July 1, 1978: Phillies farmhand Henry Mack throws no-hitter for Peninsula, loses 3-2

An old trope, often incorrectly attributed to Ernest Hemingway, says a touching story can be told using only six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”1

Henry Mack topped that on July 1, 1978, when his pitching line told a heartbreaking tale using only six numbers: 9 0 3 0 6 9.

Pitching for the Peninsula Pilots of the Class A Carolina League, right-hander Mack threw a nine-inning no-hitter against the Lynchburg Mets. But a sixth-inning burst of wildness, haphazard fielding, and sacrifice flies enabled the Mets to build a three-run rally, and Mack’s game for the ages ended in a 3-2 loss.

About 1,100 fans gathered at the Pilots’ park, Peninsula War Memorial Stadium in Hampton, Virginia, to see the Saturday night game. Manager Jack Aker’s Mets had won the league’s first-half championship with a 43-27 record, while Jim Snyder’s Pilots–a Philadelphia Phillies farm team–finished a game behind them at 42-28.2

The Pilots continued to win in the second half, with a 6-2 record as of July 1, while Lynchburg was 3-4.3 The Pilots had beaten the Mets the previous night, 4-0, behind a complete-game four-hitter by Jose Martinez.4

Starter Mack had been the Phillies’ 13th-round pick in the June 1976 amateur draft out of high school in Winchester, Kentucky. He was in his third pro season at age 19. He’d struggled with wildness in the first two, averaging almost a walk per inning at short-season A and Class A while posting ERAs of 7.33 and 5.23, respectively.5

Mack hadn’t beaten his problem–he walked 118 in 158 innings in 1978, third-most in the league6–but he had also found a strikeout touch. As of mid-June he was leading the league in that category with 93, and he finished the season with 158, second only to teammate Marty Bystrom.7 Mack entered the game with a 9-1 record. He credited Phillies minor-league pitching coach Bobby Tiefenauer with teaching him how to use breaking balls to set up his fastball.8

The catcher handling Mack on July 1 was a 21-year-old who was working to follow his father to the major leagues. Ozzie Virgil’s father, also named Ozzie, had been the first Dominican to play in the American or National League, as well as the Detroit Tigers’ first player of color. The younger Virgil was the Phillies’ sixth-round pick in the June 1976 draft out of high school in Arizona. After a difficult first year at short-season Class A, Virgil blossomed, hitting .282 with 14 homers and 54 RBIs at Class A Spartanburg in 1977.9  As of mid-June 1978, he was leading the Carolina League in homers, RBIs, and total bases, and he’d clouted a three-run homer the previous night to pace the Pilots’ offense.10 Virgil reached the majors in 1980 and played parts of 11 seasons there.

In contrast to Mack and Virgil, youngsters trying to work their way up, the Mets’ starter was 28 and had pitched in the ninth inning of Game Seven of a World Series. Former Boston Red Sox lefty Jim Burton’s career stalled after he gave up a Series-winning hit in 1975 to Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds. Burton appeared in only one more big-league game, in September 1977, and was traded by Boston to the Mets in March 1978.11

Burton struggled further at Triple-A Tidewater by going 0-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 10 games. He was sent all the way down to Class A–a level he’d skipped as a young prospect–to regain his effectiveness and confidence.12 He entered with a 1-1 record at Lynchburg.

Mack, the author of six no-hitters in high school, had no-hitters on his mind after seeing a major-league pitcher discuss them on television that afternoon.13 Combining a “blistering fastball” with a “glittering slider,” in the words of one local sportswriter, he went to work on his no-no against a Lynchburg lineup that included two future major-league hitters–shortstop Wally Backman and catcher and cleanup hitter Jody Davis.14

Mack’s teammates handed him a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Right fielder Chris Bouchee–like Virgil, a second-generation ballplayer15–drew one of the two walks Burton issued in six-plus innings of work. Center fielder Jeff Kraus followed with a double that scored Bouchee for a 1-0 Pilots lead.16

In addition to giving Mack a lead, Kraus saved his no-hitter in the fourth, when Mets second baseman Ronald MacDonald bombed a one-out drive to deep center field. On the run, with his back to the plate, Kraus made a sensational leaping catch. It was reportedly Lynchburg’s only hard-hit ball of the night. Mack gave the Mets five free baserunners on walks in the first five innings, but the Mets could do nothing with them.17

