Greg Maddux never threw a no-hitter. He's one of the greatest pitchers in league history that never accomplished the feat, along with Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens, and you can probably credit the fact that he was so often throwing in the strike zone with preventing Maddux from achieving the honor.
However, he was probably able to throw a no-hitter at some point of his baseball career. Perhaps he did so in high school, where scouting reports praised him for everything... except for control, which he "lack(ed) overall... on all pitches" according to one scouting report. Still, if one of the most dominant big league hurlers ever was unable to throw a no-no in high school, it would come as a major shock.
Any ballplayer can do that — take Joey Gallo, for instance. The Rangers slugger, best known today for swatting home runs like they're puny little house flies, was known for much of the same back in his teenage years. In fact, Gallo's high school career nearly totaled a full season. In 160 games, he hit for a casual .466 average with 208 hits, 67 home runs and 249 runs batted in in 446 at-bats. But he also tossed a no-hitter at age 17, which just so happened to be followed by an encounter with the aforementioned Maddux.
"We actually had a game earlier that day, and I pitched and I threw a no-hitter that day, and then I ended up going to prom later that night with Paige Maddux," Gallo shared on MLB Network. "So it was an interesting day. It was really fun. But, you know, showing up and having to talk to Greg for 20 minutes and taking his daughter to prom was pretty nerve-wracking for a 17 year old.
"It (the no-hitter) was kind of an icebreaker, but I think he was at the game for a little bit because he was always helping out around the school with our team, so he actually talked to me about it and was talking to me about pitching and I didn't really want to pitch coming out of the draft, either, so I was more just talking about hitting... so it was pretty interesting."
Man, take the guy's daughter to prom and show him up in our national pastime? Throw a no-hitter and get approached by the Greg Maddux, only to talk hitting with him because you're not all that interested in pitching? That takes some chutzpah from young Gallo.
With the way he hits the baseball, though, he probably made a good decision in the end.
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