Johan Santana throws first no-hitter in Mets history

  MIKE FITZPATRICKNEW YORK -- For more than 50 years, the New York Mets chased that elusive no-hitter. Johan Santana finally finished the job.

Santana pitched the first no-hitter in team history, helped by an umpire's missed call and an outstanding catch in left field in an 8-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

After a string of close calls over the last five decades, Santana went all the way in the Mets' 8,020th game.

"Finally, the first one," he said. "That is the greatest feeling ever."

He needed a couple of key assists to pull it off.

Carlos Beltran, back at Citi Field for the first time since the Mets traded him last July, hit a line drive over third base in the sixth inning that hit the foul line and should have been called fair. But third base umpire Adrian Johnson ruled it foul and the no-hitter was intact - even though a replay clearly showed a mark where the ball landed on the chalk line.

"I saw the ball hitting outside the line, just foul," Johnson told a pool reporter.

The umpire acknowledged that he saw the replay afterward but declined to comment.

"It was in front of his face, and he called it foul. I thought it was a fair ball," Beltran said. "At the end of the day, one hit wasn't going to make a difference in the ballgame. We needed to score more runs and we didn't do that."

Hometown kid Mike Baxter then made a tremendous catch in left field to rob Yadier Molina of extra bases in the seventh. Baxter crashed into the wall, injured his shoulder and left the game.

Making his 11th start since missing last season following shoulder surgery, Santana (3-2) threw a career-high 134 pitches in his second consecutive shutout. Relying on a sneaky fastball and the baffling changeup that's always been his signature, he struck out eight and walked five.

"Amazing," Santana said after tossing the majors' third no-hitter this year. "Coming into this season I was just hoping to come back and stay healthy and help this team, and now I am in this situation in the greatest city for baseball."

Before the game, Mets manager Terry Collins said he planned to limit Santana to 110-115 pitches all season.

"I just couldn't take him out," a choked-up Collins said afterward.

Born in 1962, the Mets have been built on pitching when they've fielded their best teams. But neither Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver nor Dwight Gooden could throw a no-hitter for the Mets - though all three are among the seven pitchers who tossed one after leaving the team.

Philip Humber is another one. He pitched a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox at Seattle on April 21, and Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels no-hit Minnesota on May 2.

Following the game, Santana addressed his teammates in the clubhouse. He thanked them and said: "Yeah, baby! Believe it!"

Santana got a warm ovation as he headed out to the mound for the ninth inning, and the two-time Cy Young Award winner quickly retired Matt Holliday and Allen Craig on shallow fly balls.

With the crowd of 27,069 on its feet in a frenzy, World Series MVP David Freese went to a 3-2 count before his foul tip was caught by Josh Thole, just activated from the disabled list earlier in the day.

Santana pumped his left fist and slammed it into his glove as Thole showed the ball to plate umpire Gary Cederstrom and then went running out toward the mound.

"I don't think anybody expected that tonight. Everything came out perfect for him," Beltran said. "It should mean a lot for him after battling last year with the injuries. ... I'm not happy about it, but at the same time he's a good man and I'm happy for him."

The Mets rushed out of the dugout and mobbed Santana in a raucous dogpile as security tackled a fan who ran onto the field near home plate. Moments later, the pitcher raised his right arm and saluted the crowd, which was chanted his name from the eighth inning on. The big scoreboard in center flashed Santana's picture and read "No-Han."

"It was a crazy night - my fastball moving all over the place," Santana said. "I don't think I've ever thrown a no-hitter in video games."

The Cardinals should have had a hit in the sixth.

Beltran, traded by the Mets to San Francisco last July after 6? rocky seasons in New York, led off with a low liner over third. Television replays showed the ball nicked the foul line just behind the bag on the dirt, taking a small chunk of chalk with it. But Johnson called it foul immediately and Beltran eventually grounded out.

"It was tough because it happened so quick. I wasn't able to see anything," Santana said.

"The umpire made his call and that was the end of it," he said.

But with the next batter at the plate, Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo twice got in Johnson's face for heated arguments - the two even appeared to bump each other. Rookie manager Mike Matheny also came out to protest, but nobody was ejected.

Almost exactly two years ago - on June 2, 2010 - Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game when first base umpire Jim Joyce admittedly blew a call that should've resulted in the final out. The miss in Detroit instead gave Cleveland's Jason Donald a single with two outs in the ninth.

Major League Baseball had considered expanding replay for this season to review fair-or-foul calls and trapped balls. The change required the approval of MLB and the unions representing the umpires and the players - when there was no agreement, extra replay was postponed until at least 2013.

Santana cruised from there into the seventh, when Molina hit a one-out drive to deep left. Baxter, who grew up rooting for the Mets only 10 minutes from where Citi Field stands, raced back and made a terrific catch before crashing full force into the fence.

