This major milestone was reached on May 29, 1875, by 18-year-old Joe Mann, the pitcher for the visiting Princeton team at Hamilton Park in New Haven, Connecticut. The final score was Princeton 3, Yale 0.

Joseph McElroy Mann was born in New York City on July 13, 1856, to the Rev. Joseph Rich Mann and the former Ellen Thomson. The Rev. Mann graduated from Princeton Seminary in 1848 and for seven years during the 1860s he was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Princeton. One of the Manns’ four other sons was George Williamson Mann, who played on Princeton’s baseball team before young Joe, mostly at shortstop.

Joe Mann appeared in a few Princeton box scores in 1873, though as an infielder. He became the school’s regular pitcher in 1874, and it was actually his work before the no-hitter that garnered much of the fame he experienced later in life. That’s because, later in the century, many sources gave Mann considerable credit for popularizing the curveball, with some even suggesting that he developed the pitch of his own accord.[fn]For example, three letters to the editor on the subject, including one from Mann himself, appeared in the New York Times on June 10, 1900, with a late rebuttal appearing on September 29.[/fn] By late May of 1875, Mann’s teammates had already been exposed to his ability to dominate an opposing nine.

According to the New York Times, a Mr. Rogers of Staten Island was supposed to serve as umpire for the game in New Haven but failed to appear, so Frank Dunning of Princeton was selected. The paper characterized the crowd as “large” and said the defensive highlights “were two flying balls (caught) by Duffield, of the Princetons, in the fourth inning, and corresponding foul catches by Woods.”[fn]“Base-Ball,” New York Times, May 30, 1875.[/fn] A 1901 book, Athletics at Princeton, echoed praise for Duffield’s running catches in left, adding that Moffat did likewise at second base. Denny, as Mann’s catcher, was among those players mentioned as having played faultlessly. However, errors in the first and second innings kept Mann from a perfect game.[fn]Presbrey, Frank and Moffatt, James Hugh. Athletics at Princeton: A History (New York: Frank Presbrey Company, 1901), p. 103.[/fn] According to a much later New York Times account, Yale’s runners both reached base “through a battery error,”[fn]“Distinguished Pitchers,” New York Times, July 29, 1915.[/fn] so if Denny played flawless defense, the errors were Mann’s.

As historic as it was, few other remarkable details of the game were provided. This wasn’t even a case of a pitcher whose dominance manifested itself in a gaudy number of strikeouts, though one of the few sources, besides box scores, for a full picture of how Yale’s batters were retired, was a letter to the New York Times in 1900 by a classmate of Mann’s. Though the writer heaped praise on Princeton’s pitcher, he wrote that “Mann struck out only one Yale man, five Yale men went out on foul flies, two on foul bounds (then allowed), and eight on fair flies, four of which were hit to left field, as the result of the out-curve. The other men went out on in-field plays. …”[fn]W.J. Henderson, an 1876 Princeton graduate, wrote one of the letters to the New York Times that appeared on June 10, 1900.[/fn]

Yale apparently didn’t grouse about the umpiring, but one rationalization surfaced quickly: that Yale’s batters “were caught napping by the use of a Reach ball, which is a little smaller than the regulation size.”[fn]New Haven Palladium, May 31, 1875.[/fn] Did Yale choose that ball, or did the home team not provide one? Regardless, later research suggested that Reach was one of two models of ball accepted as regulation in 1875, the other being Peck and Snyder’s Dead Red. Those two balls were required to have the same weight and dimensions. [fn]Grayson, Harry. “Curve Developed 73 Years Ago.” Portsmouth Herald(NH), May 19, 1948, p. 10.[/fn]

Neither Princeton nor Yale had a campus newspaper until 1876 and 1878, respectively, but fans of baseball in New York were able to read about Yale’s defeat in the Times and the New York Herald a day or two after it happened. However, neither paper noted that Yale had been held hitless. The detailed box score in the Herald included a column for base hits, but its brief article on the game made no mention of Yale’s total hits.[fn]“The National Game,” New York Herald, May 30, 1875, p. 12.[/fn]

It took quite a while for the significance of a nohitter to sink in, much less that Mann’s was a historic first. Still, in the wake of Mann’s dominant performance, some big-time ballplayers, namely John Radcliffe, Bill Boyd, Chick Fulmer, Billy Barnie and Bob Ferguson, reportedly made a point to observe and study Mann at work, if not insist on batting against him.[fn]In fact, on August 8, 1898, the New York Times said that Mann struck out the first four of these. It was Henderson (see note 6) who listed Ferguson, along with the other four, in his letter to the Times in mid-1900.[/fn] Sadly, by the time Mann graduated in 1876 he had pretty much blown out his arm. In fact, according to one of Mann’s two sons, he overextended himself demonstrating his pitching for those professionals.[fn]Grayson, Portsmouth Herald, May 19, 1948.[/fn]

After graduating, Mann worked for the New York World until 1883, then spent three years with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions before working more than three decades for the publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York. In 1883 he married Fannie Benedict Carter, and they had two sons, both of whom went on to graduate from Princeton and practice law.

Mann died on November 17, 1919, about two years after his wife. In the two decades before his death he was able to enjoy some overdue fame. He loomed large throughout Athletics at Princeton in 1901 (the primary source of the box score)[fn]Presbrey and Moffatt. Athletics at Princeton: A History, especially p. 29-32, 83-84, and 94-108.[/fn] and in 1908 he was one of the two featured speakers at an alumni association event honoring that spring’s baseball team.[fn]“Smoker for Baseball Men,” The Daily Princetonian, October 15, 1908, p. 1.[/fn]Recognition beyond Princeton included being the tenth person featured in a series that ran in the Pittsburgh Press in 1911 under the banner, “Notable Figures in Baseball”[fn]Aulick, W.W. “Notable Figures in Baseball,” Pittsburgh Press, January 13, 1911, p. 26.[/fn] and being featured in a quarter-page article in Sporting Life in 1916. The latter concluded with the author expressing pleasure to note that Mann still played baseball with his two boys, and at some point had regained the ability to pitch fastballs and curves.[fn]Davis, Parke H. “Mann First Curve Pitcher,” Sporting Life, April 22, 1916, p. 6.[/fn]

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Midway through the season, the Boston Red Stockings were steaming toward a 71-8-3 record and a fourth straight National Association pennant. Yet, the topic that dominated the sporting world was news of their looming breakup, with several key players allegedly signing contracts to play in Chicago in 1876.

For 1875 the National Association had expanded from eight to 13 clubs, including two from St. Louis and three from Philadelphia. But the newly founded Centennial of Philadelphia1 found it difficult to compete directly with its more established city brethren the Philadelphias and Athletics; they folded at the end of May.2 Two more new clubs – the Westerns of Keokuk3 and the Washington Nationals4 – disbanded during the season while another, the St. Louis Red Stockings, decided not to complete their league schedule after July 4.

The phrase “expect the unexpected” describes these events well. Joe Borden’s arrival on the professional scene, his phenomenal rise, and subsequent no-hitter were all unexpected.

