If the Padres get no-hit, does anyone care?

I've never seen a no-hitter. It's one of those things on everybody's baseball bucket list, but not the kind of thing you can plan like a trip to a ballpark. It's just the luck of the baseball gods. I've come close a few times. On May 13, 2010, Mat Latos held the Giants to a single in their own home. I was there. Then there was July 19, 2012. Edinson Volquez (yes, that Edinson Volquez) one-hit the Astros. Even though this was back when the Astros were utter garbage, I was there, and I cursed that hit. And I was there on July 13, 2013, and I barely missed Tim Lincecum throwing a no-hitter against the Padres.

That last one might be ringing a bell... because Lincecum did throw a no-hitter that night. I didn't see it. I saw twenty-six outs, and couldn't bear to see a twenty-seventh, so I did something I've done so rarely I can count it on one hand. I left. I knew he'd done it, because even from outside the ballpark gates, the roar of the crowd was clear. Thanks to Yangervis Solarte's double in the bottom of the seventh tonight, I didn't have to consider doing that again. But if Mike Montgomery had held on to his no-hitter into the ninth inning? I might have stayed. After these last two miserable months (and, let's be honest, the four miserable years that preceded them), I'm burnt out. I can't muster up the disappointment or disgust that drove me out of the ballpark in 2013. I'm just numb. Maybe the All-Star break will help. Maybe not.

There's a game tomorrow, I guess. James Shields will throw the first pitch at 12:40 PM. If he throws a no-hitter, I won't be there to see it.