I’ve never covered a no-hitter, but I can tell you this: It’s a crazy experience on deadline. I know because we had the wheels in full motion tonight. After six innings, Scott Baker was still perfect. Jim Souhan was here on a non-writing night and ready to crank out a column if need-be. La Velle, who had been here for about nine hours before leaving early in Game 2, called from Eagan, volunteering to come back and write a sidebar.

By the time John Buck drew his walk leading off the ninth inning, we were all-systems go. My first game story needs to be filed within moments of the game ending, so I already had written paragraphs about Baker’s historic achievement. I was rewriting with every passing pitch. When Mike Sweeney singled, it was a let down for all of us, simply because we could have chronicled history.

Anyway, after feeling like my hair was on fire as I filed that first-edition story (the one Mom and Dad get in Southern Minnesota), I had time to get quotes and gather myself for our metro edition deadline, at 11:40. Sitting here now, I’m still not sure I did it justice.

I can’t get over how far Scott Baker has come this season. I remember calling him my spring training sleeper and then feeling foolish as he posted an 8.71 ERA and got sent to Rochester on March 23. But even then, Manager Ron Gardenhire talked about how Baker had turned a corner.

His lack of confidence used to show in the idle moments. He’d take these big contemplative circles on his way back to the mound between pitches. He kept shaking off the catcher’s signs. His tempo was slow, and it got slower when he got into jams.

“We were laughing about it early in the game,” Gardenhire said. “I think he shook [catcher Mike Redmond] off one time in four innings. He understands the game a little bit more, and he started trusting catchers more.”

The reason I picked Baker as a sleeper is that when you look at his pitching record, he’s had success at almost every stop — except Minnesota in 2006. He was 3-3 with a 3.35 ERA for Minnesota in 2005 and 5-4, 2.67 for Rochester last year, but he was 5-8 with a 6.37 ERA for Minnesota last year, and those are the numbers fans remember.

But he didn’t let a poor spring or any of last season’s failures stop him. Always a bright kid, he’s grown up a lot. Now a father of two boys, he’ll turn 26 on Sept. 19.

“You know what, I think you come to appreciate everything that’s happened to you because everything happens for a reason,” he said tonight. “If you never go through anything, how are you ever supposed to persevere? … I appreciate everything that’s happened to me in my career so far, and there’s no doubt it’s made me stronger, mentally and spiritually.”

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