Curse of King Korn: The New York Mets and 50 Years of No No-Hitters

You have heard of the Curse of the Bambino and the Curse of the Billy Goat, but what about the “Curse of King Korn?” In 1962 the Bohack supermarket chain announced incentives for various Mets “firsts” in the form of King Korn trading stamps.1 These could be turned in for merchandise at redemption centers. For example, the first Mets grand slam netted Rod Kanehl 50,000 of the stamps.2 Smaller achievements merited a smaller number; however, the bounty for a no-hitter was 500,000 of the King Korn trading stamps.3 It would be 50 years before someone could theoretically collect on that offer. More on that later.

If we define “no-hitter” to be a complete-game effort by a single pitcher in a major-league baseball game, then there have been some inexplicably lengthy periods in which a team did not have a no-hitter.

The longest streak of no-hitter futility was authored by the Philadelphia Phillies. On May 1, 1906, southpaw Johnny Lush no-hit the Brooklyn Superbas, winning 6-0. Phillies would not pitch another no-hitter for 8,945 games.4 In the 8,946th game, on Father’s Day, June 21, 1964, Jim Bunning pitched a perfecto at Shea Stadium against the hapless Mets, prevailing by the same 6-0 tally.

The only major-league franchise to have never had a no-hitter thrown by one of its pitchers is the San Diego Padres. This streak, entering the 2017 season, is 7,652 games. Perhaps their best chance came on July 21, 1970, in the team’s second year of existence. Clay Kirby, pitching against the Mets (there they are again), had a no-hitter through eight innings in San Diego. The Mets had scored a run in the first inning via two walks, three stolen bases, and a fielder’s choice, giving them a 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the eighth.  Padres manager Preston Gomez, with two outs, nobody on, and his hurler authoring a no-hitter, elected to pinch-hit for Kirby. It didn’t work. The Mets won, 3-0, with three hits in the ninth inning off reliever Jack Baldschun. Gomez pulled an identical stunt on September 4, 1974, while managing the Houston Astros. It didn’t work then, either.

When we think of the 1970s Baltimore Orioles, we think of the dominant starting rotation. Jim Palmer. Mike Cuellar. Dave McNally. Pat Dobson. Steve Stone. Mike Flanagan. The list goes on. However, this franchise is mired in the second longest current no-hitter drought. On August 13, 1969, Jim Palmer tossed a no-no at the Oakland Athletics, defeating them by an 8-0 score. They haven’t seen another one since, a streak that has spanned 7,514 games, as of 2017.5

Now, about that curse of King Korn:

This particular curse did not last as long as the better-known curses (respectively, 86 years and 71 years), and, in fact, it is not the longest in major-league history. However, a curse might be the only way to explain the Mets’ drought, which topped 8,000 games.

From the inception of the ballclub in 1962 through May 31, 2012, the New York Mets participated in 8,019 regular-season games, or roughly 7.64 peercent of all major-league games played in that time. From the 1962 season through May 31, 2012, there were 124 one-pitcher no-hitters thrown in major-league baseball. If we assume that no-hitters are random events, then the Mets should have participated in more than nine one-pitcher no-hitters. When one conjures up an image of the Mets, rarely is a high-powered offense the first thing that comes to mind. It is pitching, and specifically, power pitching, that is the historical calling card of the franchise, particularly when it has been successful.

Through the 2011 season, they had been the victim of a one-pitcher no-hitter six times. Since the team might have been expected to participate in nine no-hitters, it would not be unreasonable to assume that Mets pitchers no-hit the opposition three times. Couple that with the fact that Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Warren Spahn, Bret Saberhagen, and Dean Chance all pitched for the Mets, won  Cy Young Awards and pitched no-no’s, we might conclude that Mets hurlers authored even more than three no-hitters. Except that they didn’t. The first five pitched their no-hitters after they left the Mets, while the last three did it before they joined the team. Another pitcher who meets these three criteria, Hideo Nomo, pitched one no-hitter before and one after his Mets stint.

In fact, 23 of the 125 one-pitcher no-hitters thrown in the “Mets Era” were thrown by pitchers who at one time wore the uniform (either in the majors or the minors), but not at the time of their masterpiece.

Then, in the 8,020th regular-season game of their existence, it happened. Johan Santana, a former Cy Young Award winner, pitched a no-hitter while wearing a Mets uniform, beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0, on Friday, June 1, 2012, at Citi Field.

And what about King Korn?

Well, Bohack’s stopped issuing King Korn Stamps as of June 23, 1969.6 That means that Tom Seaver likely would not have received any had his one-hitter the next month been a no-no. (He had retired the first 25 Chicago Cubs he faced, and later referred to it as his “imperfect game.”)

Thus, while Johan Santana never received any King Korn trading stamps, he did receive a $5.5 million buyout from the Mets after the 2013 season.

JOHN T. SACCOMAN is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. An avid fan of the New York Mets, he team-teaches one of the earliest known Sabermetrics courses there with its founder, Rev. Gabe Costa. They, along with Mike Huber, have co-authored three books published by McFarland— Understanding Sabermetrics, Practicing Sabermetrics and Reasoning with Sabermetrics. John resides in northern New Jersey with his Bosox-loving wife Mary and tries to get to Citi Field whenever possible with his Boston-area son, Ryan.

 

Notes

1 Janet Paskin, Tales from the 1962 New York Mets Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Stories from the Mets Inaugural Season (New York: Sports Publishing, 2012), 75.

2  Steve Rushin, “Bad Beyond Belief,” Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1992.  si.com/vault/1992/05/25/126550/bad-beyond-belief-thirty-years-ago-the-newborn-new-york-mets-made-baseball-history-of-the-most-dubious-kind.  Rushin, in his article, quotes Kanehl: “King Korn had a store in Chicago, and I traded the stamps in there,” says Kanehl, who now manages a Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in Rancho Mirage, California. “I got a living-room suite, a Deepfreeze, an end table – a lot of junk.” Kanehl died in 2004.

3 Phil Mushnick, nypost.com/2012/06/04/mistakes-second-nature-for-espn/.

4 nonohitters.com/philadelphia-phillies-no-hitters.

5 Four pitchers combined for a no-hitter on Saturday, July 13, 1991, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum for the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets have never enjoyed a combined no-hitter.

6 Wall Street Journal, June 9, 1969 (accessed via ProQuest).