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The Cubs' Epic No-Hit Streak Finally Ends at 7,921 Games

By Justin Breen | September 29, 2014 5:15am | Updated on July 27, 2015 8:24am

CHICAGO — The Cubs' epic no-hit streak is finally over, at 7,921 games after Cole Hamels threw a no-no against the North Siders on Saturday.

Most sports fans know the Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908, but the North Side baseball club had owned a far-less-familiar streak that's also quite impressive.

Before Saturday, the Cubs hadn't been no-hit since Sandy Koufax threw a perfect game against them on Sept. 9, 1965.

"There aren't many things the Cubs are the best at, but at this they were," Jimmy Greenfield, who created and runs the Twitter handle @CubsNoHitStreak, which tells its near-4,600 followers when and how the team secures its first hit of every game, told DNAinfo in 2013.

Justin Breen says Jimmy Greenfield won't even think about what would happen if the Cubs were no-hit:

"The way I approach this account is that not only is it awesome to be a Cubs fan, but isn't it tremendous that we have this one thing — The Streak — that we're better at than any team ever?" said Greenfield, who started the account in June 2012. "Every game is a celebration, no matter how the team does that day. The Cubs can lose 6-0 and only get one hit, but The Streak provides at least a little bit of happiness."

Greenfield, a die-hard Cubs backer, takes his CubsNoHitStreak role seriously. His goal is to post a tweet within seconds of the Cubs' extending the streak.

"And then when the hit comes, I feel like I just won something," Greenfield said in 2013. "The elation lasts about 10 seconds, but it's nice to have that each game."

He also knows an obscene amount of information on the subject, which includes a massive spreadsheet created by one of Greenfield's Twitter followers, Scott Lindholm, that shows the last time a team was no-hit.

The five Cubs who kept the club from being no-hit in its last at-bat — Jimmy Qualls (July 9, 1969); Ken Rudolph (April 16, 1971); Joe Wallis (Sept. 24, 1975); Dave Hansen (April 10, 1997); and Michael Barrett (July 25, 2004) — were "enshrined" in photos at the top of Greenfield's Twitter page in 2013.

Before Saturday, the closest the streak had come to concluding under Greenfield's watch was Aug. 1, 2012, when A.J. Burnett's no-no bid ended with two outs in the eighth on pinch-hitter Adrian Cardenas' single.

"Adrian Cardenas, bless his soul, broke it up," Greenfield said. "The worst game ever for me was the Burnett near no-hitter in 2012. Not only did it go really deep into the game, but I was at a bar with a new smartphone that I wasn't used to and I couldn't get my tweets out."

Greenfield ardently believed in 2013 the Cubs wouldn't become victims of a no-hitter anytime soon.

"The Streak will never end," Greenfield said.

As far as his favorite team's other ultra-lengthy streak?

"The two are not mutually exclusive. All in good time," he said.

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