(Boston’s Buchholz – exciting fluke or the next Gino Toretta?)

While ESPN Radio Colin Cowherd opined this morning that no-hitters (along with holes-in-won and Heisman Trophy winners) were irrelevent, the Boston Herald’s Steve Buckley used Clay Buchholz’ recent heroics as an excuse to disturb a Red Sox alumnus from the Summer of ’67.

Forty years ago, Billy Rohr flirted with history when he came within one out of throwing a no-hitter in his first major league start.

œI wish I were there to congratulate him and wish him well, said Rohr, 62, a medical malpractice attorney who makes his home in southern California. œIf I could give him one piece of advice, it would be to enjoy it because he™s going to have it the rest of his life. But I also hope he remembers that it™s just one game, not a career. He has a lot of baseball left in him.

Rohr could be excused for offering his advice with some mixed emotions. For while he came close to making history in his first major league start, settling for a one-hitter when Elston Howard singled to right in the bottom of the ninth inning on April 14, 1967, Rohr won just two more games in his major league career.

No word yet from Cowherd on the relative importance of one-hitters. I’m still not certain what provoked a rant designed to point out that Chris Bosio isn’t a better pitcher than Roger Clemens, but I’d like to think even a philistine like Cowherd could appreciate the magnitude of say, Doc Ellis’ no-no.