Baxter stayed down on the warning track as Mets trainers, players and coaches rushed out to him. Santana crouched in the infield with a couple of teammates and then made a few warmup tosses to stay loose.

Baxter walked off the field under his own power, with trainer Ray Ramirez holding the outfielder's left arm. The Mets said Baxter has a bruised left shoulder and was having more tests.

"When I saw him running back onto the warning track and he made that play, it was amazing. An outstanding play and he saved the game," said Santana, traded to the Mets by Minnesota before the 2008 season. "All these guys, I want to thank them for what we accomplished."

Lucas Duda hit a three-run homer off Adam Wainwright (4-6) and drove in four runs, tying a career high. Daniel Murphy added three RBIs.

The San Diego Padres, who started play in 1969, are now the only team without a no-hitter.

The Mets' seemingly endless pursuit had become something of a famous quest, with at least one website even dedicated to counting off their total number of games without one each day during the season.

The list of pitchers who have thrown no-hitters after leaving the Mets includes Ryan and Seaver, both Hall of Famers, plus Gooden, David Cone, Mike Scott, Hideo Nomo and Humber.

Seaver came within two outs of a perfect game in 1969 and fell one out shy of a no-hitter in 1975, the previous time a Mets pitcher had made it into the ninth without yielding a hit.

NOTES: Santana's previous career high was 125 pitches. ... It was the eighth no-hitter pitched against St. Louis, which was leading the NL in batting this season, and the first since Fernando Valenzuela for the Los Angeles on June 29, 1990. ... Mets 3B David Wright said in a radio interview on WFAN that he won't talk to the team about a new contract until after the season because he doesn't want his situation to be a distraction for the team. Wright's salary is $15 million this season and New York holds a $16 million option for 2013, which gets voided if he is traded. After that, he can become a free agent. ... Replays showed Cardinals pinch-hitter Shane Robinson was hit on the hand by a pitch in the eighth. He started toward first, but Cederstrom called it a ball.

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First NYC homicide of 2012 in Brooklyn

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Brooklyn saw the city's first homicide of 2012.

Police responded to a report of a man shot in the Fulton Park Plaza apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant Sunday morning.

Officers found a 45-year-old man shot to death in a sixth floor hallway.

Police are investigating.

So far, they've made no arrests.

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J.R. Martinez expecting first child with girlfriend

J.R. Martinez and his girlfriend Diana Gonzalez-Jones are expecting their first child, a daughter, the recent "Dancing With the Stars" winner confirmed on Saturday.

"We found out just last week it's a girl and we are over the moon," Martinez told People magazine. "Diana has a little baby bump now and it's the cutest thing ever. With the holidays coming up, this is the biggest and best gift we could get."

The Iraq War veteran met Gonzalez-Jones after he landed a role on "All My Children" in 2008, when she was working as an assistant to the show's executive producer.

Martinez, 28, and Gonzalez-Jones became good friends on set of the soap opera and their friendship blossomed into romance last year.

"We were so good as friends that romantically, we just clicked right away. There was no adjustment period," Gonzalez-Jones told People earlier in the year.

Martinez is already embracing his new role, telling the weekly that fatherhood is "sinking in" and he is counting his blessings.

"2011 has been full of a lot of surprises and opportunities and ultimately, a lot of blessings," Martinez continued. "Diana and I were just asking ourselves, 'How is 2012 going to top 2011?' Well, we have our answer!"

The Louisiana native, whose full first name is Jose Rene, was deployed to fight with U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and suffered burns to more than 40 percent of his body after a Humvee he was driving hit roadside bomb. He has undergone more than 30 surgeries to repair the damage, which includes burns on his face and legs. Martinez became a motivational speaker and in 2008, began acting in "All My Children."

Martinez and his partner Karina Smirnoff beat out "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" star Rob Kardashian and talk show host Ricki Lake to win the top honors on the dancing competition show. It was also the first win for pro Smirnoff.

"It's crazy - I said to my mom last night, I was like, regardless of what happens - but still, to think eight and a half years ago, she was helping, teaching me how to walk and now I've been learning how to dance for the past 10 weeks," Martinez told OnTheRedCarpet.com after the show on November 22. I mean, it's amazing, the journey. It just shows that life is crazy, but you can make it, man."

(Copyright ©2011 OnTheRedCarpet.com. All Rights Reserved.)

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Former First Lady Betty Ford has Died

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK -- Betty Ford said things that first ladies just don't say, even today. And 1970s America loved her for it.

According to Mrs. Ford, her young adult children probably had smoked marijuana - and if she were their age, she'd try it, too. She told "60 Minutes" she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her youngest, 18-year-old Susan, was in a sexual relationship (an embarrassed Susan issued a denial).

