the visiting Yankees failed to score in the top of the ninth, the game was over. The host White Sox won, 4-0, despite not getting a single hit.Everyone was saying, Well, theyre not special anymore, said Dirk Lammers, who runs the indispensable site and . Kind of like the way everybodys been talking this year. Does it even matter if you throw a no-hitter now? Everyones doing it.And its worth noting there wasnt a single no-hitter thrown in 1989, so the rapid-fire no-nos seemed very extreme. The other 1990 no-hitters, in order: combined Mark Langston (7 innings) and Mike Witt (2 innings), Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela (on the same day!), Terry Mulholland and Dave Stieb.So Vincent formed a committee on statistical accuracy.The committee was there, really, to clean up any ambiguities that would come up under the rules of the definitions that existed, Vincent said. Steve Greenberg was my deputy, and he played a role.The committee . The two major rulings: To be an official no-hitter, the game had to be at least nine innings; and to be an official no-hitter, the game had to end without any hits being allowed.So Perez and Hawkins lost the official status of their no-hitters. They werent alone. Harvey Haddix was removed from the list, too, despite throwing maybe the most impre sive game of all time. In 1959, Haddix threw 12 perfect innings for the Pirates, but the perfect game was lost on a fielding error in the 13th, and then after a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk of Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock popped a walk-off homer.Because that game didnt end with a zero in the hits column, it was no longer seen as an official no-hitter. A few years after the committees decision, Pedro Martinez threw nine perfect innings in 1995, only to allow a leadoff double in the 10th. No no-no for the future Hall of Famer. Altogether, there are 56 games that would have qualified as official no-hitters under the old definition, but no longer make the official list.I think, as with most things in baseball, the standard should be very, very high, Vincent said. I think we did the right thing. I think theres a lot of be said. I dont think the last two innings are immaterial. I think a seven-inning performance is distinctive, but Carl Banks Jersey in my lifetime I cant tell you how many times I was watching a game and the eighth or ninth inning, somebody got a hit and the no-hitter went out the window.Imagining what the reaction to a decision like that might have been in todays social media climate, I asked Vincent what his recollection of the reaction to the committees ruling.There were no real major disagreements. Murray Cha s in the New York Times, and I remember some others, were very agitated because they didnt agree with the ruling we made, Vincent said. I respect him, I respect his point of view. But I remember Bart Giammati used to say, Those debates are really wonderful because theyre what give rise to the hot stove league. People love B.J. Hill Jersey to sit around in the winter when theres nothing to talk about and argue about whats a real no-hitter and all those things. I think Bart was right. Theyre harmle s, and people do like to debate them. I think there are an awful lot of fans who really get tired of all that. They consider that lawyer-like and tedious.Cha s, writing after Boston's Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings in 1992 in a lo s on the road, didn't mince words in his NYT column."Commi sioner Fay Vincent, in fact, fondly and fiercely upholds the correct use of the language and is capable of using such words as otiose, lapidary and recondite.Why, then, did he let his fellow committee members go astray on "no-hitter"? It seems like a rather simple term, meaning an absence of hits. Why should anyone have trouble with that concept?"In 2021, as you know, conversations about no-hitters are about more than just applying the use of words in the English language.Now, double-header games are scheduled for seven innings, which means just pitching the designated number of innings without allowing a hit isnt enough. To meet the standard of an official no-hitter, a pitcher (or team, in a combined effort like the Cubs recent gem) Will Hernandez Jersey would have to complete two extra innings the eighth and ninth without allowing any hits. Oh, and theyd have to make that happen with the base-runners starting each inning on second base.Yeah, seven-inning games and Magic Runners complicates things.The evolution of baseball is making statistical comparisons and definitions so much more difficult, Vincent said. I dont know what to do about that. I really dont like those rules.Heres the truth, . Getting 21 outs without allowing a hit isnt the same as getting 27 outs without allowing a hit. Its just not, and pretending that theyre the same accomplishment is dumb. Im fully with Vincent on this. On the other hand, is it Madison Bumgarners fault that he was only allowed seven innings? No, of course not.The solution seems easy: Create a second official list for non-traditional no-hitters. Celebrate them as amazing accomplishments which they are without taking away from traditional, official no-hitters. Vincent said hes OK with that idea.If you want to call them all a no-hitter, go ahead, he said. And if you want to call a seven-inning game a no-hitter, go