Wendell Miley was at his home in Loranger, Louisiana on Friday, 1,050 miles from Cleveland, as he watched his son, Wade, take the mound.
He always likes to make a night of his son’s starts. His oldest son, Aaron, and his wife are usually over to watch the games and Wendell will invite friends. Sometimes, somebody arrives with the food. Other days, it might be Wade’s mom, Wanda, making a meal for everybody before they enjoy the game.
Wendell says he’s tenser than Wanda when he’s watching games, but this was a different level. His son was throwing a no-hitter.
“Man, that eighth and ninth inning, I about needed oxygen,” Wendell said. “I was out of breath. It was like I was making every pitch with him.”
It was about the fourth or fifth inning when Wendell started thinking about a potential no-hitter. He focuses on the strike zone box on TV, which Wade has warned isn’t always accurate, but it’s a good indicator of where his pitches are landing.
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“He was painting,” Wendell said. “He was on the inside, on the outside. You could see fourth, fifth inning that he was still there. I always look for that.”
With each passing inning Friday, Wendell became tenser. He was wearing a Cincinnati Reds T-shirt and one of his buddies joked with him, “Your face is as red as the shirt.”
The Reds scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning, setting the stage for Wade’s chance at history. His dad was sitting on the edge of his seat. Wendell wondered, “Does he have three outs left in him?” He was thrilled the Reds scored, but it was a long time for Wade to sit in the top of the ninth inning.
Wade made it a drama-free bottom of the ninth inning. He breezed through it in eight pitches, completing the 17th no-hitter in Reds history and the franchise’s first since 2013.
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“Everybody just started screaming and jumping up and down, high-fiving one another and giving hugs,” Wendell said. “I know we wasn’t there, but we had our own little dog pile.”
Wendell was teary-eyed watching the post-game celebration. He saw Wade’s excitement and shock when he was interviewed. Teammates spoke about the respect they had for Wade. Everyone in the house laughed when Wade revealed a temporary Hulk tattoo on his right forearm.
When Wade called his parents afterward, he told them, “I can’t believe this happened.” Wendell was grateful for everyone that was a part of it. He praised the team’s defense for playing so well. He knows analytics is a big part of defensive positioning and he was grateful for whoever put everybody in the right spot.
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“Even though he’s the one everyone is talking about, there are so many people that are involved in making something like this happen,” Wendell said. “I give them all praise and credit.
“Then the catcher, I hate the pandemic is going on because I’d love to shake his hand. Be able to shake the hand that put all the right fingers down for my son to do something special. He’s as big of a part of this as Wade is.”
***
Miley’s journey to a no-hitter, the 309th no-hitter in Major League Baseball history, started in Loranger. It’s a small farming community about an hour outside of New Orleans with a population of about 7,000.
Everybody knows each other in Loranger. Miley married his high school sweetheart, Katy, and they’ve known each other since grade school. Their parents even went to school with each other. They all still live there. The community put up a sign in 2019 that reads: “Welcome to Loranger, Home of Wade Miley.”
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“We see everybody pretty regularly,” Katy said. “Everybody knows he’s the ballplayer. They don’t really act any different around Wade and Wade doesn’t act any different than he was growing up and in school. It’s really not too much different when we go back home. He’s just normal Wade.”
Loranger was beaming with pride Friday night. Wendell joked that as soon as Wade completed his no-hitter, “my phone sounded like a Christmas song with so many texts coming in, just dinging.”
People congratulated Wendell and Wanda when they saw them Saturday, sharing their stories of how they watched the game on the edge of their seats.
“I know I woke up this morning and I still couldn’t believe it,” Katy said Saturday. “I remember in high school, we were dating in high school, and I’m like, ‘well, what is your backup plan?’ Wade was always like, ‘You know, I don’t really have a backup plan.’”
Wendell wasn’t an athlete and always tells people that Wade got his abilities from his maternal grandfather, Donald Addison. Wade has called him “Paw Paw Buck” since he was little. Addison and Wade’s uncle, Byron, could always be found playing baseball in the yard when Wade was growing up.