Philadelphias pitcher Cherokee Fisher was in the midst of his finest season in 1875 before he was released on July 24 for “insubordination and conduct unbecoming a player.”5 More plainly, Fisher – who had a 22-19 record and a 1.99 ERA while starting the Philadelphias’ first 41 games of the season – was let go for intoxication and also charged with poor performance and throwing a game.6

Reports circulated about three potential replacements for Fisher. Joe Blong and Asa Brainard were two players with professional experience who were linked to the open position.7 Borden, a prominent Philadelphia amateur with the Doerr Club, was the third potential replacement.8 As it happened, Blong declined and Brainard was announced as the interim starting pitcher.9

The Chicago White Stockings arrived in Philadelphia near the end of an 18-game July road trip and occupied fifth place in the National Association standings, 20 games behind Boston. They were scheduled to play three games in Philadelphia: two against the Philadelphias and one against the Athletics. The Philadelphias returned home for three games – two with Chicago and one with the Athletics – and were in sixth place in the standings, a half-game behind the White Stockings for fifth.

Although Brainard was expected to replace Fisher beginning on July 24, it was Borden (listed as “Josephs” in most box scores) who pitched for the Philadelphias. He lost his debut 11-4 to the Athletics, followed by a 5-1 loss to Chicago.10

On July 28, he was opposed by Chicago’s Mike Golden, primarily a reserve outfielder and occasional change pitcher, who filled in for the displeased and maligned George Zettlein.11 Another important lineup change for Chicago was second baseman Dick Higham playing catcher in lieu of primary backstop Scott Hastings. Hastings caught the day before against the Athletics but played carelessly, according to the All-Day City Item.12 This change meant weak-hitting Joe Miller, a reserve infielder, started at second base for Chicago. Threatening weather and the effects of a down economy resulted in 500 to 600 people13 attending the game at 25th and Jefferson Streets.14 Nick E. Young served as the umpire for the game.

Chicago was first to bat and did not get a ball out of the infield, retiring on a foul bound,15 a foul tip to catcher Pop Snyder, and a groundball to Tim Murnane at first base. In the second inning, with one out, the White Stockings’ John Peters reached first base on an error by second baseman Mike McGeary, stole second, and advanced to third on Joe Miller’s grounder to McGeary, who threw to first for the out. Borden got out of the jam by retiring Golden on a fly ball to McGeary for the third out.

Levi Meyerle opened the bottom half of the inning with a double in the gap and scored on a passed ball that got by Dick Higham. After two innings, the Philadelphias led Chicago, 1-0. 

The top of the third inning saw action on the basepaths, but no base hits. After Warren White led off with a fly out to Chick Fulmer at shortstop, Oscar Bielaski reached first on McGeary’s second error of the game. The Philadelphias nearly turned an inning-ending double play but were able only to get Bielaski at second. Jim Devlin reached on Meyerle’s error at third. Borden induced a Paul Hines groundball to Fulmer and Hines was thrown out at first base.

Philadelphia increased its lead in the bottom of the third. After Borden flied out to Hines, Fred Treacey singled and went to second on a passed ball. One out later, McGeary singled and drove in Treacey, then scored on Bob Addy’s base hit. Meyerle ended the inning when he flied out to center. Philadelphia’s lead was 3-0.

The Philadelphias’ defense through the first three innings was shaky but afterward solidified itself behind Borden. John Glenn opened the fourth for the Philadelphias by flying out to McGeary. Peters followed with a grounder finely fielded by McGeary. Borden struck out Miller for the third out.

In the fifth, Chicago again failed to get a ball out of the infield and was retired in one-two-three order. Golden bounded out to Borden. White grounded to McGeary, who threw him out at first. Bielaski grounded out on a ball to shortstop.

In the sixth inning, Higham and Devlin flied out to John McMullin in center field, Devlin’s fly being “beautifully taken.”16 Borden finished the frame by inducing a groundball to Fulmer for a 6-3 putout. Glenn opened the seventh inning with a groundout to Fulmer at third base. Peters hit a fly ball to left field that Treacey tracked down and caught with one hand. Miller flied out to McGeary at second base to end the seventh. Philadelphia nearly scored in the bottom of the inning but left Fulmer at third.

Golden flied out to Murnane at first to start the eighth. White went out at first after Snyder dropped the third strike. Bielaski grounded to McGeary, who threw to first for the third out. In the bottom half of the inning, with two outs, the Philadelphias scored the final run of the contest. Addy singled and advanced to third on Bielaski’s error in right field. Meyerle drove Addy home on a single, making it a 4-0 game.

The excitement at the Jefferson Street Grounds was palpable during the ninth inning. Borden faced the top of the Chicago order. Higham and Devlin grounded to Borden. With two outs, Hines, Chicago’s leading hitter, stepped up to the plate. He hit a foul ball that was caught by catcher Snyder, securing the no-hitter.

The fact that the rules required Philadelphia to bat in the bottom of the ninth didn’t dampen the elation. The Philadelphia Times set the scene: “A cheer arose, and the Quakers were so elated that they made no further effort and were soon put out, and walked off the field as heartily applauded by the backers of the club as those individuals curse them when beaten.”17

Coverage of this game was varied. The Chicago Inter-Ocean merely reported the score without mention of Borden’s no-hitter.18 The Chicago Tribune included a brief paragraph but did state that the game was unparalleled in the professional ranks.19 Detailed coverage was given to a local game between the aldermen and county commissioners.20

The Philadelphia press was little better. The Inquirer, Times, and Sunday Mercury provided a paragraph or two. The Sunday Dispatch and Sunday Republic didn’t even publish the score, despite publishing other baseball information. Fortunately, the All-Day City Item published a play-by-play report.21

Borden had tossed what turned out to be the only no-hitter in the National Association’s five-year history. It is not recognized as a major-league no-hitter because the current major leagues consider the formation of the National League in 1876 as their birth.

Between July 24 and August 9, Borden started six games, winning two, before returning to the amateur ranks and the Doerr Club. While Borden contemplated his future as a professional, the Philadelphias signed Zettlein, who had been granted his release from Chicago on August 4.22

Borden pitched once more for Philadelphia, an 8-8, 10-inning tie against Al Spalding and the Boston Red Stockings on September 2. Four days later, the Boston Globe announced that the Red Stockings had signed Borden to a three-year contract beginning in 1876.23 Borden won his Boston debut in the first National League game, on April 22, 1876, against the Athletics in Philadelphia. But his career was short-lived due to arm issues, and he pitched his final professional game on July 15.24

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Joe Borden, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information.

Notes

1 “Gossip,” Philadelphia Sunday Republic, May 23, 1875.

2 “Gossip,” Philadelphia Sunday Republic, May 30, 1875.

3 “Sporting News,” Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1875: 2.

4 “The Championship Record,” New York Clipper, July 17, 1875: 123.

5 “The Ball Field,” Philadelphia Times, July 24, 1875: 4.

6 “Gossip,” Philadelphia Sunday Republic, July 25, 1875.

7 “Base Ball Notes,” Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, July 25, 1875.

8 “Base Ball Notes,” Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, July 25, 1875.

9 “Base Ball Notes,” All-Day City Item, July 24, 1875.

10 Philadelphia newspapers including the Times, Sunday Mercury, Sunday Dispatch, and Sunday Record used Borden’s surname before using the pseudonym “Josephs” in game reports and box scores. Rich Wescott asserts that Borden preferred that this name be used in box scores because his well-to-do family did not approve of ballplaying. See Rich Wescott, “Joe Borden: The First No-Hit Pitcher and National League Winner,” The National Pastime, Vol. 23 (2003): 69-70.

11 Zettlein asked for and received his release on August 4. He said he and manager Jimmy Wood did not get along well and that the situation had become untenable. “Sporting News,” Chicago Tribune, August 4, 1875: 5.

12 “Our National Game,” All-Day City Item, July 28, 1875.