It was still 1-0 Pilots when the roof caved in in the top of the sixth. The Mets’ rally began with right fielder and ninth-place hitter Bob Rossen, who hit only .214 for the full season. Rossen fell behind in the count 0-and-2 but hung in and drew a walk.18 Backman grounded to first baseman Joe Jones, who mishandled the ball, then tossed to Mack covering first. The pitcher argued that he had tagged Backman, but umpire Les Pratt called the runner safe.19

Third baseman Dave Lozano laid down a bunt to Jones, who threw the ball away.20 Rossen scored, Backman moved to third base, and Lozano took second. MacDonald flied to Kraus in center field, deep enough to bring Backman home and give Lynchburg a 2-1 lead. A wild pitch by Mack, one of 12 for him that season, sent Lozano to third base.21 Davis’s fly out to Bouchee in right scored Lozano, and the Mets led 3-1 without benefit of a hit.

Virgil brought the Pilots within one run in the bottom half, drilling his 20th home run to left field. After that, pitchers ruled the rest of the way.

Mack retired the final 10 Mets he faced to seal his no-hitter, and one account called him “totally untouchable” down the stretch.22 But ace Lynchburg reliever Russell Clark, who entered in the seventh after Burton had faced one batter, was just as good. Clark posted a 0.95 ERA in 31 appearances with Lynchburg, and on this night he frustrated the Pilots with three hitless innings, surrendering only one walk.

The game ended 3-2 in 2 hours and 2 minutes with Burton the winner, Mack the hard-luck loser, and Clark notching his 14th save. It was Clark’s last save with Lynchburg, as he was called up to Double-A Jackson five days later.23 At season’s end, his 14 saves were still enough to lead the Carolina League.24

Mack, who threw 136 pitches, sat on the dugout steps after the game as players from both teams congratulated him. The game marked the first no-hitter at home for a Peninsula pitcher since the team joined the Carolina League in 1963.25

The Pilots ran away with the second half and closed the full season with a league-best 90-47 record, 16 games ahead of the Mets and the Salem Pirates. Their second-half surge included another no-hitter, this time a 3-0 victory in a perfect game thrown by Bystrom against Winston-Salem on August 12.26

Lynchburg had its revenge on Peninsula in the playoffs, sweeping the Pilots in a best-of-five championship series.27 Mack and Burton went head-to-head again in the first game. Mack took the loss in the rematch, surrendering seven runs in six innings, while Burton spun a complete-game two-hit shutout.28

Mack closed the regular season with a 15-4 record and was added to the Phillies’ winter roster.29 In February 1979, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs as part of an eight-player deal that brought Manny Trillo and Greg Gross to Philadelphia.30

Mack’s career stalled during three seasons with the Cubs’ Midland affiliate in the Double-A Texas League, with injuries contributing.31 In 1980, Mack walked 142 hitters in as many innings, while also surrendering 176 hits and a league-leading 17 homers.32 He left pro baseball after six seasons, taking with him a 41-43 record and one sad short story: “No-hitter, not won.”

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of minor-league games, but the Newport News-Hampton (Virginia) Daily Press and Lynchburg (Virginia) News published box scores in their editions of July 2, 1978.

Image of 1977 TCMA Spartanburg Phillies card #7 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Researchers have found variations on the “story,” often using baby carriages instead of shoes, that predate Hemingway’s rise to fame as a writer of fiction. The story was not directly attributed to Hemingway in print until 1991, long after his death. David Haglund, “Did Hemingway Really Write His Famous Six-Word Story?,” Slate, January 31, 2013, https://slate.com/culture/2013/01/for-sale-baby-shoes-never-worn-hemingway-probably-did-not-write-the-famous-six-word-story.html.

2 “Carolina League” (standings), Lynchburg (Virginia) News, June 23, 1978: B5.

3 “Carolina League” (standings), Lynchburg News, July 1, 1978: 5.

4 “L-Mets Fall, 4-0,” Lynchburg News, July 1, 1978: 4. Martinez, in his second pro season, went 13-2 with a 2.07 ERA in 1978. He subsequently pitched two seasons at Triple-A in the Phillies’ system before playing in Mexico. He did not reach the majors.

5 In 1976 and 1977, Mack pitched 195 innings and walked 179 batters. He struck out 131.

6 Ahead of him were Salem’s Ben Wiltbank (127 walks in 151 innings) and Winston-Salem’s Mark Baum (122 walks in 170 innings.)

7 “L-Mets Among Loop Leaders,” Lynchburg News, July 2, 1978: B1. Bystrom beat Mack by a single strikeout, with 159 to Mack’s 158. Another Peninsula teammate, Bob Walk, was third with 150. Two seasons later, both Walk and Bystrom pitched in the World Series for the 1980 champion Philadelphia Phillies.