She mused that living together before marriage might be wise, thought women should be drafted into the military if men were, and spoke up unapologetically for abortion rights, taking a position contrary to the president's. "Having babies is a blessing, not a duty," Mrs. Ford said.

The former first lady, whose triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center in California, died at age 93, family friend Marty Allen said.

Family spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski said Betty Ford died Friday at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Other details of her death were not immediately available.

"She was a wonderful wife and mother; a great friend; and a courageous First Lady," former President George H.W. Bush said in a statement on Friday. "No one confronted life's struggles with more fortitude or honesty, and as a result, we all learned from the challenges she faced."

While her husband served as president, Betty Ford's comments weren't the kind of genteel, innocuous talk expected from a first lady, and a Republican one no less. Her unscripted comments sparked tempests in the press and dismayed President Gerald Ford's advisers, who were trying to soothe the national psyche after Watergate. But to the scandal-scarred, Vietnam-wearied, hippie-rattled nation, Mrs. Ford's openness was refreshing.

Candor worked for Betty Ford, again and again. She would build an enduring legacy by opening up the toughest times of her life as public example.

In an era when cancer was discussed in hushed tones and mastectomy was still a taboo subject, the first lady shared the specifics of her breast cancer surgery. The publicity helped bring the disease into the open and inspired countless women to seek breast examinations.

Her most painful revelation came 15 months after leaving the White House, when Mrs. Ford announced that she was entering treatment for a longtime addiction to painkillers and alcohol. It turned out the famously forthcoming first lady had been keeping a secret, even from herself.

She used the unvarnished story of her own descent and recovery to crusade for better addiction treatment, especially for women. She co-founded the nonprofit Betty Ford Center near the Fords' home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in 1982. Mrs. Ford raised millions of dollars for the center, kept close watch over its operations, and regularly welcomed groups of new patients with a speech that started, "Hello, my name's Betty Ford, and I'm an alcoholic and drug addict."

Although most famous for a string of celebrity patients over the years - from Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Cash to Lindsay Lohan - the center keeps its rates relatively affordable and has served more than 90,000 people.

"People who get well often say, `You saved my life,' and `You've turned my life around,"' Mrs. Ford once said. "They don't realize we merely provided the means for them to do it themselves, and that's all."

In a statement Friday, President Barack Obama said the Betty Ford Center would honor Mrs. Ford's legacy "by giving countless Americans a new lease on life."

"As our nation's First Lady, she was a powerful advocate for women's health and women's rights," the president said. "After leaving the White House, Mrs. Ford helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction and inspired thousands to seek much-needed treatment."

Mrs. Ford was a free spirit from the start. Elizabeth Bloomer, born April 8, 1918, fell in love with dance as a girl in Grand Rapids, Mich., and decided it would be her life. At 20, despite her mother's misgivings, she moved to New York to learn from her idol Martha Graham. She lived in Greenwich Village, worked as a model, and performed at Carnegie Hall in Graham's modern dance ensemble.

"I thought I had arrived," she later recalled.

But her mother coaxed her back to Grand Rapids, where Betty worked as a dance teacher and store fashion coordinator and married William Warren, a friend from school days. He was a salesman who traveled frequently; she was unhappy. They lasted five years.

While waiting for her divorce to become final, she met and began dating, as she put it in her memoir, "probably the most eligible bachelor in Grand Rapids" - former college football star, Navy veteran and lawyer Jerry Ford. They would be married for 58 years, until his death in December 2006.

When he proposed, she didn't know about his political ambitions; when he launched his bid for Congress during their engagement, she figured he couldn't win.

Two weeks after their October 1948 wedding, her husband was elected to his first term in the House. He would serve 25 years, rising to minority leader.

Mrs. Ford was thrust into a role she found exhausting and unfulfilling: political housewife. While her husband campaigned for weeks at a time or worked late on Capitol Hill, she raised their four children: Michael, Jack, Steven and Susan. She arranged luncheons for congressional wives, helped with her husband's campaigns, became a Cub Scout den mother, taught Sunday school.

A pinched nerve in her neck in 1964, followed by the onset of severe osteoarthritis, led her to an assortment of prescription drugs that never fully relieved the pain. For years she had been what she later called "a controlled drinker, no binges." Now she began mixing pills and alcohol. Feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated, she suffered an emotional breakdown that led to weekly visits with a psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist didn't take note of her drinking but instead tried to build her self-esteem: "He said I had to start thinking I was valuable, not just as a wife and mother, but as myself."

The White House would give her that gift.

