MLB.com

BILLINGS, Mont. -- How Jimmy Paduch ended up on the mound at Cobb Field on Sept. 12 is a story in itself.

If not for a nearly impossible run that put him and his Billings Mustangs teammates in the Pioneer League championship series, Paduch would have been back home in Elmwood Park, Ill.

But there he was, staked to a 3-0 lead pitching in the top of the ninth inning against Provo, Utah. Everyone in the crowd had been standing since the beginning of the inning, sensing the moment that was to come. With two outs, Paduch had run Angels center fielder Reggie Willits to a 3-2 count. And then -- with 4,031 bundled-up fans cheering wildly -- Paduch became the story.

Home plate umpire Greg Tucker rang up Willits on a Paduch fastball, sending the 28th Provo batter of this 55-degree evening back to the bench and giving Paduch the first championship-winning no-hitter in Pioneer League history.

The Mustangs, who appeared to be out of the playoff picture in August, rushed the mound and tackled Paduch. Somewhere under the pile of players was the pitcher who led the way to the Mustangs' unlikely 10th Pioneer League title.

The 20-year-old right-hander had faced one over the minimum -- a double play took care of one of his two walks.

Paduch had just one close call. In the fifth, Provo's Warner Madrigal chopped a ball off the plate that bounced high to Mustang shortstop Will Hudson, who fired to first and Madrigal was called out by first base umpire Jason Milsap on a close call.

But that was history as the Mustangs mobbed Paduch.

As his teammates carried Paduch around the infield, the press box at Cobb Field was nearly vacant. Assistant general manager Gary Roller, who served as the public address announcer for the contest, had left in the eighth to get ready for the postgame trophy ceremony. Billings Gazette sportswriter Mike Scherting followed suit. Radio broadcaster Chris Rushin ran down to the field to conduct live interviews seconds after the last pitch.

"Big" Al Reynolds remained in the box to announce the batters in the ninth, run the scoreboard and play "We are the Champions" by Queen when the game ended.

The Mustangs took their on-field celebration to the clubhouse, where they doused each other with champagne, shaving cream and an unknown brown substance that resembled cake.

When the Mustangs workers gathered in the business office, everyone was sure that this had to be the first playoff no-hitter in the history of the league. Then 66-year-old Bob Wilson, the president of the Mustangs since 1974, smiled and quietly interjected, "Peter Grimm."

Grimm pitched for the 1983 Mustangs and threw a no-hitter in a championship series, Wilson said. A quick check of the record book proved him right. But that was in the first game of the series and Paduch stood alone as the only pitcher to throw one to win it all.

A few minutes later, a champagne-soaked Paduch was called to the business office. ESPN Radio was on the phone and wanted to interview him.

He said all the right things: "I kept the ball down, hit my spots and let my defense do the work for me."

Then he got on the phone with his parents.

"I listened to KISS before the game," he said. "That was it."

Heavy metal, lucky watches and assigned seating

Paduch's superstitions regarding music were well known at Cobb Field. Reynolds played the Blues Brothers' version of "Sweet Home Chicago" as the ace of the Billings' staff warmed up for most of his starts in Billings. Paduch ended up going 7-1 with a 1.94 ERA in the regular season.

Superstitions might offer the only answer as to how the Mustangs ended up as the Pioneer League champs.

The league plays a split season. The season is divided into two halves, each 38-games long. Billings played well the first half, but finished second to Helena, Mont. By winning the first half, the Helena Brewers clinched a playoff spot.

Helena also won the second half, meaning that the team with the next best overall record in both halves of the season would face the Brewers in the playoffs.

But the Mustangs stumbled out of the gate in the second half. A mid-season shakeup in the Reds organization had Mustangs manager Rick Burleson going to Triple-A Louisville and MVP-candidate Habelito Hernandez was lost for the year when he dislocated a shoulder in a game in Missoula, Mont.

Jay Sorg, a former Mustang who was the hitting coach, took over as manager and the Ponies finished with a 17-21 record in the second half. Lost in that sub-500 record was the fact that the Mustangs went 7-1 in the last eight games of the season to overtake the Great Falls, Mont. White Sox for the second-best overall record in the four-team Northern Division.

That's when the superstitions started.

To open the Northern Division championship vs. the Brewers in Billings, Paduch sent a CD of 1980s heavy-metal rock to the press box for Reynolds to play when Paduch threw his warm-up pitches between innings.

When the Mustangs found themselves in a tight game, pitching coach Scott MacRae -- a 1995 Mustang who pitched for Cincinnati in 2001 and took the pitching coach job to give himself something to do while rehabbing after elbow surgery -- retreated to the clubhouse. He quickly emailed Rushin during the game and told Rushin to run over to the main press box and tell Reynolds to keep playing Paduch's power ballads.

Paduch, a 2003 12th-round draft pick known as "The Rock" to his teammates, gave up three runs in seven innings and got a no-decision. But the Mustangs rallied in the eighth to win.

Closer David Shafer had to sit behind Rushin on the bus when the team traveled to Helena. The one time this season Shafer didn't, he got lit up. Billings got a 6-2 win in Helena, with Shafer pitching a scoreless ninth, and advanced to face Provo in the championship.

The Provo Angels won the Southern Division championship after finishing the second half of their regular season with 30-8 record -- 13 more wins than Billings mustered in the second half.

Shafer took his seat behind Rushin as the Mustangs headed to Provo. In Sorg's pocket was a beat up, band-less watch given to him by Rushin. Sorg had lost his watch, Rushin gave the manager his backup and the Mustangs went on the tear that put them in the championship. Sorg deemed the timepiece lucky and claimed it as his personal property.

Thanks to a three-run homer by Mustang right fielder Ben Himes in the 11th inning in Provo, the Mustangs got on the bus for the 12-hour trip back to Billings with a 1-0 lead in the three-game championship series.

For game two of the championship, Paduch sent two CDs of '80s rock ballads to the press box. Late in the game, when it seemed the unthinkable was going to happen, MacRae went to the clubhouse and emailed Rushin another request.

"We need a live chicken," wrote MacRae in a reference to the famous mound conference in the movie "Bull Durham."

Turns out, they didn't need a live chicken. They had Jimmy Paduch and that was enough.

There will be no tickertape parade for the Mustangs. They had about 30 hours to celebrate, pack and fly home, except for Paduch.

"The Reds are going to fly me to Cincinnati and give me an award at Great American Ball Park," Paduch told his parents over the phone. "No. I don't know when I'll be home. You guys just need to calm down."

Watching as Paduch implored his proud parents to take a deep breath, the small paychecks collected during the season by the Mustangs' employees seemed a little more valuable.

"You'll never see anything like that again," Roller told the employees crowded into his small office.

Maybe not. But Roller won't have any trouble filling his low-paying seasonal jobs next year with people willing to take a chance that he's wrong.

Matt Bender is a contributor to MLB.com and the official scorer of the Billings Mustangs. This story was not subject to approval by the Pioneer League or its clubs.