June 6, 1975: Aaron, Brewers spoil Nolan Ryan’s bid for double no-hit history

Nolan Ryan had been here before, but it was never like this.

For the fourth time in two years, inquiring baseball writers pounced on the easygoing Texan for his thoughts about potentially joining Johnny Vander Meer of the 1938 Cincinnati Reds as the only major leaguers to throw back-to-back no-hitters. After he no-hit the Baltimore Orioles on June 1, 1975, during his fourth season with the California Angels, Ryan’s next outing, against the Milwaukee Brewers, also gave him the chance to surpass Sandy Koufax’s all-time record of four career no-hitters – providing the press another storyline to pester him about.1

“I’ll be reminded of the Vander Meer thing so many times before Friday that it would be impossible for me to forget it, even if I wanted to,” the 28-year-old Ryan said in the leadup to his June 6 start against Milwaukee. “I’ll have no-hitter on my mind. How many times do you get a chance to pitch two in a row? … It’s not that I’ll be trying to overpower every hitter, but I’ll try to make sure that if I lose the no-hitter, I lose it with my pitch, not the hitter’s pitch.”2

With double-no-hit history on the line, the press corps inundated Ryan so much in the four days between his starts that he called it the “worst week of my career” because he felt as though he had been “answering questions from the moment I get up to late at night.”3 He asked Angels President Red Patterson to close the clubhouse to the media before his start against Milwaukee. Patterson obliged.

“I tried to be cooperative and answer the telephone calls,” Ryan said. “But all that attention made the week difficult.”4

Perhaps the extra time behind the closed locker-room door allowed Ryan to focus and make a serious run at the record book.

Aided by a fine defensive stop by rookie second baseman Jerry Remy and a big hit by right fielder Leroy Stanton, Ryan carried a no-hitter and a comfortable lead into the sixth inning. By retiring Bill Sharp and George Scott to open the sixth, Ryan set up a matchup some observers had waited the entire game for: the three-time strikeout king against the all-time home-run leader with a no-hitter on the line.

“If anybody breaks up any no-hitter Nolan might be throwing, Henry Aaron will be the person,” Angels announcer and Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale said before the game. “Henry was born knowing how to hit a fastball. I know he hit plenty off me. But Ryan will challenge Aaron, and the fastball is his best weapon. Henry isn’t so old yet [Aaron was 41] that he still can’t hit his favorite pitch when the pressure is on. Aaron thrives on pressure. I’d throw everything outside to Aaron and let him walk if he doesn’t bite. It should be very interesting if Nolan goes into the sixth or seventh inning with a no-hitter and Henry comes to bat.”5 

Aaron, making his first regular-season appearance at Anaheim Stadium6 after a November 1974 trade brought him to the Brewers,7 had collected 9 hits in 24 regular-season at-bats against Ryan (a .375 average), but they had not battled each other since 1971.8 The pair had also faced off in Game Three of the 1969 National League Championship Series – a rare trip to the postseason for both players – in which Aaron went hitless in two at-bats against Ryan.9

And on this occasion, Aaron stepped into the batter’s box and rocketed Ryan’s 0-and-1 pitch into center field for a single to spoil the no-hit bid.

Milwaukee mustered one more hit in the game, and the Angels cruised to a 6-0 victory in front of a boisterous home crowd of 29,513 fans,10 giving Ryan back-to-back shutouts for the second time in 1975.11

So, did Ryan lose his chance at history on his pitch as he had hoped?

“I wanted to pitch a no-hitter tonight, but once the game started, I didn’t anticipate it happening. I had only average stuff,” Ryan said. “My velocity wasn’t real good, and I was getting away with hanging curves. I was throwing Aaron almost strictly fastballs, trying to keep them away. The one he hit was too much over the plate. I suppose if I had to give up a hit … well, it feels a little better having given it up to one of the greatest hitters in history.”12

Aaron, who came into the game with a .203 batting average, said before the game that he would not “bet” on himself to hit Ryan’s fastball.13 He had popped out and flied out in his first two at-bats and offered these thoughts about his single: “I’m up there to swing the bat. I’m certainly not going to bunt. I’m looking for the fastball because that’s all he’s been throwing me. I could just as easily have popped it up, especially the way I’ve been hitting. But he’s a great pitcher and the way he’s throwing he’ll certainly get another no-hitter.”14

Aaron’s hit almost did not matter.