13 The Philadelphias averaged approximately 700 fans per game in Philadelphia in 1875 while they averaged 873 fans per game in 1874. In 1871 the Philadelphia Athletics averaged 3,714 fans at home games. These figures can be explained by a few factors. First, the impact of three teams vying for fan support in one city resulted in a split fanbase. Second, the Panic of 1873, a nationwide depression, made it more difficult for fans to spend money on luxuries like tickets to a baseball game. Third, the National Association of 1875 was bloated with teams that did not have the talent to compete with establish big-market clubs and draw crowds large enough to profit both clubs. These clubs also were not financed well enough to absorb the losses incurred by low attendance and were often unable or unwilling to make their required road trips across the country. The expanded league meant an expanded schedule filled with games between teams of drastically different talent levels.

14 “Base Ball,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1875, 5; “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 29, 1875: 2.

15 A foul ball caught on one bounce, or bound, was considered an out until 1883.

16 “Philadelphia vs. Chicago: An Unparalleled Game Yesterday,” All-Day City Item, July 29, 1875.

17 “The Ball Field,” Philadelphia Times, July 29, 1875: 4.

18 “Detroit vs. Chicagos,” Chicago Inter Ocean, July 29, 1875: 8.

19 “Chicagos – Philadelphias,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1875: 5.

20 SABR member David Rader explained that the game between aldermen and commissioners was a significant event in Chicago in the 1870s, so the Chicago papers sent their reporters to cover that game.

21 “Philadelphia vs. Chicago: An Unparalleled Game Yesterday,” All-Day City Item, July 29, 1875.

22 “Base Ball Notes,” All-Day City Item, August 13, 1875; “Sporting News,” Chicago Tribune, August 4, 1875: 5.

23 Borden’s contract was for $2,000 per year. See George V. Tuohey, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club (M.F. Quinn & Co., 1897), 202.

24 Borden’s last appearance came on July 19, 1875, as an outfielder. Charlie Weatherby, “Joe Borden,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed July 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Joe-Borden/.

1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings. 1 – Joe Blong, 2 – George Bradley, 3 – Herman Dehlman, 4 – Joe Battin, 5 – John Clapp, 6 – Tim McGinley, 7 – Lipman Pike, 8 – Mike McGeary, 9 – Dickey Pearce, 10 – Denny Mack, 11 – Ned Cuthbert. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)

Since 1876 marked the US Centennial, it was only fitting that a man given the name of George Washington should play a starring role in that summer’s events.

This George Washington—his surname was Bradley—wasn’t a politician but a baseball pitcher. On July 15, 1876, less than two weeks after the Centennial observance took place in Philadelphia and less than three weeks after George Armstrong Custer met his doom at Little Bighorn, Bradley became the first pitcher in National League history to throw a no-hit game.

Granted, it was a young National League history at that point. Only the previous February, Chicago businessman William A. Hulbert had gathered together a group to form what would become the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs.

Bradley pitched for the St. Louis Brown Stockings, and he accomplished his pitching feat against the Hartford Dark Blues at Grand Avenue Park in St. Louis. In two previous meetings that week— one of them coming on his 24th birthday—Bradley had already shut out the Hartfords, both times besting the man who was his pitching opponent again on the 15th, Tommy Bond. Described as a perpetually happy fellow, Bradley was rarely called George or George Washington by those who knew him, but more commonly “Grin.” By whatever name, Bradley entered the game in the midst of an amazing streak that would extend to 37 consecutive shutout innings.

His teammates gave Bradley the only run he would need in the top of the first inning. With one out, catcher John Clapp drove a clean single to center, reached third on a wild throw by Bond, and scored on Mike McGeary’s fly ball.

Bradley’s duties were made more challenging by his teammates’ lack of fielding support. The Brown Stockings committed eight errors that day, the first coming in the opening inning when shortstop Dickey Pearce threw badly to first on a groundball by Jack Burdock. A passed ball sent Burdock to second, but he died at third base.

The Browns added another run in the second. Right fielder Joe Blong’s one-out single got things going, and he took second on left fielder Tom York’s slow fielding. Bradley hit a grounder that should have been played by first baseman Everett Mills, but Mills let the ball slip between his legs, allowing Blong to trot home.

Over the next 7½ innings, Bradley and Bond matched each other goose egg for goose egg, Bradley overcoming sloppy fielding to hold his two-run edge. St. Louis threatened twice. In the third John Clapp doubled to left with one out. He died at second as Mike McGeary popped up to Jack Burdock at second and Lip Pike sent a liner to York in left for the third out. In the sixth Pike beat out a grounder to Burdock at second. He stole second, but got no farther as Joe Battin went down on strikes for the third out.

Going into the eighth inning, the Browns still led 2–0 and Bradley’s consecutive scoreless innings streak had reached 25. Despite the no-hitter being intact, a lapse of control presented Hartford with a golden opportunity to score in its half of the eighth. The frame started out with Tom York reaching first on a base on balls. He was sacrificed to second, and made it to third on a wild pitch. There he remained as catcher Bill Harbridge grounded to McGeary at short, who threw it to Dutch Dehlman at first. Inning over. Threat over. Golden opportunity wasted for the Hartfords.

The St. Louises went quietly in their half of the ninth, leaving Hartford one final opportunity. Jack Remsen grounded to Dickey Pearce at short for the first out, but Battin muffed Burdock’s groundball for the Brown Stockings’ eighth error of the game. Dick Higham was the next man up for the Hartfords and he hit a shot to Battin at third, who caught it and doubled Burdock off first to end the game. Grin Bradley now had his no-hitter and his place in baseball history.

For a while, it looked as though Bradley was going to secure yet another place in baseball history in his next start, three days later against Cincinnati, also at Grand Avenue Park. He was perfect through seven innings and took another no-hitter into the ninth.1 Center fielder   Charley “Baby” Jones broke up that opportunity with a double. Jones scored on a hit by catcher Amos Booth, and although the Brown Stockings won 5–1, Bradley’s scoreless innings streak ended at 37. That mark stood until Christy Mathewson tossed 39 straight scoreless innings for the New York Giants in 1901.2

Pitching virtually every game, as was the custom of the time, Bradley won 45 games that season for the Brown Stockings, who finished second in the new league, six games behind the champions from Chicago. His 1.23 earned-run average was the lowest in the league, although the profusion of fielding errors made behind him (and behind all pitchers in those days) gave that statistic less importance than it has today.

Bradley never approached the same performance levels after 1876. Signing with Chicago in 1877, he started 44 games, but won just 18 and saw his ERA climb to 3.31, the highest among pitchers with at least 20 starts. He remained in the big leagues for six more seasons, but usually as a sort of a spare part, winning 75 games but losing 83. After one season with Philadelphia in the American Association, he closed his big-league career pitching for Cincinnati in the 1884 Union Association and worked in the minors until 1890. He became a Philadelphia police officer after his baseball career ended and was retired on a pension when he died in Philadelphia on October 2, 1931.

But if his career as a whole was undistinguished, Bradley certainly distinguished himself by heading a list that is now well into the 200s – the roster of major-league pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter. It was exactly the sort of accomplishment the game might have expected from somebody named George Washington in the summer of ’76.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. It also appeared in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Notes

When the National Association’s last place Worcester club sent a collegian out to pitch against the National League leading Chicago White Stockings in an exhibition game, it sounded like a mismatch. The result bore out that presumption … but it was the Chicagoans who were over-matched.

