Nothing is often something

No-hitters in progress are treated differently in the dugout than in the press box.

Teammates treat it with the expected reverence and silence, and even fans are worried about upsetting the karma by uttering the words, no-hitter.

Other than winning the no-hit pool, reporters have different concerns.

Reinforcements are often required from the office. This became a very difficult task on the night Joe Cowley of the White Sox inched toward a no-hitter against the host Angels late in the 1986 season.

The problem? It was Sept. 19, a high school football Friday night, meaning nearly every sports reporter for this newspaper’s old Orange County edition was hunkered down at a game.

Finally, an editor who hadn’t covered a game in years hit the road and got to the stadium in time for interviews.

No one will ever know how many traffic laws were broken that night.

Namely, they have different expertise

Joe Cowley of the White Sox should not be confused with the Joe Cowley who covered Mark Buehrle’s no-hitter Wednesday night for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Same name. Different guy.

“With him being a contact pitcher, you’re still thinking something can go wrong,” Cowley wrote of the no-hit effort. “But after the eighth, he was going to face the bottom three in the ninth. So that’s when I called the office and said, ‘How do you want to handle this stuff?’ ”

Trivia time

How many no-hitters have been thrown in White Sox team history?

Making the call on late-night list

A sampling from David Letterman’s “Top Ten Signs Your NBA Referee is Nuts” on Wednesday:

* “Puts ball under his shirt; claims he’s carrying LeBron’s baby.”

* -”Every time someone makes a basket, he screams ‘Goooaaaallll!’ ”

* “Thinks the Knicks’ rebuilding plan is working.”

Stan the man

Stan Kroenke, owner of several U.S. sports teams, has increased his interest in the British soccer team Arsenal, upping his stake to 12.19%.

“Americans are buying up chunks of the Premiership football clubs and not because of their love for football, but because they see an opportunity to make money,” Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood told London’s Daily Express newspaper on Friday.

“Our objective is to keep Arsenal English -- albeit with a lot of foreign players.”

English with a lot of foreign players?

Has Hill-Wood ever been seen in the same room with Ralph Kiner?

Trivia answer

Sixteen.

And finally

University of Arizona running back Chris Henry to the Sporting News, on running well at the NFL combine:

“It felt good because people were saying, ‘There’s no way he can be 230 pounds and run that fast.’ I know I left a lot of people with a stupid look on their face.”

*

lisa.dillman@latimes.com