June 15, 1938: Johnny Vander Meer tosses second straight no-hitter in historic night game at Ebbets Field

It’s never been duplicated in the majors or minors and might be baseball’s most unbeatable record. In just his 21st big-league start, the Reds Johnny Vander Meer recorded his second consecutive no-hitter, holding the Dodgers hitless in the first major-league night game at Ebbets Field.1 New York sportswriter Hy Turkin hailed the accomplishment as the “greatest pitching feat in the 100-year history of baseball.”2

Vander Meer and the Reds were the talk of baseball when they arrived in Brooklyn to commence a three-game series on the front-end of a 16-game road swing. The perennial also-rans hadn’t finished in the first division since 1926, but new skipper Bill McKechnie had the club in third place (25-21), 5½ games behind the New York Giants. Wire service sportswriter George Kirksey described the Reds’ unanticipated success as “one of the most important developments” in baseball,3 while Reds beat reporter Lou Smith opined that the club had recently made “tremendous strides” to compete for the pennant.4 The Reds shored up their slugging department by acquiring long-ball threat Wally Berger from the Giants on June 6. A week later they picked up durable workhorse Bucky Walters from the Philadelphia Phillies. Walters was scheduled to make his Reds debut in the opener against the Dodgers on June 14; however, the game was postponed because the Dodgers’ train from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they had played an exhibition, arrived five hours late in the City of Churches.5 Walters would have to wait a few extra days,6 though, as McKechnie did not want to alter the rhythm of his prized young hard-throwing southpaw, Johnny Vander Meer.

Vander Meer was in the midst of a dominating stretch. He had won his previous four starts, yielding just 13 hits and three runs in 37 innings, culminating with his no-hitter against the Boston Braves at Crosley Field on June 11. Since his days as a high-school prodigy, Vander Meer had been touted as one of baseball’s hardest throwers. He participated in the Dodgers spring training as an 18-year-old in 1933, but his lack of control turned off club brass. Current Dodgers vice president Lee MacPhail could only wish he still had the hurler; two years earlier as Reds VP, MacPhail had acquired Vander Meer, who was named The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year after winning 19 games and fanning 295 for the Durham (North Carolina) Bulls in the Class B Piedmont League in 1936.

Vander Meer’s stunning transformation from a wild hurler who walked 69 batters in 84⅓ innings as a rookie in 1937 to one of baseball’s most overpowering pitchers was directly related to his skipper. A renowned whisperer to pitchers, McKechnie helped Vander Meer alter his pitching motion from a side-arm to a straight overhand delivery during spring training.7 In addition, the Deacon increased his pitcher’s workload (he was making his fifth start in 19 days) to improve his control.8 Vander Meer also credited the Boston Red Sox’ Lefty Grove for helping him during spring training to polish his mechanics.9

It was an historical moment for skipper Burleigh Grimes’ seventh-place Dodgers (21-28) who were inaugurating an 18-game homestand at Ebbets Field, the club’s 26-year-old ballpark in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. Beat reporter Tommy Holmes described the festivities for the first big-league night game in New York City history as an “after-dark diamond circus.”10 (Crosley Field in Cincinnati was the only other major-league ballpark with lights.) Among the capacity crowd of 38,748 were Vander Meer’s parents, as well as a contingent of 500 fans from his home town of Midland, New Jersey, about 30 miles from Brooklyn.11 At 8:35 P.M. the newly installed lights were activated to the awe of the spectators, who were entertained by the Brooklyn Edison Legion Band and drum and fife corps from Manhattan and East Orange.12 Jesse Owens, the four-time gold medalist from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, put on a track-and-field exhibition, including a 100-yard dash against the Reds’ Lee Gamble and the Dodgers’ Ernie Koy.13 After going through ground rules with both teams, home-plate umpire Bill Stewart finally yelled “Play Ball!” at 9:45 P.M.14

Vander Meer breezed through the first and second innings, walking one. His mound opponent, Max Butcher, a 27-year-old right-hander with a 21-23 career slate (4-2 thus far in ‘38), struggled in the opening frame, yielding a single and a walk to two of the first three batters he faced, then came undone in the third. With two outs, six consecutive batters reached, beginning with a single by Berger, who advanced to second on third baseman Cookie Lavagetto’s errant throw. After Ival Goodman walked, former Dodgers farmhand Frank McCormick brought both runners home on a home run to left field. After a walk to Ernie Lombardi and Harry Craft’s single, Lew Riggs laced a run-scoring single to send Butcher to the showers. Tot Pressnell replaced Butcher and fanned Billy Myers to end the threat.

The Reds tacked on two more runs. With one out in the seventh, Goodman’s screecher back to the mound hit Pressnell in the right kneecap. Writhing in pain, Pressnell left the game on a stretcher and was replaced by Luke Hamlin. Lombardi, batting .359, was intentionally walked to bring up Craft, whose third single of the game made it 5-0. Vander Meer himself scored the game’s last run with one out on the eighth. Red-hot Berger collected his 9th hit in 18 at-bats with the Reds, a triple to deep center to plate Vandy.

Staked to an early 4-0 lead by his teammates’ high-octane offense, Vander Meer unleashed his blazing fastball and knee-buckling curve on Dodgers hitters, whom he had mesmerized 14 days earlier with a five-hitter. “I was much faster tonight than last Saturday,” said Vander Meer, who fanned four and walked three against the Braves in his first no-hitter. “My curve ball was breaking sharper.”15

Vandy breezed through the third inning through the sixth, issuing two walks, both to wily 39-year-old veteran Kiki Cuyler. “I realized after the fifth that I had a splendid chance to turn another no-hitter,” he said.16 The pressure intensified for Vander Meer, who might have also showed the fatigue of pitching on just three days’ rest or less for the third time in his last six starts. (One of those was on two days’ rest.)