Lee Richmond, a 22-year-old left-hander from the Brown University team, not only shut out Cap Anson’s proud White Stockings, 11–0, that afternoon in Worcester, he did so without allowing a hit. That makes Richmond’s debut arguably the most remarkable by any pitcher against a big-league team.

The exhibition—common in those days as teams on long road trips tried to generate revenue during off days on their league schedule—was played at the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, also known as Driving Park, the home field of the Worcester nine. About 500 spectators attended, most doubtless drawn by the chance to see such stars of the only major league then in existence as Anson, Abner Dalrymple, George Gore, and Ned Williamson.1

At the time of the game, Chicago stood 14–1 and led the National League by four games over Providence. The White Stockings had won eight consecutive league games with the last six coming against Boston. Worcester, just 5–13, was in last place in the nine-team National Association, then a minor league.

In an effort to invigorate his club, Worcester manager Frank Bancroft brought in three new players for their first professional game and “materially reinforced his nine.”2 Richmond was the star left-hander of the Brown University nine. Also making their debuts that day were Richmond’s catcher at Brown, W. H. Winslow, and infielder Arthur Irwin.

Initially, Richmond had no interest in challenging the National League leaders. Walter F. Angell, Richmond’s classmate and lifelong friend, later wrote that Richmond had received several telegrams from Bancroft asking Richmond to pitch, one of which Angell saw Richmond open. “He handed it to me with the comment that of course he could not go; but his college catcher Winslow came along and persuaded him to take chances and change his mind, Winslow agreeing to go with him and play as catcher.” Angell recorded.3 Those “chances” involved the cutting of classes and recitations to make the Worcester trip. Richmond and Winslow were each paid $10 and expenses for the game. According to the New York Tribune it was the need for a pair of pants that induced Richmond to turn professional. Because “Winslow figured that he would need a new pair of trousers and the $10 would help foot the bill, he induced his battery mate to go for friendship’s sake.”4

Despite never having appeared in anything more than a college game, Richmond dominated the afternoon. He walked lead-off batter Dalrymple and then retired the next 21 Chicago batters in order in the game, which was shortened to seven innings due to rain. Richmond struck out eight and did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield.5 All of Richmond’s strikeouts came against Chicago’s four lefthanded batters, Dalrymple (1), Gore (3), Orator Shafer (3), and Bill Harbridge (1).

The Worcester defense played errorless ball. “Tricky” Nichols did good work at short, Arthur Irwin made two brilliant plays at third, and first baseman Charlie Bennett made what was described as “a remarkably fine foul catch.”6

The Worcester offense garnered 12 hits, good for 20 bases, off Chicago pitcher Frank Hankinson. Steve Brady hit the game’s first pitch for a triple and was promptly driven in by Lon Knight’s single.7 No one knew it at this stage but that was all the runs the Worcesters would need. They went on to score a total of three in the top of the first inning. Worcester had three singles, two doubles, and a triple as they batted around in the fifth to score four times and ice the game. The final score was 11–0. Brady had four hits on the day.

Those who didn’t see the game had a hard time believing the result. The next day’s Worcester Evening Gazette reported that “the progress of the game was … bulletined as usual, but the crowd who watched the black board were inclined to believe that there was some misplacement of figures…”8

Richmond’s success was primarily due to his skill. But he also had a couple of other advantages. The first was the Chicago batters’ unfamiliarity with him. It also helped that he was left-handed, for the NL featured only one left-handed pitcher at the time, Bobby Mitchell, and he pitched infrequently. Chicago’s four left-handed hitters found making contact with Richmond’s deliveries especially difficult. Further, Richmond had pitches that were unusual. He utilized a “peculiar set of curves that he had evolved. Instead of throwing curves that broke in and out his ball broke upward or downward. His jump ball was one of the biggest successes of the period, while his tantalizing drop greatly resembled the far-famed ‘fade-away’ employed by Christy Mathewson of the Giants.”9

The Chicagos and Worcesters met in another exhibition game later that same season, on September 18. The result was much the same with Richmond shutting out the Chicagos 7–0 in an eight-inning game. The Chicagos held the lead in the pennant race until August 14 and then fell all the way to fourth place, 10½ games behind the league champion Providence Grays. Richmond proved to be a “franchise player” for the Worcesters in leading them to a 19–23 record and solid fourth-place finish in the National Association. He had another no-hitter later in the year, won his major league debut, and totaled 47 wins (amateur and professional) for the season. The outstanding play of the Worcesters following the acquisition of Richmond propelled the city into the National League in 1880.

• Related link: June 12, 1880: Baseball perfection, by John R. Husman

Notes

1 Worcester Evening Gazette, June 3, 1879.

2 Providence Daily Journal, June 3, 1879.

3 Walter Angell, letter to editor of the Boston Post, August 18, 1925.

4 “Richmond’s Debut In Professional Baseball,” Brown Alumni Monthly, 1910-1911, from the New York Tribune.

5 Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1879.

6 Worcester Daily Spy, June 3, 1879.

7 Worcester Evening Gazette, June 3, 1979.

8 Worcester Evening Gazette, June 3, 1979.

9 “Richmond’s Debut In Professional Baseball,” Brown Alumni Monthly, 1910-1911, from the New York Tribune.

The National League game was played on Saturday, June 12, 1880, at the Worcester (Massachusetts) Agricultural Fairgrounds, also known as Driving Park, and was the second game of a three-game series. The Ohio team came to town in third place, just a half-game behind the upstart Worcesters. Both teams were far behind runaway leader Chicago. In the first game of the series, on Thursday the 10th, Richmond and Worcester had shut out Cleveland, 5–0, the clubs swapping positions in the standings.

A 23-year-old left-hander in his first full season, Lee Richmond was a busy man both on and off the field that week. In fact, his activities prior to his perfect game made the outcome all the more unlikely. Besides being the Worcesters’ front-line pitcher, he was wrapping up his college studies and was scheduled to graduate from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, 40 miles down the road from Worcester, on June 16. Richmond skipped Worcester’s Friday exhibition game with Yale University, returning instead to Providence for Brown’s graduation festivities. His classmate, Walter Angell, recorded Richmond’s activities while in Providence in a scrapbook:

I met them (Thursday night) at the depot … and rode out to the Messer St. ball grounds in a carriage. …We returned at midnight. Next day was Class Day. Richmond went to the Class Supper at Music Hall. He was up all night. He took part in the usual ball game about 4:50 Saturday morning; went to bed about 6:30; took the train for Worcester at 11:30. …4

On Saturday Richmond and Cleveland’s Jim McCormick were matched in what became a classic duel. McCormick was outstanding, giving up three hits and one unearned run while striking out seven and walking one. Richmond, batting second in the order, got the first hit, in the fourth but was erased on a double play. Shortstop Art Irwin led off the fifth with a single. Catcher Charlie Bennett followed with a walk. Then Art Whitney hit a comebacker to McCormick, who threw to second only to see second baseman Fred Dunlap drop the ball. Alertly, Irwin rounded third and kept right on running. Dunlap recovered but threw home wildly for his second error on the play, allowing Irwin to score. McCormick allowed only one more baserunner. Dunlap was an unlikely source for decisive defensive miscues; he was considered a fine fielder. “I used to think Dunlap was the greatest defensive second baseman in the world,” Richmond later said of him.5

As good as McCormick was, Richmond was even better. Of the 27 batters Richmond faced, only two hit fair balls beyond the infield and one of these resulted in a gem-saving play. Leading off the fifth inning, Cleveland first baseman Bill Phillips slapped a Richmond left-handed delivery into right field for an apparent base hit. Lon Knight, the Worcester right fielder and team captain, fielded the sharply hit ball and fired to first in time to retire Phillips.

