Philip Humber started it, and by the time the trend he started was finished he was out of a job.

When the 2012 season was only 17 days old, Humber pitched a perfect game. It was the first of an unprecedented three perfect games and the first of seven no-hitters that would be pitched last season.

Never before had the major leagues had three perfect games in the same season. Only twice since 1900 had major league pitchers produced seven no-hitters in a single season.

In 1884, which preceded what is known as the modern era (post-1900), eight no-hitters were pitched in leagues that were forerunners to what we know today as the major leagues. That year they were known as the Union Association, the American Association and the National League.

The name of one of the eight 1884 pitchers may be familiar. Pud Galvin, who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame 81 years hence, pitched a no-hitter for Buffalo against Detroit in an N.L. game. The no-hitter was one of Galvin’s 46 wins that season, one of his 72 starts, one of his 71 complete games, one of his 12 shutouts and 9 of the 636 1/3 innings he pitched.

Although Galvin’s no-hitter wasn’t a perfect game, Humber’s perfect game didn’t trigger the spectacular season Galvin had. Following the perfect game, which he pitched for the Chicago White Sox in Seattle in his second start of the season, Humber struggled, compiling a 4-5 record and 7.21 earned run average in 14 starts.

Humber’s post-perfect experience showed that one game does not a season make. A no-hitter, even if it’s perfect, carries no guarantee for a good season. The results of the performances after the seven no-hitters were mixed.

After his perfect performance Humber, a 29-year-old right-hander, allowed 59 earned runs in 73 2/3 innings over 14 starts, and manager Robin Ventura removed him from the starting rotation and gave him a seat in the bullpen. He relieved 10 times and finished the season in an uncertain situation.

The uncertainty for the one-time first-round draft choice ended two months after the season. The White Sox put him on waivers and the Houston Astros, the team with the majors’ worst record last season, claimed him, intending to give him a chance to win a starting job with them next season.

The Astros are Humber’s fifth team in his disappointing career, not the one anticipated for him when the Mets made him the third player picked in the 2004 draft. The most prominent development of his career was probably his inclusion in the Mets’ 2008 trade with Minnesota for Johan Santana.

His next stop was Kansas City after the Royals signed him as a free agent. Then Oakland claimed him on waivers, and a month later the White Sox did the same.

With a 16-15 record in three years of major league service, Humber has been more the pitcher he was before and after the perfect game than the one who allowed the Mariners no baserunners April 21.

On the other hand, Humber’s perfect game put him in an elite class of pitchers aside from the obvious. He joined Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and David Cone as pitchers who played for the New York Mets, then went elsewhere and pitched no-hitters before the Mets had a no-hitter of their own.

Six weeks after Humber’s classic performance, the Mets finally got one of their own. Johan Santana pitched the first no-hitter in the franchise’s 51-year history. However, following his career-high 134-pitch performance against St. Louis, Santana struggled.

Through that June 1 game, in his return following shoulder surgery in 2011, Santana had a 3-2 record with a 2.38 earned run average. In his 10 starts after the no-hitter, the left-hander had a 3-7 record and an 8.27 e.r.a.

He especially had trouble in July and August, losing all five of his starts and giving up 33 earned runs in 19 innings for a 15.63 e.r.a. After his Aug. 17 start, the Mets decided Santana had had enough and ended his season.

Santana’s fellow Venezuelan, Felix Hernandez, also pitched a no-hitter, marking the first time two Venezuelans pitched no-hitters in the same season. The Hernandez game, though, was perfect, No. 3 of the season.

Like Santana, however, Hernandez had trouble afterward. The perfect game was part of a 4-0 August, but in his last six starts, the 26-year-old right-hander had a 0-4 record and 6.62 e.r.a.

Matt Cain of San Francisco threw the other perfect game, June 13 against Houston, but he pitched more effectively afterward than Humber and Hernandez. Cain started 19 games afterward and put together an 8-3 record with a 3.26 e.r.a., helping the Giants to the post-season, where they won the World Series.

Jered Weaver pitched well, too, after he pitched a no-hitter against Minnesota May 2.Weaver, whose 2.81 e.r.a. was the third lowest in the American League, started 24 games after his no-hitter and emerged with a 16-5 record and 3.19 e.r.a. His good pitching, however, didn’t help the Angels get to the post-season.

Cincinnati was in the playoffs as the National League West champions, and they began by playing a close five-game division series with San Francisco. With the Res ahead two games to none, Homer Bailey started Game 3 and gave up one run in seven innings.

It was an extension of the solid pitching Bailey did in all but one of his final seven regular-season starts. In his one poor performance, he gave up 5 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. In the other 6 starts, he allowed a total of 5 earned runs in 42 innings.