In the fifth inning, Darrell Porter scorched a grounder between Remy and first baseman Bruce Bochte to lead off the inning. Remy, one of the defensive heroes of Ryan’s no-hitter against Baltimore,15 slid on the outfield grass to snare the ball and threw to first while sprawled on his back to retire Porter, Milwaukee’s burly young catcher. Ryan called it the “play of the year.”16

“I just made a dive to get the ball and thought I couldn’t get up in time to make the throw,” Remy said, “so I just threw while I was on my back.”17

Ryan’s bid for history overshadowed an outstanding offensive performance from Stanton, who had a three-hit, four-RBI showing at the plate for the third time in his career. Stanton slugged a three-run triple in the bottom of the first inning18 and later added a solo home run in the sixth to pace California’s offense. Before Stanton’s triple, Milwaukee starter Jim Slaton walked Dave Chalk with the bases loaded, and in the fourth, Stanton singled to open the inning and scored when Morris Nettles knocked a two-out single into center. Slaton fell to 3-7.

Stanton came into June hitting .217 but raised his average to .271 by going 8-for-16 over the first five games of the month.19 The Angels won four of those games to improve to 26-27. California joined the American League in 1961 and had yet to make the postseason. After beating the Brewers, the Angels sat in third place in the AL West but were only five games behind the Oakland Athletics. With the June 15 trade deadline looming, general manager Harry Dalton – who later helped build the 1982 pennant-winning Brewers as their GM – hoped to improve his roster.

“I have 35 different combinations of trades sitting on my desk right now,” he said. “I’ve already felt out some people without much luck, but I’ll keep trying. You wouldn’t believe my phone bill this month.”20

The Angels ultimately failed to make any major moves and dropped to sixth place by the end of the season with a 72-89 record. Milwaukee, likewise without a playoff appearance since joining the AL in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, fell to 23-25 after losing to Ryan and closed the year at 68-94.21

Milwaukee’s only other hit off Ryan was Scott’s single in the eighth, but Ryan also issued six walks, leaving Sharp as the only Brewer not to reach base. The victory made Ryan the first AL pitcher to 10 wins, and his six strikeouts pushed him over 100 for the season.22 It was his second two-hitter23 and fifth shutout of the year, and even though it had been a stressful week for Ryan, he still found time to share a joke with those who had applied the pressure.

“Well, now Henry Aaron will have something to talk about when he looks back on his career,” Ryan said. “He can say, ‘I was the man who broke up Nolan Ryan’s no-hitter.’”24

Ryan had three more chances to match Vander Meer’s mark, firing no-hitters again in 1981, 1990, and 1991. The closest he came to consecutive no-hitters was on July 19, 1973, when he followed his second career no-hitter with seven no-hit innings against the Orioles.

Vander Meer, who blanked the Boston Bees and Brooklyn Dodgers in June 1938, thought Ryan had the potential to match his feat but did not expect it.

“If you go by percentages, I’d say the time isn’t due yet,” said Vander Meer, then a 61-year-old. “It was from the 1800s until 1938 before I did it. … I had a lot of hard-hit balls, but everybody was playing in the right places at the right times. You’ve got to get some breaks to do anything that breaks a record. But records are made to be tied and made to be broken. Ryan’s a pretty good one. If he does it, it’s good for the game and all right with me.”25

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Tom Brown and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and box scores. He also used information obtained from news coverage by the Los Angeles Times, the Anaheim Bulletin, the Long Beach Press-Telegram and Independent, and the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CAL/CAL197506060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B06060CAL1975.htm

Notes

1 Koufax, Ryan’s childhood idol, sent Ryan a congratulatory telegram after his fourth no-hitter. He also said: “There was no doubt he was going to do it. The only question now is how many more he’s going to pitch. I think it might be 10 or 12 with the kind of fastball he has.” Fred McMane (United Press International), “Move Over, Sandy! Ryan Hurls 4th No-Hitter For Angels,” Eureka (California) Times-Standard, June 2, 1975: 9.

