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MORGANTOWN -- It was three years ago, May 5, 2021, when former West Virginia left-hander John Means, then building his reputation as a major league pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles, etched his name into baseball history with one of the greatest games ever thrown.
The Mountaineers, at the time, had the good fortune to catch the end of the game as they were playing, of all opponents, Pitt at the ballpark then known as The Mon and the final inning of Means' gem played out with all the tension that any no-hitter could on the video screen in left-centerfield.
As he was retiring the final three hitters of a game that came within one pitch of a perfect game -- a third strike to Sam Haggerty, having gotten past catcher Pedro Severino, allowing Haggerty to reach first. It was the only blight on Means' performance and was quickly erased as Haggerty was thrown out trying to steal.
"That was pretty cool," Mazey said later. "We got to watch the ninth inning on the scoreboard before our game started and our guys were standing there into it pretty good. At the time, we thought it was a perfect game because we didn't even know about (the no-hitter in progress) until the eighth inning. It was pretty cool for our guys to see a Mountaineer on the video board doing something that is super, super hard to do, and everybody's real proud of him."
The baseball world was at Means' feet, but it wasn't to be, for Means somehow had this cloud hanging over his head of being at the right place at the wrong time.
Certainly, being at West Virginia was the right place for Means, for it gave him a platform that led to him being drafted in the fourth round but it was before the program really got a head of steam up under Mazey and became a factor in the national picture.
And, it seemed, he had arrived too early to enjoy the success the Orioles would eventually find. In that 2021 season, the team went 52-110 to finish last in the American League East.
The next season, 2022, the transformation of the Orioles began with Means playing a strong role in it, turning in an 83-79 over-.500 record for a fifth-place finish on the way to a stunning 2023 turnaround with a 101-61 season.
Means wasn't a participant in it as the rebuild he was supposed to be such a big part of took hold. In early 2022, he underwent Tommy John surgery to repair a ruptured collateral ligament in his left elbow. He had made only two starts during the season when the ligament popped in his arm and the recovery time for Tommy John surgery is given at 12 to 18 months.
It wasn't until September last season that Means returned for four starts in September but soreness in the elbow kept him out of the playoffs and delayed his 2024 debut until Saturday.
No one was sure what to expect. His first rehab start in the minor leagues just 17 days earlier he lasted but one inning, but he put a couple more starts together where he was feeling good, allowing the Orioles to put him into a thinned out through injury rotation on Saturday.
When asked before the game what his goals were, he took the same modest, yet honest, approach in his answer that he always offered during his days at WVU.
"The goal, right, is to pitch for a winning ballclub," Means said to the Baltimore writers. "This team, it's the culture and the way of how they're playing, this is the future. I'm looking forward to it."
But first he had to prove that after almost two years away he was healthy enough to do it.
He was going against the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati on Saturday and there had to be some nervousness, the kind you get when you are about to open the door to your future.
"I had some tough times," Means said. "But at the end of the day, I'm pretty content with where life's taken me. I believe this is the plan for me. I'm just going to trust in that."
It turned out that trust was repaid as Means tossed six innings of flawless baseball to give the Orioles their fifth win in six games and put their record at 22-11.
He efficiently pitched seven three-hit innings without walking a man and striking out eight in a 2-1 victory.
Armed with a magical change-up that would seemingly disappear as the hitter swung at it, he had Reds batters swinging and missing all game long, never using more than 16 pitches in any inning and retiring the side once on six pitches, all of which were swung at by the Cincinnati hitters.
Of the 85 pitches he threw, 58 were strikes, a sign of skill, yes, but just as much a sign of confidence that he was fully in control of matters.
"That was unbelievable," his Orioles manager, Brandon Hyde, said after the game. "I know he feels amazing right now. To go out and do that, seven shutout innings, first time out of rehab, not being on a big-league mound for a while, was way more than we anticipated and expected and just shows you the competitor Means is and how off-balance he can keep big league hitters The changeup was fantastic."
Where will this lead? Means isn't ready to go there yet, basking in the moment.
"You don't take anything for granted," he said. "You embrace the little moments, just being here and being round the guys."