In the seventh Vander Meer faced his first test. He issued consecutive one-out walks to Lavagetto, who entered the game leading the NL with a .360 batting average, and Dolph Camilli. Vander Meer escaped the jam by fanning Koy and inducing Leo Durocher to ground weakly to second.

By the end of the seventh, Vander Meer’s quest for baseball immortality had won over the fans, who vigorously applauded after each out he recorded.17 After pushing his way through photographers located in foul territory hoping to capture a glimpse of history, Vander Meer breezed through the eighth, registering his sixth and seventh strikeouts.18 Nonetheless, he admitted, “I felt a little tired in the last two [innings].”19

In the dramatic final inning, Vander Meer was a “trifle wild,” noted Lou Smith, though not as wild as he was when he faced the Dodgers exactly one year earlier, walking 11.20 The stakes, however were different in this game. Vandy was a pitch away from walking Buddy Hassett before he induced a weak grounder down the first-base line that he fielded himself for an unassisted out. Vander Meer walked the next three batters, Babe Phelps, Lavagetto, and Camilli, on 18 pitches to load the bases.21 The capacity crowd went silent.

McKechnie motioned for Bucky Walters to warm up quickly and sauntered to the mound to have a conversation with his young pitcher and infielders while the crowd chanted to leave Vander Meer in the game.22 The Deacon, whose Hall of Fame credentials were built on his handling of pitchers, did just that. On Vandy’s second pitch, Koy hit a slow roller to third baseman Riggs. The All-Star was “so careful in making the throw home,” observed sportswriter Roscoe McGowen, that catcher Lombardi had no time to whip the ball to first for a double play.23 The Reds fielded flawlessly the entire game and needed no “spectacular plays,” reported Turkin.24 With the count 1-and-1, Durocher sent a scorching liner down the right-field foul line. It appeared as though it might be a grand slam, reported Tommy Holmes, but it curved foul.25 Durocher lifted the next pitch to center field, where Craft easily corralled it to end the game in 2 hours and 23 minutes.

“[B]edlam broke loose,” reported Smith; fans rushed the field to celebrate Vander Meer’s feat. An overpowering Vander Meer overcame eight walks and yielded just five outfield fly outs to extended his hitless streak to 18⅓ innings and scoreless streak to 26 innings. (Those streaks eventually reached 21⅓ and 33 innings, respectively.)

Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters are among baseball’s most romantic and mythologized accomplishments. They catapulted the 23-year-old pitcher into instant national stardom and intensified expectations of greatness, both of which took an enormous psychological toll on the pitcher. He finished with an impressive 15-10 slate in ‘38, but struggled the next season (5-9) and was demoted to the minors in 1940. “Double No-Hit” never authored another no-no and finished his 13-year career with a 119-121 record.

SOURCES

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

“Here’s How Vandy Mowed ‘Em Down,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1938: 14.

“Trading Time Is Over with No Red Deals Made,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1938: 17.

Photo credit: Johnny Vander Meer, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

NOTES

1 The Dodgers-Reds game was the first game to be played under permanent lights at Ebbets Field; however, it was not the first game to be played under lights at the ballpark. On September 11, 1935, the Negro National League Brooklyn Eagles hosted the House of David in an exhibition at Ebbets Field that was illuminated by temporary lighting. “First Night Game at Ebbets Field: Western House of David to Meet Eagles Tomorrow,” Brooklyn Times Union, September 10, 1935: 3-A.

2 Hy Turkin, “Vandy’s 2nd No-Hitter Eclipses Dodgers, 6-0, in 1st Night Game,” New York Daily News, June 16, 1938: 50.

3 George Kirksey (United Press), “Reds’ Rise Is Feature of Majors,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 15, 1938: 12.

4 Lou Smith, “Pennant Aspirations Develop in Minds of Reds,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 15, 1938: 12.

5 Lou Smith, “Pennant Aspirations Develop in Minds of Reds.”

6 Walters debuted in the makeup game, the second game of a doubleheader on June 17.

7 Associated Press, “‘Who Taught Vander Meer to Control Ball?’ Baseball Seems to Think It Is a Mystery,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 18, 1938: 18.

8 George Kirksey, “Reds’ Rise is Feature of Majors.”

9 “‘Who Taught Vander Meer to Control Ball?’ Baseball Seems to Think It Is a Mystery.”

10 Tommy Holmes, “Vandy’s 2d No-Hitter Eclipses MacPhail’s Lights,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 16, 1938: 16.

11 Harold Parrott, “Boro Notables in Baseball Throngs as Floodlights Inaugural Proves Social and Financial Success – Babe Ruth Cheers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 16, 1938: 17.

12 Lee Scott, “Vander Meer Makes Baseball History in Brooklyn’s First Night Game,” Brooklyn Citizen, June 16, 1938: 16.

13 Scott.

14 Louis Effrat, “Fans Jam Stands Long Before Game,” New York Times, June 16, 1938: 27.

15 Lou Smith, “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1938: 1, 14.

16 “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0.”

17 “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0.”

18 “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0.”

19 “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0.”

20 “Vander Meer in Second No-Hitter; Reds Defeat Brooklyn, 6 to 0.”

21 George Kirksey (United Press), “Nerve,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1938: 14.

22 “Nerve.”

23 Roscoe McGowen, “40,000 See Vander Meer of Reds Hurl Second No-Hit, No-Run Game in a Row,” New York Times, June 16, 1938: 27.

24 Turkin.

25 Holmes.