Addison, 87, played baseball in the U.S. Army and watched Friday’s no-hitter from his home. As much as Wendell enjoys inviting family and friends to watch Wade’s starts from his home, he knows better than to ask Addison.
“He likes to watch it by himself, so he can hear because we get too noisy for him,” Wendell said. “We don’t try to go over there or ask him to come here. We just let them watch it on their own because he has trouble hearing, so that’s how he loves it. We know he loved it, so that was special for us that he got to see that.
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“I wish my parents would have still been able to. My dad died, he passed away his last high school game that he pitched. He passed away as soon as the game was over. But he fathered him all the way up to that point. I would have loved for him to see him make it to the Show, but hey, God had other plans.”
***
Around the fourth inning, Katy noticed Wade had the Hulk temporary tattoo on his right forearm. She laughed and texted her dad to look for it. Their 4-year-old son, Jeb, put a temporary tattoo on everybody in the house. Jeb had an Ironman one. Katy had Black Widow. Wade went with the Hulk.
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“I’m like, ‘oh, man, he must have forgot that,’” Katy said. “But I remember this offseason, we had the tattoos, it was hard to come off (Wade’s) skin or whatever. Apparently, it was difficult to remove, so it stayed on (Friday).”
Having a 4-year-old running around helped calm Katy’s nerves as Wade carried his no-hitter deeper into the game. When the Reds scored in the ninth, that’s when everything became a bit more intense. He was three outs away from history.
She was grateful for the quick ninth inning. There was one heart-stopping moment when the first batter hit a fly ball to right field because it’s hard to tell where balls will drop from watching on TV, but fortunately, it was a routine play for Nick Castellanos.
Jeb is starting to become more invested in games. He knows the names of all the Reds players and will cheer for them.
“We were like, ‘Dad threw a no-hitter!’ He was like, ‘Yeah!’” Katy said. “We were shouting and celebrating at the end of the game. I think he went and got a handful of bouncy balls and just let them go in the living room. He was definitely celebrating.”
All the congratulatory text messages started to pour in afterward. Wade had about 200 messages on Friday night. He’s played for seven teams in his 11-year career, so it’s been quite the journey.
Miley’s agent, Tom O’Connell, was in Texas to watch another client, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Chris Flexen, pitch against the Rangers. O’Connell never made it inside the stadium. He was watching Miley pitch from a bar in the entertainment center outside the ballpark.
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“He got it done and I just went nuts,” O’Connell said. “Then all of a sudden, a couple of guys figured it out and they were like, ‘Oh, my God, this guy knows Wade Miley.’ We high-fived and stuff. Special moment. I’ve been doing this 24 years and it was just one of the most incredible days.”
Wade FaceTimed his wife and son shortly after he walked off the field following his no-hitter. Jeb told him, “Dad, way to go!”
When Wade called back as he walked onto the bus to leave the ballpark, Jeb asked to talk to other players, something he loves to do. Wade showed him a bus full of teammates cheering for him.
***
When Wade was celebrating his no-hitter on the field, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Reds hitting coach Alan Zinter, who was the hitting coach on Wade’s minor-league team in 2009, told him that he was so proud of how far he’s come in his career.
“I don't know, that immediate thought of back home, my family, my mom, my dad, my grandma and grandpa – it was like a whole window of my childhood in a sense and everything I've done,” Wade said. “Just thankful my aunts and uncles and my brother – all that hit me at one time. I'm sure they're all watching or checking out on the game, just the love they showed me and the support I've gotten from my little small town, Loranger, Louisiana, it just all hit me at once when Z said that.”
It was one of those nights where everyone close to him will remember where they were.
Wade worked his way from his small town to the big leagues. He made an All-Star team in his rookie year. He’s pitched in playoff games. There’s been ups and downs in his career, but at 34 years old, he added his name into the record books with his no-hitter.
His dad always tells kids, "Never quit dreaming," because he saw how Miley defied the odds on his road to the Major Leagues.
If he needed another example Friday, he saw another dream come true.
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