8 Dan Manley, “Mack 9-2 Despite Losing No-Hitter,” Winchester (Kentucky) Sun, July 5, 1978: 8. This story reused quotes Mack had earlier given to a newspaper in Virginia.

9 Virgil hit .142 in 39 games with Auburn of the New York-Penn League in 1976.

10 “L-Mets Among Loop Leaders”; “L-Mets Fall, 4-0.”

11 The Red Sox received infielder Leo Foster, who never played in a regular-season game for Boston.

12 Les Masterson, “Jim Burton,” SABR Biography Project, accessed October 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Jim-Burton/.

13 Bob Moskowitz, “Mack Loses No-Hitter 3-2,” Newport News-Hampton (Virginia) Daily Press, July 2, 1978: D1. Mack couldn’t remember which pitcher he’d seen on TV.

14 Moskowitz.

15 Chris Bouchee was the son of Ed Bouchee, a first baseman with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and New York Mets. A 33rd-round draft pick of the Phillies in June 1977, Chris hit .225 across two seasons at Class A. John Montague, “California Sons Help Sox Wipe Out Pilots,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Sentinel, April 17, 1978: 17,

16 All game action in this story is taken from “Mack Loses No-Hitter 3-2” and “Mets Get No Hits but Win Game,” Lynchburg News, July 2, 1978: B1.

17 In “Mack Loses No-Hitter 3-2,” Moskowitz specified that the sixth-inning walk to Bob Rossen that began the Lynchburg rally was Mack’s last of the game. Since Mack walked six men in total, the first five had to have taken place in the first five frames. Game accounts do not indicate that the Mets managed to bunch enough walks together to create a threat.

18 Moskowitz.

19 As a side note, plate umpire Harry Siroka and base umpire Pratt both got unexpected promotions to the major leagues during a strike of unionized umpires in April and May 1979. Siroka, a New Yorker, worked 14 Yankees home games and five Mets home games during that period, while Pratt, a Massachusetts resident, worked 14 Boston Red Sox home games.

20 The two cited game stories disagree on a detail here. “Mack Loses No-Hitter 3-2” has Jones looking to second base and then throwing wildly to first, while “Mets Get No Hits but Win Game” has him throwing to second.

21 Mack’s 12 wild pitches in 158 innings were second on the Pilots to Bob Walk, who had 13 in 187 innings.

22 Moskowitz, “Mack Loses No-Hitter 3-2.” Game accounts do not describe the final out, though a comparison of game accounts to box scores suggests that designated hitter Francisco Perez was the Mets’ last hitter. (Game stories mention that Mack struck out center fielder Sergio Beltre after Davis’s sacrifice fly, but Beltre reached on a wild pitch. From there, the Mets’ remaining outs would have been Perez to finish the sixth; left fielder Billy Simpson, first baseman Don Troyan and Rossen in the seventh; Backman, Lozano and MacDonald in the eighth; and Davis, Beltre and Perez in the ninth.)

23 Dave Thornton, “Aker Sees Plus Even in Defeat,” Lynchburg (Virginia) Daily Advance, July 7, 1978: 16.

24 Clark pitched six seasons in the minor leagues, peaking at Triple-A.

25 “Mets Get No Hits but Win Game.”

26 Bob Moskowitz, “Bystrom ‘Perfect’ in Pilots’ 3-0 Victory,” Newport News-Hampton Daily Press, August 13, 1978: D1.

27 “L-Mets’ Aker: ‘We Knew We Could Beat Them,” Lynchburg Daily Advance, September 6, 1978: 25.

28 Tony Mitchell, “L-Mets Blast Pilots, 7-0,” Lynchburg News, September 4, 1978: D1.

29 “Phils Add Young Players,” Bloomsburg (Pennsylvania) Morning Press, November 9, 1978: 22.

30 Dave Nightingale, “Cubs Send Trillo to Phils in 8-Man Deal,” Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1979: 2:1. Full terms of the deal: Trillo, Gross, and Dave Rader to the Phillies; Barry Foote, Jerry Martin, Ted Sizemore, Derek Botelho, and Mack to the Cubs.

31 Mack suffered a back injury during the 1979 season. Dan Manley, “Where’s Mack Heading Next?”, Winchester Sun, February 26, 1980: 12.

32 Four Texas League pitchers surrendered 17 homers in 1980: Mack; his Midland teammate Vince Valentini; Troy Dixon of Amarillo; and future major-leaguer Jerry Don Gleaton of Tulsa.