The game was delayed by rain for about five minutes with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning. Richmond then finished the game with the aid of sawdust that he used to dry the ball before every pitch.6 Richmond struck out five in the one-hour, 26-minute game.

The 700 people in attendance also witnessed what might have been the first instance of platooning. Richmond, the game’s first regular left-hander, had been in the league for only about six weeks. Cleveland had not yet seen him, but already the Clevelands knew that right-handed batters might have an edge against the left-handed heaver.7 Because of this, the Cleveland team changed its batting order against Richmond. Immediately before and after the Worcester series, Cleveland’s left-handed hitters, Orator Shafer, Pete Hotaling, and Ned Hanlon, were second, third and fourth in the lineup. For the June 10 game against Worcester, Shaffer was dropped to fourth, Hanlon to seventh, and Hotaling to ninth. For the games of June 12 and 14 Shafer dropped to the number five slot, Hanlon moved to the ninth position, and Hotaling was removed from the lineup.

In addition, switch-hitting in order to face the pitcher from the opposite side was employed as a strategy in this game. The Cleveland Leader reported in its June 10 edition, “Hotaling in today’s game will bat righthanded. …”8 Game accounts do not reveal whether Hotaling did turn around against Richmond. Nonetheless, the seed was planted for using the strategies of switch-hitting and platooning that are integral in today’s game.

Cleveland won the series’ final game, 7–1, on Monday, McCormick defeating Richmond. By season’s end, the 23-year-old rookie had won 32 games and lost an equal number as his team finished in fifth place. But the notoriety of pitching professional baseball’s first perfect game went with Richmond throughout his life. He remarked of it, “I can remember almost nothing except that my jump ball and my half stride ball were working splendidly and that Bennett and the boys behind me gave me perfect support.”9

• Related link: June 2, 1879: Lee Richmond’s no-hit debut, by John R. Husman

The pictured score sheet documents the details of professional baseball’s first perfect game on June 12, 1880. It was retained by Lee Richmond until his death in 1929.

Notes

1 Sunday Herald (unidentified clip in J. Lee Richmond file, National Baseball Library, Cooperstown, New York); Cleveland Leader, June 13, 1880.

2 Dickson, Paul. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (New York: W.W. Norton Company, Inc., 2009,), p. 630.

3 Worcester Daily Spy, June 14, 1880.

4 Letter from Walter Angell to the Editor of the Boston Post, August 18, 1925, p. 2.

5 Mayer, Ronald A. Perfect! (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1991), p. 17.

6 Worcester Daily Spy, June 14, 1880.

7 “Richmond’s Debut In Professional Baseball,” Brown Alumni Monthly, 1910-1911; from the New York Tribune.

8 Cleveland Leader, June 10, 1880.

9 Spink, Alfred H. The National Game (St. Louis: National Game Publishing Co., 1910), p. 155.

Providence was destined to finish second in the 1880 National League race. The Grays played at a fine .619 clip, but finished 15 games behind Chicago, which had a sizzling .798 winning percentage. Buffalo, the victim of Ward’s perfect effort, finished seventh, ahead of only Cincinnati and playing less than .300 baseball. The teams may have been a bit mismatched that day, but the pitchers were not. Ward and Buffalo’s Pud Galvin were both destined for the Hall of Fame, the only such players on the field. Galvin was young, at 23, and already a proven winner, but just coming into his own as an established star. Ward, even younger at 20, had won 47 games for Providence in 1879 and was destined to notch 39 wins that season. Galvin was a good pitcher on a bad team while Ward was a good pitcher on a good team.

The starting time for the Thursday contest, played at Providence’s Messer Street Park, was moved to 11 a.m. to avoid conflicting with boat races scheduled in Providence that afternoon. The ploy was successful, as a fine weekday crowd attended the game. The New York Clipper summarized Ward’s effort:

Ward pitched so effectively that not one safe hit was made off him while the entire field backed him up with perfect play. The result of this united work was that not one of the Buffalos reached first base in the entire nine innings, thus equaling the extraordinary Worcester-Cleveland contest on June 12.3

Of note is the usage of the descriptors “perfect play” and “united work.”4 Though the term “perfect game” had not yet been coined, the observer and writer recognized that the then rare errorless play and teamwork made the unblemished game possible. A Providence newspaper commented on fine defensive play in support of Ward: “Paul Hines playing in his position [center field] was remarkably fine, catching balls that looked good for two-base hits. John Peters [shortstop] made some wonderful stops.”5 The paper also commented on the hazard of being an unprotected catcher in 1880. “Jack Rowe and Bill Crowley changed positions in the middle of the fourth inning, on account of Rowe splitting his finger in trying to catch a foul tip.”6 Rowe’s treatment for his injury was to be sent to right field where he was, ostensibly, to heal. Providence prevailed, 5–0 (of course), and the game story was top and center on the front page of the Providence Daily Journal the next day:

…(E)ighteen hundred admirers of the national sport, who pronounced the fielding and batting exhibition of the champions excellent in every respect, [the Grays were the reigning National League pennant winners] as not one of the players of the visiting club were able to secure a safe hit off of Ward’s delivery, and not even allowing in the whole nine innings a man to reach the first bag without being put out.7

Certainly such a game cannot be pitched on demand but perhaps Ward’s effort was especially intense as he had an opportunity to equal his rival’s performance of five days earlier. Ward and Lee Richmond knew each other well. Richmond had pitched for Brown University, located in Providence. He and his Brown team faced the Providence professionals numerous times in exhibition games. Richmond never beat Ward as an amateur, but the tables were turned when Richmond pitched for money. He beat Ward when he made his major-league debut in September of 1879 and twice more that fall while pitching for Worcester. The following spring, with Richmond again an amateur pitching for Brown, Ward prevailed in two meetings. But then, after Richmond turned professional for a final time, he beat Ward and Providence in four of six meetings before their perfect efforts.

In his book Perfect!, Ronald Mayer wrote that “there was little love lost between these two rival pitchers. … Ward had a habit of hitting Richmond. Of course Richmond would retaliate whenever given the opportunity. And the bitter grudge lasted throughout their baseball careers.”8 It is at least an oddity that these two frequent opponents would both accomplish, within days of each other, a pitching feat not even thought of previously.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

1 According to baseball-reference.com, 201,156 regular-season major-league games have been played from 1871 through 2011. Using those numbers and the 19 perfect games pitched through 2011, a perfect game would occur on the average of once every 7.24 years or 10,587 games.

2 As stated by baseball-reference.com/bullpen/John_Ward: “While later baseball histories call him Monte frequently, he was not known by that name when he played. This appears to be an error on the part of historians.”

3 New York Clipper, June 28, 1880, p. 109.

4 New York Clipper, June 28, 1880, p. 109.

5 New York Clipper, June 28, 1880, p. 109.

6 New York Clipper, June 28, 1880, p. 109.

7 Ronald A. Mayer, Perfect! (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1991), p. 23.

8 Mayer, Perfect!, 23.

The Chicago Tribune gave a little more detail, writing that the 2,000 fans present “saw something that never before occurred on the Chicago grounds — that is, a game in which the defeated team obtained neither a tally nor a base-hit.”3 The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune spent two of its six sentences of coverage in a lackluster comment that “Rain also caused a cessation of play. All this prolonged the game to nearly three hours.”4

While a pitcher throwing a no-hitter today is a top story on sports stations, the Tribune simply concluded, “the game of yesterday merits little in the way of description.”5 The Chicago Inter-Ocean said, “The Boston nine were treated to a fine, though unwelcome, basketful of goose-eggs.”6 They surely didn’t make much ado about nothing … nothing in the hit column, that is. In his short career, Corcoran still became the first pitcher to throw three no-hit gems, a feat matched only by Cy Young and Bob Feller, and surpassed by Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan.

