Michael Lorenzen Threw a No-Hitter In Vans

“I gotta get a new pair, for sure,” Lorenzen told reporters in Philly after the game. “Those are my only pair…those will be the first pair of Vans in the Hall of Fame.” I’m sure the nice people at Vans can help get him some new ones.

Lorenzen is from, you guessed it, Orange County. He was born in Anaheim and went to both high school and college in Fullerton. In fact, in one of the harder-to-believe stats to emerge from Wednesday night, Lorenzen is one of four pitchers to matriculate from Fullerton Union High School to the major leagues. All four of them—legendary flamethrower Walter “Big Train” Johnson, Steve Busby, Mike Warren, and now Lorenzen—have thrown a no-hitter.

This was only the long-haired Californian’s second game with the Phillies after coming over from Detroit. In addition to his no-hitter, the Phillies enjoyed another touching moment on Wednesday that felt straight out of a Disney movie. Lorenzen’s teammate Weston Wilson, a 28-year-old outfielder who played 706 minor league games before finally making it to the bigs, hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat.

Perhaps Lorenzen’s white Vans possess some sort of pixie dust. As the old baseball adage goes, you never know what you might see when you show up to the ballpark. A homer in someone’s first game is pretty sweet, and most people have also never seen a no-hitter, making Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park extremely remarkable. But when you throw in the fact that literally nobody ever had seen a no-hitter from a dude in skate shoes, the evidence of Lorenzen’s Vans being magic grows even more compelling.

“(That was) the coolest moment of my baseball career,” Lorenzen said postgame. “Walking out of the dugout and hearing the fans go wild, it gave me the chills and that boost of energy I needed, for sure.” Never change, Michael Lorenzen. Skater bros and West Coast slackers everywhere salute you.