June 6, 1952: Dodgers prospect Elroy Face throws no-hitter through 9 innings, settles for 1-hit shutout

The name Elroy Face conjures up many associations. One might think about one of baseball’s most durable and consistent relief pitchers with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s and 1960s at a time when modern, post-World War II relief pitching was in its infancy; or his career-defining 18-1 record in 1959, marking the highest winning percentage in NL/AL history for a pitcher with at least 15 victories; or maybe his signature pitch, the awkwardly released yet profoundly effective forkball that catapulted Face to success.

Face, however, wasn’t always a forkball-throwing reliever. He was originally a heater-heaving starter who in 1952 came within one swing of a 10-inning Texas League no-hitter that sportswriter Dick Freeman called “one of the most brilliant mound duels ever seen [in Houston].”1

Face commenced his professional career in the Philadelphia Phillies organization in 1949. After two seasons and 32 victories with the Class D Bradford Phillies (PONY League), Face was not promoted, exposing him to the annual minor-league draft. Branch Rickey and the Brooklyn Dodgers selected the 22-year-old right-hander and assigned him to the Pueblo (Colorado) Dodgers. Face tore up the Class A Western League in 1951, setting a new league record with 23 wins (9 losses), while posting a 2.78 ERA in 265 innings.

The Dodgers promoted Face to the Double-A Fort Worth Cats to start the 1952 season. “Physically Face ‘isn’t much,’” opined beat writer Lorin McMullen about the 5-foot-7, 155-pound pitcher during Texas League spring training, “and his expression is one denoting a pleasant feller just trying to keep out of the way.”2 Still, McMullen cautioned readers not to be fooled by Face’s stature and compared him to Carl Erskine, the big-league club’s slightly built stalwart: “On the mound Face is an outstanding ‘take charge’ type and no one watches him for as much as two minutes without catching that dominant stare.”3 In his Buffaloes debut, Face tossed a seven-hit shutout and quickly established a reputation as a tireless workhorse, relying on a fastball-curveball combination.4

On June 6, a humid Saturday night with temperatures still in the mid-80s in Houston’s East End, the fourth-place Cats (29-27) squared off in the rubber match against the fifth-place Buffaloes (30-29), a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate.5 Only two games separated the league-leading Oklahoma City Indians from the Buffalos in the tightly packed eight-team league.

The pitching matchup featured right-handers with identical 7-2 records.6 The Buffs’ 30-year-old Mike Clark had labored on the Cardinals’ chain gang since 1940 and his shot at a big-league dream was slipping away.7 Face was in the midst of an impressive stretch that began with a 14-inning no-decision on May 20, followed by a complete-game 11-inning loss four days later.8 In his last two outings, Face tossed a seven-hitter with two earned runs, followed by a six-hit shutout.9 His 106 innings pitched were one behind the league leader, teammate Joe Landrum, while his 59 punchouts, trailed Dallas’s Don Mossi by one.10

Face and Clark treated the 1,986 spectators in Buffalo Stadium to an impressive pitching duel, breezing through the first six innings in just 55 minutes.11 Described by the Houston Chronicle’s Freeman as a “155-pound chunk of pitching dynamite,” Face walked Dick Morgan to lead off the third inning and after subsequently Billy Costa had forced Morgan at second picked off Costa at first. The only other Houston baserunner was Elbie Flint, who reached on third baseman Al Brancato’s error in the fifth. The Cats managed just one baserunner, Wayne Belardi, whose “gentle tap,” wrote Buffs scribe Lorin McMullen, fell in left field for a single.12 He was thrown out attempting to steal second.

Clark escaped a jam in the seventh when Bert Hamric led off with a bunt. Ted Del Guercio’s grounder forced Hamric at second and then he stole second. Two batters later Brancato’s fader to short right field seemed to be “out of everybody’s reach,” but right fielder Vann Harrington made a run-saving catch on a full sprint.13 In the eighth, John Simmons picked up the Cats’ second scratch hit and third of the game on a blooper to left field.

After retiring 12 straight batters, Face walked 21-year-old future Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver with two outs in the ninth.14 He punched out Mel McGaha on a called third strike to complete the nine-inning no-hitter.

Through nine innings both Face and Clark had faced only 29 batters.

The Cats’ Billy Hunter led off the 10th with a long fly to left center. Center fielder Ed Mierkowicz ran the ball down and seemed to catch it, but was unable to hold it. Hunter was safe at first on the error. After Belardi walked, Brancato bunted. Clark – who “fielded his position like a shortstop” – pounced on the ball and whipped it to third to force Hunter, recording one of his eight assists.15

Fort Worth catcher Bobby Bragan, a 34-year-old veteran of seven major-league seasons with the Dodgers and Phillies, singled to right field on a full count; Belardi scored the game’s first run, and Bragan moved to second on Harrington’s throw home while Brancato raced to third. Simmons’s squeeze bunt plated Brancato, and Joseph Torpey’s single drove in Bragan to give the Cats a 3-0 lead. Face grounded out to end the inning.