Corcoran had actually thrown a one-hitter nine days earlier against Providence, “but it remained for the Bostons to suffer the extreme effect of his great skills as a pitcher,” the Tribune wrote.7 His rookie season of 1880 saw him throwing (unfathomable by today’s standards) 536⅓ innings, on his way to a 43-14 record and a 1.95 ERA with 268 strikeouts. He completed 57 of 60 starts. Keeping up this torrid pace for five years, Corcoran was essentially finished because of a dead arm at the age of 25.

The White Stockings at 47-11 and 12½ games ahead of second-place Providence had all but won the National League pennant already. They had taken sole possession of first place on May 13 and hadn’t looked back since. They had a 21-game winning streak from June 2 to July 8, and finished the season an amazing 50 games over .500 (67-17). It was a Chicago year, as were the next two seasons, as the White Stockings won three pennants in a row.

The Red Caps had struggled the entire season, and were entering the game 26-32 and in the sixth-place position they would finish the year in. Boston pitching allowed the most earned runs and had the second highest ERA in the league, 3.08 (Buffalo had 3.09). That looks excellent to the modern fan, but in 1880 three clubs had ERAs below 2.00. The Red Caps’s starting pitcher this day, Tommy Bond, had also been a workhorse the past three years, throwing over 500 innings and winning over 40 games each year.

Chicago scored a run in the first inning “through a base-hit and [Abner] Dalrymple’s good running,”8 along with a muffed throw by John Morrill at first base. In the third inning Joe Quest singled and stole second, and Dalrymple walked. Hits by George Gore and Ed Williamson brought in two runs, only one being earned. “A fine running catch by [Charley] Jones was much applauded.”9 Chicago took a 3-0 lead. The rain delay in the third inning made the ball “mushy and shapeless for the greater part of the play,” the Tribune commented, “but that did not prevent the White Stockings from making eleven hits and thirteen totals off Bond and [Curry] Foley.”10 It is not known when right fielder Foley and Bond swapped places. Chicago, wrote the Inter Ocean, “batted Bond freely and would have similarly treated Foley, but for the soggy condition of the ball in the last two innings.”11

In the fourth inning Boston shortstop John Richmond, who had sprained a knee in Cincinnati the week before, reinjured himself and had to leave the game. Jim O’Rourke moved to center field and his brother John took over at shortstop.

Chicago scored three more runs in the sixth inning. Tom Burns singled, stole second, and scored on Corcoran’s hit. Corcoran wound up at third on Morrill’s muff of a throw from Tommy Bond. Corcoran scored on Quest’s single. Dalrymple reached on Jim O’Rourke’s error. Gore “sent the mushy ball over to [the] right-field fence for two bases,”12 and Quest scored. Gore went 4-for-4 in the game with two doubles.

The Red Caps were retired in order in seven of their nine innings. They had their first real chance in the ninth, courtesy of two errors.

With one out in the ninth, John O’ Rourke grounded to Quest, who bobbled the ball and threw wildly to first. O’Rourke made second. Jim O’Rourke followed with a grounder of his own to Quest “and he muffed this one too,” wrote the Tribune, placing the brothers at first and third. Sometime during the inning, Chicago catcher Silver Flint had “his right thumb put out of joint in the ninth inning, and in trying to pull it back to place the flesh was badly lacerated. It will probably disable Flint altogether for a fortnight at least.”13 Jim O’Rourke raced to second on an attempted hit-and-run, but Jack Burdock “batted Quest a fly, and Joe had the satisfaction of closing the inning and atoning for his bungling by a clever double play.”14 Jim O’Rourke was doubled up, the game was over, and Corcoran had his no-hitter on the wet Chicago grounds.

Others injured besides Flint were Boston’s second baseman Burdock, catcher Sam Trott, and Corcoran himself. Burdock “was hit in the ribs by one of Corcoran’s twisters. Trott had his finger banged by a foul tip … and Corcoran injured his ankle in running the bases — quite enough accidents for one day,” wrote the Inter Ocean. 15

The Inter Ocean noted that Chicago’s King Kelly “had neither run, base-hit, fielding play, nor error,” but Cap Anson “retired twenty-one of the twenty-seven Boston men without an error, equaling the best first-base record ever made. Add to these unusual features the fact that four men were seriously injured during its progress, and it might truly be said that it was a remarkable game.”16

The time of game was 2 hours and 30 minutes. “The umpiring was unexceptional,” the Inter Ocean commented.17

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Notes

1 “What Is the Score? The Bostons Chicagoed and the Providences Winners,” Boston Globe, August 20, 1880.

2 “Thoroughly Trounced,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 20, 1880: 8.

3 “A Game of Ball in Which Boston Scored Neither a Run Nor a Base-Hit,” Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1880: 8.

4 “Harry Wright Again Disgusted,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, August 20, 1880: 6.

5 “A Game of Ball.”

6 “Boston’s Goose Eggs, Which the Hub Nine Received Yesterday at the Hands of the Chicago Club,” Inter-Ocean (Chicago), August 20, 1880.

7 “A Game of Ball.”

8 “Boston’s Goose Eggs.”

9 “A Game of Ball.”

10 Ibid.

11 “Boston’s Goose Eggs.”

12 “A Game of Ball.”

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 “Boston’s Goose Eggs.”

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

After a five-game pitching debut with the Detroit Wolverines of the National League in 1881, during which his won-loss record was 1-4, Mullane appeared to be a long shot to succeed in professional baseball. But despite his less-than-impressive first season, the Louisville Eclipse of the American Association sought his services as a change pitcher and first baseman, and signed him for the 1882 season, the Association’s inaugural season. The circuit adopted the same dimensions for the pitcher’s box (6 feet by 4 feet) and the distance from the front of the pitcher’s box to the center of home plate (50 feet) as the rival National League.1 Mullane, having pitched in the National League in 1881, had already adjusted to the distance to home, and compiled a 30-24 won-lost record with a 1.88 ERA in 1882.

Mullane was involved in two particularly noteworthy games during the 1882 season. First, on July 18 he used both hands to throw to batters, (throwing left-handed to left-handed batters and right-handed to right-handed batters), becoming professional baseball’s first ambidextrous pitcher, in a 9-8 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.2 On September 11 he pitched a no-hit game against the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the Association’s first.

In the no-hit game, Mullane’s pitching opponent was Will White of the Red Stockings, an accomplished hurler in his own right, who would win 229 games over a 10-season career with a lifetime 2.28 ERA; in 1882, he would go 40-12 with a 1.54 ERA. The game was played at Bank Street Grounds in Cincinnati before 1,922 fans with the temperature in the high 60s on a day when Cincinnati was beginning to close in on the first American Association pennant.3 Cincinnati, the home team, opted under the rules of the day to bat first.

Cincinnati’s leadoff batter, Joe Sommer, drew a base on balls. But he was doubled up on an outfield fly, his mistake compounded when the next batter, Hick Carpenter, reached base on a two-base error and went to third on a passed ball; no damage was done, as Carpenter was left stranded at third. After the visiting Eclipse went out in order in the first, the Red Stockings failed to capitalize on a muffed fly by John Reccius in center field in the second inning; in the bottom of the inning, the Eclipse wasted a single by Mullane when he was thrown out by catcher Pop Snyder trying to advance on a passed ball.

