Honel throws no hitter

In a weird twist of fate, Kris Honel - the pitcher who was traded to Long Beach last season for Jose Lima - has thrown a no hitter today for the Chico Outlaws just hours after news hit that the former Major Leaguer Lima had died of a heart attack.

Honel, a former first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox, began the last season with the Edmonton Capitals before the biggest trade in the history of the Golden Baseball League - and perhaps all independent leagues - sent him to Long Beach for the former NL All-Star Lima.

Honel's no hitter, the second in GBL history, came against the Cimarrones de Tijuana in Mexico in the first game of a doubleheader. Doubleheaders in the GBL (and most independent and minor leagues) are 7-innings long. Stats are readily available as the Cimarrones haven't been able to get their live game-trackers working or final stats uploaded as of yet, but we'll pass those along when we get it.

Incase you're interested, here's the box score from the first no-hitter in GBL history pitched by Chico's Seth Johnson in 2005 against Japan.

UPDATE, 5/23/2010 9:38pm

Here's the press release from the Chico Outlaws website about Kris Honel's impressive outing...

Honel Throws No-No!
By Dan Hawkins
5/23/2010

For any player making a debut with a new team, the thought process is usually the same—they want to impress. Right hander Kris Honel, making his first start of the season and debut with the Chico Outlaws, is like everybody else in that regard.

The difference is, Honel went really far out of his way to do just that—impress. Pitching in game one of a double-header against the Tijuana Cimarrones, he threw a seven inning no-hitter to get the win in his Outlaws debut.

But wait, there's more. The final score of the game was 20-0 as the Outlaws gave Honel plenty of run support, while Honel did the rest by silencing the Cimarrones bats.

No further offensive statistics are available at this time.

Honel, a former first round draft choice (16th overall) of the Chicago White Sox in 2001, has had some bad breaks in his career. After going to major league spring training in 2004 with the White Sox, he hurt his arm and was pretty much shelved for the season after appearing in just four games.

In September 2005, Honel underwent Tommy John surgery after doctors discovered a partial tear. With surgery and recovery, it cost him the entire 2006 season.

But none of that mattered on a glorious Sunday afternoon south of the border in Tijuana. One after another, the Cimaronnes batters came up to the plate and then trudged back to the dugout, with no chance to catch up to Honel's fastball and then having to face his nasty knuckle-curve ball.

Honel’s no-no is the second in Golden Baseball League history. The other was also thrown by an Outlaw. Seth Johnson threw a no-hitter against the Samarai Bears, a traveling team from Japan, on June 19th, 2005 at Nettleton Stadium in a game the Outlaws won 5-0 in the second game of a double-header.

Maybe the real irony of the day was the fact Honel threw a no-hitter on the same day that former major league and GBL pitcher Jose Lima passed away from an apparent heart attack in Los Angeles. Honel was traded by the Edmonton Capitals last year for Lima, who was with the Long Beach Armada at the time of the trade.

The intersection comes even further into focus because Lima learned he had been traded to Edmonton right before a game against Chico at Nettleton Stadium. Honel is now an Outlaw.

The win put Chico at 2-0 to start the season and dropped Tijuana to 0-2.