2 Ross Newhan, “Pitch to Grich Points Up Change in Nolan Ryan,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1975: 33.

3 Don Merry, “Aaron Ends Ryan’s No-Hitter in Sixth, 6-0,” Long Beach (California) Independent Press-Telegram, June 7, 1975: B-1.

4 Associated Press, “Pressure on Ryan Builds After Gems,” Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1975: 79.

5 Hank Hollingworth, “Drysdale Called Aaron’s Shot,” Long Beach Independent, June 10, 1975: C-1.

6 Aaron was the National League’s starting center fielder at the 1967 All-Star Game at Anaheim Stadium.

7 The Braves traded Aaron to the Brewers for Dave May and a player to be named later (minor-league pitcher Roger Alexander) on November 2.

8 Aaron ended his career with 12 hits in 37 at-bats against Ryan (.324), including 2 home runs and 3 RBIs.

9 In Game Three of the 1969 NLCS, Aaron hit a two-run home run and a double off the Mets’ starter, Gary Gentry, who was pulled in favor of Ryan in the third inning. The Mets defeated the Braves to claim the NL pennant and move on to the World Series, in which they defeated the Baltimore Orioles.

10 According to an Angels PR representative, the expected crowd for the game without Ryan’s pursuit of history would have likely been about 14,000. Don Merry, “Aaron Ends Ryan’s No-Hitter in Sixth, 6-0.”

11 Ryan had consecutive shutouts on May 8 at Oakland and on May 13 against the New York Yankees. In 1972 he pitched back-to-back shutouts on July 5 and 9 and also had three straight between August 22 and 31.

12 Ross Newhan, “Two Too Much … And So Is Ryan, 6-0,” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1975: 44.

13 Hollingworth.

14 Newhan, “Two Too Much … And So Is Ryan, 6-0.”

15 In the seventh inning of that game, Baltimore pinch-hitter Tommy Davis hit a slow roller toward second. Remy charged in, scooped the ball, and threw to first across his body to retire the hard-charging Davis by half a step.

16 Betty Cuniberti, “Oh! Henry!” San Bernardino (California) Sun-Telegram, June 7, 1975: B-7.

17 Joe Buchanan, “Ryan’s Record No-Hit Bid Spoiled by Aaron,” Anaheim Bulletin, June 7, 1975: D1.

18 Morris Nettles and Jerry Remy opened the first inning with back-to-back singles. One out later, a walk to Bruce Bochte loaded the bases.

19 Throughout June, Stanton hit safely in 22 of 29 games for a .327 average that lifted his season mark to .283. His average settled at .261 by season’s end.

20 Merry, “Aaron Ends Ryan’s No-Hitter in Sixth, 6-0.”

21 The Angels made the playoffs for the first time in 1979. Milwaukee enjoyed its first winning season in its ninth campaign, in 1978, and the Brewers made their postseason debut in 1981.

22 The only National League pitcher to reach 10 wins faster than Ryan was Don Sutton, who earned his 10th win for the Dodgers three days earlier. Ryan’s bid for a third straight season with more than 300 strikeouts ended due to arm trouble that required surgery in September.

23 On May 18 Ryan allowed two hits over the first 8⅔ innings against the Orioles. Don Kirkwood retired the final batter of the game after Ryan issued back-to-back two-out walks in the ninth inning.

24 Newhan, “Two Too Much … and So is Ryan, 6-0.”

25 John R. Skinner (Associated Press), “Vander Meer: Proud of Ryan,” Grand Island (Nebraska) Daily Independent, June 7, 1975: 12.