Taking the mound in the 10th for his 55th inning of work in just 17 days, Face stared down Mierkowicz, a career minor leaguer who had had four cups of coffee in the big leagues in the previous decade. The Buffaloes’ leading hitter in 1952 with 11 home runs and a .271 batting average, Mierkowicz laced a clean single that landed “some 10 feet in front of left fielder Del Guercio,” wrote McMullen.16 Unfazed, Face recorded three straight outs to secure Houston’s 3-0 victory in 1 hour and 53 minutes.

Face fanned eight and walked two in his 10-inning, one-hit shutout. He concluded the season with a 14-11 record and a 2.83 ERA in 226 innings for the second-place Cats (86-75). The Dodgers had a glut of pitchers in their pipeline, including a pair of 23-year-old right-handers on the Cats, whom they prized more than Face: Joe Landrum (15-10), whose 1.94 ERA led the Texas League in ’52; and Jim Melton, whose 18 wins and 242 innings paced the squad.

Consequently, the Dodgers left face unpredicted in the Rule 5 draft.

By this time Rickey, who had originally signed Face to the Dodgers, was Pittsburgh’s general manager. He took another flier on the diminutive hurler. Face spent the entire 1953 season with the Pirates, a talent-starved and especially weak-pitching, 104-loss, last-place team. Face (6-8) struggled as a spot starter and reliever, posting the major’s highest ERA (6.82) among pitchers with at least 100 innings since the Philadelphia Athletics’ Carl Scheib (7.22) in 1950.

Rickey, however, still believed Face could be an effective big leaguer. In the spring of 1954, he sent Face to Double-A New Orleans to learn an offspeed pitch.17 As SABR member Gary Gillette points out, Face got the idea of the forkball from watching a former Yankees star reliever from the late 1940s, southpaw Joe Page, who was attempting a comeback with the Pirates in spring training.18 Armed with his new pitch, Face returned to the majors in 1955 and appeared in 42 games, including 10 starts, posting a 5-7 record with a 3.58 ERA.

The next season he emerged as one of the most durable pitchers in baseball, making a big-league-most 68 appearances. Face retired after the 1969 season as one of the most dependable relievers in baseball history. At that time, his 821 relief appearances ranked second all-time,19 trailing only future Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm’s 947.20

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

Notes

1 Dick Freeman, “Tenth-Inning Hit Spoils No-Hitter,” Houston Chronicle, June 7, 1952: 9.

2 Lorin McMullen, “Sports. Cat Mound Standouts Have Competent Look,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 3, 1952: 17.

3 “Sports. Cat Mound Standouts Have Competent Look.”

4 Lorin McMullen, “Face’s 7-Hit Trick Checks Dallas, 7-0,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 15, 1952: 13.

5 “Weather Forecast, Map, and Chart,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 7, 1952: 12. Also, see Texas League Standings, “Today’s Baseball Calendar,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 6, 1952: 16.

6 Texas League statistics up to this game are found here: “Dunlap’s .373 Captures Lead in Plate Race,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 8, 1952: Section 2, 4.

7 Clark realized his dream later in 1952. Sporting a 1.90 ERA along with a 9-5 record, he was called up by the Cardinals in late July. In parts of two seasons he appeared in 35 games.

8 “Oklahoma City Outlasts Cats in 15 Innings,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 21, 1952: 13. “Dallas Throttles Cats Twice, 2-1, 3-2,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 25, 1952: 19.

9 “Face Pitches Cats Past Indians, 7-2,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 30, 1952: 17. “Cats Go Slugging, Rap Padres, 12-0,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 3, 1952: 12.

10 “Dunlap’s .373 Captures Lead in Plate Race,”

11 McMullen, “Face Hurls Nine-Inning No-Hitter, Wins in 10th.”

12 “Face Hurls Nine-Inning No-Hitter, Wins in 10th.”

13 “Face Hurls Nine-Inning No-Hitter, Wins in 10th.” Dick Freeman described Harrington as making a “great running catch.” See Freeman, “Tenth-Inning Hit Spoils No-Hitter.”

14 Weaver, who never played in the major leagues, was playing second base for Houston in this game.

15 Freeman, “Tenth-Inning Hit Spoils No-Hitter.”

16 McMullen, “Face Hurls Nine-Inning No-Hitter, Wins in 10th”

17 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Fireside, 2004), 198.

18 Gary Gillette, “Elroy Face,” SABR BioProject, accessed October 10, 2023. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Roy-Face/.

19 Face made 848 total major-league appearances.

20 At the end of the 2023 season, Face ranked 40th all-time in games pitched (848).