The last of those starts was a scoreless four-inning tune-up for the post-season. In the start before that Bailey pitched a no-hitter against Pittsburgh.

That leaves the most unusual no-hitter of the seven no-hitters that were pitched: the Mariners’ June 8 game against the Dodgers in which Kevin Millwood pitched the first six innings, then had to leave with a groin injury, and five relievers completed the no-hitter.

Charlie Furbush retired the first two batters in the seventh, and Stephen Pryor got the third after walking two batters. Lucas Luetge set down the first batter in the eighth, and Brandon League got the second and third outs.

Tom Wilhelmsen pitched the ninth and retired three batters on nine pitches, completing the no-hitter.

Even though he didn’t finish it, the game was the highlight of Millwood’s season. In 16 starts after he recovered, Millwood had a 3-7 record and a 4.48 e.r.a.

REMEMBERING THE RICE-RICH DRAFT

Philip Humber, Jeff Niemann and Wade Townsend pitched for Rice University’s 2003 College World Series championship team. All three were then selected in the first round of the 2004 draft – Humber third by the Mets, Niemann fourth by Tampa Bay and Townsend eighth by Baltimore. They were the first trio of college teammates chosen in the first eight picks in the draft’s history.

Humber and Niemann signed. Townsend rejected the Orioles’ offer, returned to Rice for his senior year and was the eighth player picked in the 2005 draft. He is one of five players who were first-round choices in consecutive drafts. The other four:

• Pitcher Brad Duvall 15th 1987 (Orioles), 23rd 1988 (Cardinals)
• Catcher Jason Varitek 21st 1993 (Twins), 14th 1994 (Mariners)
• Outfielder J.D. Drew 2nd 1997 Phillies), 5th 1998 (Cardinals)
• Pitcher Aaron Crow 9th 2008 (Nationals), 12th 2009 (Royals).

Varitek and Drew had long notable careers, Crow relieved in a total of 130 games for the Royals the past two seasons and Duvall pitched in 34 minor league games in three years but never above Class A.

Townsend never made it to the majors either, starting in 43 games and relieving in 26 in five minor league seasons, getting as high as Class AA only briefly one season.

Niemann has been a starting pitcher for Tampa Bay the past four seasons but last year missed three and a half months after a line drive broke a bone in his leg, then missed the last month with a sore arm. He has a 40-26 career record with a 4.08 e.r.a.

MORE MLB.COM MUFFS

If you read this stuff about the boss of General Motors, you’d think you somehow got onto the Web site of the G.M. house organ. If you constantly saw these paeans on any Web site, you’d be certain you had clicked on to that site’s house organ.

That view, however, doesn’t deter MLB.com from posting periodic columns saying what a great job Commissioner Bud Selig is doing. This was the headline on the latest hosanna posted last week:

Selig creating a legacy of hope for all franchises

I don’t have a problem with someone saying Selig is doing a good job because he is and he deserves credit for the job he has done as commissioner. He has his critics, especially those who think he was too late and too light in attacking the steroids issue.

But Selig and Major League Baseball have done as good a job, if not better, than the other major sports leagues. In addition, baseball is in better shape than the other lockout-happy sports because Selig has learned that he doesn’t have to go to war with the union to get a labor deal that is fair to both sides.

David Stern has long been given unwarranted praise by the news media for the rise in popularity of the National Basketball Association when the praise more rightfully belonged to Michael, Magic and Larry.

Then there is the lockout-happy National Hockey League whose commissioner, Gary Bettman, thinks he can grow up to be Stern if he maintains the title the lockout king, but he really has a death wish.

The point is Selig is doing a good job, but he shouldn’t need his house organ telling him so.

Instead the editors of the house organ should spend their time improving the baseball content of their Web site. Take, for example, an article that appeared last week about no-hitters.

I came across the article while working on the column I have written here. Everyone makes mistakes, but the editors of that piece allowed enough errors to run to satisfy a week’s quota of errors.

“Only once before had baseball seen a windfall the likes of the seven no-hitters produced in 2012,” the article began.

“The other time baseball’s pitchers rolled a seven was 1991,” read the following paragraph.

Wrong and wrong. The article failed to include 1990, in which seven no-hitters were also pitched.

Shortly later the article says there were “six in 2010.” Wrong again. Five no-hitters were pitched in 2010.

Discussing Philip Humber’s perfect game, the article states, “By the conclusion of the 2012 season, Mr. Perfect was 6-6 with a 6.44 ERA.”

Right earned run average, wrong won-lost record. It was 5-5.

Not finished muffing the facts, the article says Matt Cain pitched his perfect game June 18. It was June 13.

I don’t like making mistakes, and if I find I have made one, I correct it. I don’t know if MLB.com corrects its mistakes, but it sure could use editors who will make sure reporters avoid making them.