No-no? Yes Yes!

I will pause my 'Round the Horn of the 61 Yanks to acknowledge yesterday's big story, and to contemplate what the Real Lead should be on the story.

Obviously, there's Jon Lester, two years removed from cancer, pitching not only the clinching Game 4 of last year's World Series sweep, but tossing a no-no, the first of this season. Lester struggled early this season and struggled in the bullpen before this start. He acknowledged feeling during warmups that he'd be lucky to get out of the first inning. Clearly, he got stronger as the game went along. Amazingly, it was the first complete game of his career.

Lester's no-no was the first by a Red Sox lefty in 52 years, but the eighteenth overall by Sox hurlers, second only to the Dodgers. Given the cozy dimensions of Fenway, as well as the more pitcher-friendly Chavez Ravine (where Los Angeles plays), that's a surprise. Half of the Boston no-nos have been at home, so perhaps it's time to reassess Fenway as a hitter's park. Of course, when you've got guys in your history like Smoky Joe Wood (one no-hitter), Cy Young (he threw two of Boston's clean-slaters and the team's only perfect game) and Dutch Leonard (who also tossed two), it's not hard to see how the no-nos can stack up.

But the hidden story here, as it often is, lurks behind the plate, in the person of team captain Jason Varitek, only the fourth player ever to receive that honor. Better known for his work at the plate and in the clubhouse than behind it, Varitek has caught no-hitters from Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholz and, now, Jon Lester's. He's the first catcher in major league history to catch four no-hitters, and that's no coincidence.

Catchers are in many ways the unsung heroes of any game, throwing more than any pitcher, doing squats with each pitch, taking foul tips and knockdown slides into home, blocking bouncing breaking balls or snagging rising fastballs, all while retaining a mental book on each hitter in the opponent's lineup. Oh, yeah, and taking their cuts at the plate.

To do all this and call a game here your pitcher doesn't give up a hit is amazing. To do that four times is remarkable. Only Ray Schalk had done that before, and one of those no-hitters was taken away in 1991, when MLB decided that a no-hitter would apply only to games of nine innings or more with no hits (Schalk had caught a game by Jim Scott, who'd gone hitless through nine, only to give up a hit in the tenth when the game went into extra frames).

In major league history, twelve catchers have caught three no-nos, but Varitek's the only one with four. The former category is storied company, but the latter is obviously exclusive--exclusive to Varitek himself. In today's game, the catcher's role may be somewhat diminished in the game, with managers routinely calling pitchouts, intentional walks, and sometimes even particular pitches, but Varitek has caught his no-hitters for three different managers.

And the pitchers he's done it with have been four very different ones--Hideo Nomo was already declining in 2001 when he threw his. He'd finish the season 13-10, with a 4.50 ERA anda 1.35 WHIP, hardly a dominating stat line. Nomo had thrown a no-no five years before, in Coors Field (of all places), so one might argue that he already had the stuff to succeed. The veteran traditionally relied on his odd "tornado" delivery, moderate fastball and unpredictable forkball, which confused batters as often as his catchers.

The next was Derek Lowe in 2002, in his first year back as a starter after three years at the back end of the pen. Lowe, who relies on his heavy sinker to get batters out, would go 21-7 that year, with a 2.54 ERA and a dominant 0.98 WHIP, and come in third in the Cy Young balloting. He's probably the best case for a pitcher who might have been able to throw the no-hitter, regardless of who was behind the plate. But who's the catcher who helped to convert him from reliever back to starter?

Buchholz last year was dramatic for several: it was Buchholz's rookie campaign, only his second start, the Red Sox were holding off the surging Yankees in September, and the youngster was on a pitch count. Buchholz, who features a fastball in the mid-nineties and a beautiful changeup and curve, hadn't thrown more than 98 pitches all season, and GM Theo Epstein and Terry Francona spoke twice late in the game, agreeing that Buchholz wouldn't be allowed to exceed 120 pitches, no matter what the game situation was. While neither Buchholz or Varitek was aware of this, he finished with 115 pitches. 

And, finally, Jon Lester, not so much a rookie as a comeback rookie, having already started more than thirty games since his 2006 debut. Coming back from lymphoma last year, he won Game 4, the series-clincher, becoming only the third pitcher in history to win such an important game in his first postseason start. Lester's a two-seam and four-seam fastball pitcher, relying on movement as much as velocity, complemented by a good curve and changeup--and, of course, he's a lefty. 

An older, crafty forkballer in slow decline; a sinkerballer making a mid-career change back to the rotation; a more traditional fastball-curveball-changeup rookie in his second start; a young fastballing lefty making a comeback from cancer. These are the four very different guys, and Varitek's been the glue to hold them together.

So let's not bury the lead here any more than all of us already have: Lester and Varitek are, in a sense, co-heroes of last night's no-hitter, so hats off to both of 'em.