In 1973, as Mrs. Ford was happily anticipating her husband's retirement from politics, Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced out of office over bribery charges. President Richard Nixon turned to Gerald Ford to fill the office.

Less than a year later, his presidency consumed by the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned. On Aug. 9, 1974, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the only chief executive in American history who hadn't been elected either president or vice president.

Mrs. Ford wrote of her sudden ascent to first lady: "It was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time."

She was 56 when she moved into the White House, and looked more matronly than mod. Ever gracious, her chestnut hair carefully coifed into a soft bouffant, she tended to speak softly and slowly, even when taking a feminist stand.

Her breast cancer diagnosis, coming less than two months after President Ford was whisked into office, may have helped disarm the clergymen, conservative activists and Southern politicians who were most inflamed by her loose comments. She was photographed recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital, looking frail in her robe, and won praise for grace and courage.

"She seems to have just what it takes to make people feel at home in the world again," media critic Marshall McLuhan observed at the time. "Something about her makes us feel rooted and secure - a feeling we haven't had in a while. And her cancer has been a catharsis for everybody."

The public outpouring of support helped her embrace the power of her position. "I was somebody, the first lady," she wrote later.

"When I spoke, people listened."

She used her newfound influence to lobby aggressively for the Equal Rights Amendment, which failed nonetheless, and to speak against child abuse, raise money for handicapped children, and champion the performing arts.

It's debatable whether Mrs. Ford's frank nature helped or hurt her husband's 1976 campaign to win a full term as president. Polls showed she was widely admired. By taking positions more liberal than the president's, she helped broaden his appeal beyond traditional Republican voters. But she also outraged some conservatives, leaving the president more vulnerable to a strong GOP primary challenge by Ronald Reagan. That battle weakened Ford going into the general election against Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Carter won by a slim margin. The president had lost his voice in the campaign's final days, and it was Mrs. Ford who read his concession speech to the nation.

The Fords retired to a Rancho Mirage golf community, but he spent much of his time away, giving speeches and playing in golf tournaments. Home alone, deprived of her exciting and purposeful life in the White House, Mrs. Ford drank.

By 1978 her secret was obvious to those closest to her.

"As I got sicker," she recalled, "I gradually stopped going to lunch. I wouldn't see friends. I was putting everyone out of my life." Her children recalled her living in a stupor, shuffling around in her bathrobe, refusing meals in favor of a drink.

Her family finally confronted her and insisted she seek treatment.

"I was stunned at what they were trying to tell me about how I disappointed them and let them down," she said in a 1994 Associated Press interview. "I was terribly hurt - after I had spent all those years trying to be the best mother, wife I could be. ... Luckily, I was able to hear them saying that I needed help and they cared too much about me to let it go on."

She credited their "intervention" with saving her life.

Mrs. Ford entered Long Beach Naval Hospital and, alongside alcoholic young sailors and officers, underwent a grim detoxification that became the model for therapy at the Betty Ford Center. In her book "A Glad Awakening," she described her recovery as a second chance at life.

And in that second chance, she found a new purpose.

"There is joy in recovery," she wrote, "and in helping others discover that joy."

Family spokeswoman Lewandrowski the family expects to organize a service in Palm Desert over the next couple days. Ford's body will be sent to Michigan for burial alongside former President Gerald Ford, who is buried at his namesake museum in Grand Rapids.

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Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. is here!

  by Bob Monek, Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. is here on Channel 7 and 7online.com starting TODAY!

Join Liz Cho, David Novarro and Lee Goldberg for all the day's news, weather and much more.

Not only will you be able to watch on tv, but if you are away from home, you can watch on 7online.com.

We'll be streaming Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. every day along with Eyewitness News at Noon, 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Click here)

You'll also be able to interact with Liz, David and Lee on our new Eyewitness News First at 4 website (7online.com/firstatfour) as well as on Facebook (facebook.com/firstatfour) and Twitter (twitter.com/firstatfour)

Please join Liz Cho, David Novarro and Lee Goldberg for Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m on Channel 7 and 7online.com beginning today!

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Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. is coming!

  by Bob Monek, Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. is coming this Thursday to Channel 7 and 7online.com!

Join Liz Cho, David Novarro and Lee Goldberg for all the day's news, weather and much more.

Not only will you be able to watch on tv, but if you are away from home, you can watch on 7online.com.

We'll be streaming Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m. every day along with Eyewitness News at Noon, 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Click here)

You'll also be able to interact with Liz, David and Lee on our new Eyewitness News First at 4 website (7online.com/firstatfour) as well as on Facebook (facebook.com/firstatfour) and Twitter (twitter.com/firstatfour)

Please join Liz Cho, David Novarro and Lee Goldberg for Eyewitness News First at 4:00 p.m on Channel 7 and 7online.com starting Thursday, May 26th!

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