The third and fourth innings were uneventful for both teams, and the Red Stockings were retired in order in the fifth and sixth. The Eclipse, however, in the sixth inning, provided some excitement when Samuel Maskrey, known by his middle name, Leech, reached on an error by Red Stockings third baseman Carpenter. Reccius hit to right field, and he and Maskrey both advanced a base on Harry Wheeler’s throw to home. With no outs and runners at second and third, a big inning appeared imminent, but pitcher White of the Red Stockings bore down and retired Pete Browning, Guy Hecker, and Dan Sullivan to end the threat.

After a scoreless seventh frame, the Eclipse scored two runs in the eighth. Leadoff batter Bill Schenck reached on an error by shortstop Chick Fulmer. Maskrey flied out but Reccius swatted a three-base hit to right center, scoring Schenck, and scored himself when right fielder Wheeler threw wild attempting to get Reccius at home. The next batter, Pete Browning, made history of his own when he became the first American Association player to reach base safely but getcalled out for being an illegal baserunner.4 Browning, who had a pulled leg muscle, had requested that someone run for him when he was hitting, his teammate Hecker. With Hecker standing behind him ready to run to first when the ball was hit, Browning stroked a hit to right field. But in his excitement at getting a hit, Browning began to run to first. Hecker, confused at seeing Browning begin to run, stopped and ran off the field, while Browning continued to first, and eventually was declared out for being an illegal baserunner. Browning batted .378 and won the Association’s batting title by a whopping 36 points in 1882. The lost hit affected his career batting average by one point (.341), preventing him from tying Dan Brouthers (.342) for the highest career batting average among players active primarily before 1893, when the pitching distance was lengthened.5

Sommer struck out to lead off the Cincinnati ninth, but got to first when catcher Sullivan missed the third strike. Wheeler flied out and Carpenter forced Sommer at second. With two out, Reccius muffed a fly ball by Snyder, and Carpenter went to third and Snyder to first. However, Dan Stearns forced Snyder at second, ending the game. Both White and Mullane pitched well, and umpire Mike Walsh was praised for his fairness in calling balls and strikes. the game was completed in 1 hour and 40 minutes. No matter what people thought of the antics of Mullane over the years, it cannot be denied that pitching a no-hit game in your first full year of professional baseball is a great way to start your career.

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Notes

1  Eric Miklich, “The Pitcher’s Area,” 19cbaseball.com/rules.html

2 Jerry Grillo, “Mullane Goes Both Ways,” Bill Felber, ed., Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2013).

3 “Mullane’s Mash,” Cincinnati Tribune, September 12, 1882.

4 David Nemec, The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball (New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 175.

5 Ibid.

• It was the first time the losing team scored a run in a no-hitter.
• It was the first time a team recorded a second no-hitter for the franchise.
• It was the first time a team recorded two no-hitters in a single season.

Eight days earlier, Hecker’s Louisville teammate Tony Mullane had pitched Louisville’s first no-hitter, against Cincinnati. Mullane’s game was the first American Association no-hitter and matched the previous five no-hitters tossed by National League pitchers. It was also the first no-hitter thrown from the new 50-foot pitching distance. Mullane and Hecker had a long-running association. After playing one season for a professional team in Springfield, Ohio, Hecker returned home to Oil City, Pennsylvania, to get married and join the local labor force. He continued to play with local semipro teams and in 1879 Tony Mullane joined his Oil City team. When Mullane signed with Louisville for the 1882 season he recommended Hecker to the management for the position of change pitcher. Hecker was signed and primarily played first base, pitching in 13 games in 1882.

Hecker’s sixth start of the season was at Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park on September 19, 1882. Neither team was more than a middle-of-the-pack squad at this point of the season. The Alleghenys entered the game in fourth place with a 37-36 record. Louisville was slightly better at 37-32 in second place. But it was mostly academic as Cincinnati had clinched the pennant the day before. The Allegheny team was a solid hitting team with Ed Swartwood being the most productive batter. Swartwood led the American Association that season in total bases (161); runs scored (87), and doubles (18). He was third in batting average (.331), second in slugging average (.498), tied for second in hits (109), and third in home runs (4). The Association’s premier batter that season was on the other side. Pete Browning won the batting (.378) and slugging (.510) titles and finished second in home runs (5) while tieing Swartwood for second in hits (109). Hecker’s mound opponent was Denny Driscoll. Driscoll was signed by the Alleghenys in June and developed into the second starter behind Harry Salisbury. Driscoll posted a 13-9 record with a league-leading 1.21 ERA.

Both pitchers were effective and the game was scoreless through the fifth. Driscoll retired Leech Maskrey to open the sixth inning and then walked John Reccius. At this point in the reporting on the game one runs into a chronic problem with recording events in 19th-century baseball. Each reporter of a game kept his own scorecard. The assignment of hits, errors, and other scoring decisions can and does vary from one paper to another. With Reccius on second and one out, Browning came to the plate and either singled home Reccius after Reccius stole second with Browning advancing to second on an error by Mike Mansell, or Reccius scored on Browning’s double. The consensus of the Pittsburgh writers (the Louisville paper’s stories were dispatches by Pittsburgh writers) was that Browning doubled Reccius home with the first run of the game. Hecker followed Browning with an RBI single and Louisville was up 2-0 entering the bottom of the sixth.

The scoring confusion continued in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs Swartwood lifted a fly ball to left-center. Reccius misplayed the fly and then threw wildly to second, with the ball skipping past all the fielders and allowing Swartwood to score. Or after Reccius muffed the fly, center fielder Maskrey threw wildly to the infield or Maskrey’s throw was misplayed by second baseman Denny Mack, allowing Swartwood to score. The reporting consensus was that Reccius committed a pair of errors on the play.

The scoring differences of opinion popped up again in the top of the seventh. Mack singled to open the inning and was forced at second by Mullane. Then either Mullane stole second and scored from second on a routine groundout to shortstop or … when Mack was forced at second, George Strief tried to complete the double play and threw wildly to first, putting Mullane on third, from where he scored on Schenck’s groundout to short. As it seems improbable that Mullane scored from second on a routine groundball, it is more likely that Strief’s error put him on third. From this point, each team was retired in order through the end of the game.

The final scoring discrepancy questions the number of hits Hecker surrendered. According to the Pittsburgh Telegraph, Pittsburgh Commercial-Gazette, Pittsburgh Times and the Louisville Commercial, it was a no-hitter. But Louisville’s Courier-Journal records one hit for Pittsburgh. As with all the other variances, only the Courier-Journal deviates from the consensus of all the other papers. The Courier-Journal credits Pittsburgh shortstop John Peters with a single. There are two possibilities where this might have happened. In the fifth and seventh innings, Peters reached base on what were reported as Browning errors at shortstop. But the Courier-Journal box score records a pair of errors charged to Browning and the Commercial-Gazette and Pittsburgh Times game stories give no other situation where Browning might have picked up an error. Since the Courier-Journal is the sole source for all the scoring questions, it is likely that the correspondent who sent the paper the Pittsburgh game story was either unfamiliar with scoring a game or had a different set of standards to judge scoring decisions. In any case, treating the Courier-Journal as an outlier among the five papers consulted, Hecker gets his no-hitter.

