Before there was Gooden, Wells and Cone - there was Jim Abbott

If you can stretch the way-back machine to before the Joe Torre era, you might remember the Buck Showalter era. And today is a significant date in those years. Today is th 15th anniversary of Jim Abbott's no-hitter.

It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. I only know that because I saw the tape. I wasn't there. I was upstate at a resort in the Catskills and heard about the no-hitter and watched the highlights.

Abbott was 25 years old and in the first two seasons with the Yankees. He was 20-22 in two seasons with the Yankees and had an ERA over four. But in further proof that sometimes you can't predict baseball, in the start before no-hitting the Indians, Abbott was awful, getting roughed up for 10 hits and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings.

The reason I bring this up, is that the Times baseball blog had a piece on it and wrote with more of an insider's perspective.

Thanks to the magic of the times archives here are some of the things he and his teammates had to say afterward:

Abbott - "I did not know how to act out there. I didn't know whether to be supremely confident or supremely thankful. I guess it's a little bit of both."

Randy Velarde - "Nobody in this clubhouse is more deserving of this than Jim is.We all have so much respect for him."

Randy Velarde - "Before that pitch, I looked over to Gags and Mattingly. "They were bouncing up and down, but my legs wouldn't move. I figured I'd better get moving. I've never been in a post-season game, but this must be the same feeling."