Although Hecker’s feat was acknowledged as worthy of note in the game stories, it was still just a single game with no future reference to it later in the week or later in the season. The Reach and Spalding Guides that cover the 1882 season make no reference to any no-hitter recorded in 1882. The Pittsburgh Times noted that no hits were made off Hecker in a sub-headline, but no other papers made any reference to it until late in their game story. In the last sentence of the story, the Times wrote, “The home nine failed to get a base hit off Hecker during the entire game. …”

The Louisville Commercial said, “Not one base hit was scored by them [Pittsburgh]. …”

The term no-hitter appears in no story about the game.

Skip McAfee, editor of the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, notes that the earliest reference he knows for the use of the term “no-hitter” is in a story appearing in the Lincoln (Nebraska) Evening News on August 31, 1911. No-hitters in the 19th century were viewed neither by fans nor sportswriters as the sort of significant events they became in later years. By and large, they were just another ballgame.

The various difficulties in dealing with the reporting and scoring of this game underscore the challenges faced by 19th-century researchers to assemble accurate statistics for the period. Even with multiple contemporary newspaper sources, we cannot determine with much confidence the details of many games played. We only have the comfort that scoring decisions do not change the outcome of the games.

Four years later, Hecker also achieved note when he homered three times in one game, and set single-game records for runs scored (7), total bases (15), and home runs (3), in the August 15, 1886, game for Louisville.1

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Sources

Courier-Journal (Louisville), Louisville Commercial, New York Clipper, Pittsburgh Commercial-Gazette, Pittsburgh Times, and Pittsburgh Telegraph, all dated September 20, 1882.

Bevis, Charlie. “Denny Driscoll,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/c7e1352a.

Bailey, Bob. “Guy Hecker,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/4b471b76

Thanks to Bruce Allardice, Craig Britcher, Gary Collard, Bob LeMoine, Tom Mueller, Ron Selter, Andrew Terrick, and Bob Tholkes for their assistance to gather Pittsburgh newspaper stories on the game. Thanks to Skip McAfee for his help on the use of the term “no-hitter.”

Notes

1 Bob Bailey, “August 15, 1886: Guy Hecker: hitting pitcher,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-15-1886-guy-hecker-hitting-pitcher.

Tall and mutton-chopped, at 6-feet-2 and 180 pounds, Hugh “One Arm” Daily turned out to be that man. As a 34-year-old rookie the season before, he had finished 15–14 with a 2.99 ERA as Pud Galvin’s backup for third-place Buffalo. Then in December 1882 Daily signed with Cleveland for a salary of $2,000.

The Cleveland Herald described Daily as “a strong man in many respects … a remarkable batter for a one-handed man, hitting hard and often … a careful base watcher” with a quick, puzzling delivery, and good pace and command. His weak points, the newspaper contended, “are wildness of delivery at times and a bad disposition.”[fn]Cleveland Herald, December 20, 1882.[/fn] Indeed, part of the Daily legend is that he once punched out his catcher for throwing the ball back to him too hard and making his stump sore.

Accounts differ on the circumstances of the boyhood accident that caused Daily to lose his left hand, and his age at the time of the injury. He may have been shot accidentally by a friend playing with a loaded musket, or he may have been burned while simulating fire on a theater set in Baltimore.

Before signing with Buffalo, Daily spent many years playing in the sandlot and semipro leagues of Baltimore. He wore a leather glove on his left arm with a square pad to protect his stump, and was able to trap groundballs against it with his right hand. He usually attempted to catch popups and line drives with his pitching hand. He used a shortened bat at the plate that he could swing more easily with only one arm.

Led by the McCormick-Daily pitching duo, Cleveland moved into sole possession of the league lead for the first time in the franchise’s history on June 11, 1883.[fn]Cleveland Herald, June 13, 1883.[/fn] Although the offense was erratic (Providence’s Hoss Radbourn no-hit the team on July 25), Cleveland was still in the thick of a tight four-team race before the September 13 game at Philadelphia.

Daily was now pitching almost every game because McCormick had been injured, and he was showing signs of wear. He had lost three of his last four starts, including a 21–7 rout by Chicago. Maybe the weak bats of the last-place Philadelphia club, the sloppy conditions of the field,[fn]“At Recreation Park, 13th, the Philadelphia and Cleveland clubs contested. The ground was in a wretchedly soggy condition, and this soon made the ball so mushy that it was almost impossible to hit it effectively, consequently the batting was extremely weak.” –Sporting Life, September 17, 1883.[/fn] or the week’s rest because of rainouts allowed Daily to find new life in his curveball. Whatever the reason, the one-handed man was unhittable that day and walked only three in a 1–0 victory.

There were no telegraph wires running to the Philadelphia ballpark, and carrier pigeons were used to dispatch reports of the game. Perhaps that is why the Cleveland papers ran only sketchy recaps of the contest, though they duly noted the significance of Daily’s feat.

“Daily’s work of yesterday was wonderful and only equaled four times since the League has been organized,” wrote the Cleveland Herald.[fn]Cleveland Herald, September 14, 1883.[/fn] It was actually the eighth no-hitter in National League history.

“Daily did great work in the box yesterday,” said the Cleveland Leader.[fn]Cleveland Leader, Sept. 14, 1883.[/fn]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer was the most descriptive: “The Clevelands ‘scratched’ a game at Philadelphia yesterday—and a stunning ‘fluke’ it was too. The tail-enders of the League failed to make a base hit and consequently made no run. Cleveland worried in a lonesome run but it proved of sufficient size to make a game out of. Either Daly (sic) pitched a wonderful game or the Philadelphias have been taking batting lessons of the Clevelands.”[fn]Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 14, 1883.[/fn]

The lone run came in the seventh inning when left fielder Tom York singled, stole second, and scored as right fielder Bill Crowley hit one through Blondie Purcell’s legs in left field.

With an earlier game still under dispute (the league eventually ruled that Cleveland had forfeited its August 1 game to Boston when Daily was replaced in the box; substitutions at the time could be made only for injury), the September 14 papers showed Cleveland at the top of the standings after Daily’s no-hitter. The club had a 52–34 record, creating a virtual three-way tie with Providence and Boston, both 53–35. Chicago was a game and a half back at 52–37.

A doubleheader sweep the next day over Philadelphia, including another gem by Daily—a 5–1 victory in the second game—put Cleveland on top by itself at 54–34. But the team, which was in the middle of a 25-game road trip to end the season, faded and managed only two wins the rest of the way. Adjusted for the forfeited game, the Clevelands finished with an official record of 55-42, in fourth place, 7½ games out. Its 2.22 team ERA led the league. McCormick won the individual title with a 1.84 ERA. Daily was fifth at 2.42. He also led the league in walks with 99, and was seventh in strikeouts with 171.

Daily jumped to the Union Association—a league that coincidentally had been organized by delegates in Pittsburgh just a day before his nohitter— in 1884.[fn]Cleveland Herald, September 13, 1883.[/fn] That season he struck out an incredible 483 batters—more than half his career total—walked only 72 in 500 innings, and batted .214 in 201 at-bats.

It was the last hurrah for Daily. Initially blacklisted by the other major-league teams after the Union Association folded, he eventually signed with the St. Louis National League team in 1885, and posted a 3–8 record and a 3.94 ERA. He last pitched in the major leagues in 1887, when he returned to Cleveland, now a last-place team in the American Association. His record that year was 4–12, with a 3.67 earned-run average, 30 strikeouts, and 44 walks. By that time his 1883 pennant-race and no-hit heroics were just a distant memory.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.