May 28, 1989: Vancouver’s Tom Drees crafts back-to-back PCL no-hitters, later adds a third

Only 289 brave souls had the good fortune to see right-hander Tom Drees of the Pacific Coast League’s Vancouver Canadians no-hit the Calgary Cannons at Vancouver’s Nat Bailey Stadium on a cold, damp night on May 23, 1989. At the time, it was the smallest crowd in the Canadians’ 12-season history, according to the Calgary Herald.1

Five days later, more than ten times that many Vancouverites were on hand to see if Drees could do it again.2 And he did, notching what many thought were the first back-to-back no-hitters in professional baseball since Johnny Vander Meerof the Cincinnati Reds did it in 1938.

Selected out of Creighton University by the Chicago White Sox in the June 1985 amateur draft, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound Drees was fortunate just to be able to play ball in the spring of 1989. Eleven months earlier, while pitching for the Double-A Birmingham Barons, he was drilled above his right eye by a comebacker. The incident gave Barons pitching coach Moe Drabowsky flashbacks of Herb Score and Tony Conigliaro, each of whom were very seriously injured after getting hit in the eye by a ball.3 Drees escaped with a mild concussion and pitched well enough during the remainder of the season to earn a promotion to Triple-A Vancouver.

Drees began the 1989 season in Vancouver after a few weeks in training camp with the White Sox and, prior to that, arthroscopic shoulder surgery that had his doctor predicting he’d have “an on-and-off year.”4 Manager Marv Foleyinserted Drees into a rotation that included Jeff Bittiger, Adam Peterson, Greg Hibbard, and former first-round pick Jack McDowell but shifted him to the bullpen in mid-May over a drop in velocity thought tied to his healing shoulder.5 Over the next few days, Bittiger was promoted to Chicago and McDowell landed on the disabled list, so Foley returned Drees to a starting role.6 In his next start, on May 23, Drees threw the Canadians’ fifth no-hitter since joining the PCL in 1978. Needing only 96 pitches, Drees retired the last 18 batters that he faced in earning his fourth win of the season.7

The Canadians entered their Sunday afternoon, May 28 doubleheader with the Edmonton Trappers carrying a 26-24 record and sitting 3½ games behind first-place Tacoma in a race for the PCL Northern Division first-half crown.8 The Trappers, a California Angels affiliate led by manager Tom Kotchman,9 had swept Vancouver in twin bills on Thursday and Saturday, pulling them to within 1½ games of the Canadians.10

Tabbed to start the opener, Drees entered the game 3-3, with a 3.31 ERA and more walks allowed (21) than strikeouts (16).11 Catching him was future World Series hero Jerry Willard, who was also behind the plate for Drees’s first no-hitter.12

Drees’s opposite number was right-hander Rich Monteleone (1-3), a first-round pick of the Detroit Tigers in the June 1982 amateur draft. Unlike the three-month-younger Drees, who had yet to be called up to “The Show,” 26-year-old Monteleone had already spent parts of three seasons in a major-league uniform, most recently making two relief appearances for California in early May. Five days before this game, in his first start after returning to Triple A, Monteleone fanned 10 Portland Beavers over 6⅓ innings in a no-decision.13

In keeping with PCL rules, both Sunday games were scheduled to go seven innings, as they had on Saturday, putting a premium on early offense. Yet neither side was able to push a run across in the first five innings. Through six innings, Drees had allowed three baserunners, walking two (right fielder Mike Brown, the Trappers’ leading hitter, and left fielder Brian Brady) and hitting first baseman Lee Stevens, the Trappers’ leading home-run hitter, with a pitch.14

In the bottom of the sixth, Vancouver finally broke the deadlock. A two-out single to left by second baseman Steve Springer scored Lance Johnson. A pinch-hitter for left fielder Marlin McPhail, Johnson had reached base on a single, then advanced to second, possibly on a sacrifice by shortstop Keith Smith.15 Monteleone held Vancouver to that lone run but was now on the short end of the score.

At that point, Drees began to get nervous. “Honestly, I really didn’t start thinking about this [no-hitter] until we scored in the sixth,” he later told reporters.16

The first batter in the Trappers’ seventh appeared to end Drees’ no-hit bid but didn’t, thanks to “nerves of steel” exhibited by official scorer Pat Karl.17 Third baseman Pete Coachman lined a 1-and-2 pitch back up the middle, which Drees deflected towards Smith at shortstop. One of at least five ballplayers by that name to play professionally between 1977 and 1984,18 Smith was in position to field the ball but it bounced off his glove. Karl ruled that Smith had made an error.

“Error all the way,” Smith declared after the game. “I didn’t want to turn around and look at the scoreboard,” said Drees.19

The greatest threat to his no-hitter behind him, Drees induced a double-play grounder from Brown, then fanned designated hitter Jamie Nelson for his fifth strikeout, ending the game. After 78 pitches, Drees had earned his second successive no-hitter, winning both by identical 1-0 scores. (One-nothing was also the score of the nightcap, won by the Canadians.)

“I had to admit even I had a little knot in my stomach in the seventh,” shared Drabowsky, the Canadians’ pitching coach who was bumped up from Double-A Birmingham after the 1988 season. He called Drees’s performance “an awesome display of control – something I’ve never seen before.”20 Presumably referring to Drees’ ability to control both the game and his emotions,21 this was high praise indeed. During his 17 major-league seasons, Drabowsky had been in the same pitching corps as several pitchers who tried and failed to follow one complete-game no-hitter with another, including Don Cardwell (of the 1960 Chicago Cubs), Warren Spahn (1961 Milwaukee Braves), Tom Phoebus (1968 Baltimore Orioles) and Bob Gibson (1971 St. Louis Cardinals).

“You’ll probably never see that again as long as you live,” said Foley. “The guy pitched great. Balls weren’t hit hard off him. We didn’t have to make any spectacular plays.” “[W]hat he was doing was pretty much next-to-impossible … he was as cool as a cucumber.”22

“I’m happy about this, obviously,” Drees told reporters, before making clear that a callup to the majors was foremost on his mind. “I didn’t dwell on the last one (no-hitter) for very long, and I won’t dwell on this too long either. I’ve got to concentrate on my job because as long as you’re here (in Vancouver), you’re not where it counts.”23

Many years later, Drees recalled finding out that rotation-mate Hibbard had been called up by the White Sox during the post-game clubhouse celebration, but the southpaw “didn’t want to tell anyone because he was embarrassed after I threw back-to-back no hitters.”24

At the time, Vander Meer was widely portrayed as the only professional ballplayer to have previously thrown back-to-back no hitters,25 but in 2000, the Dearborn (Michigan) County Register identified three other minor leaguers who had done the same: Gene Wright of the 1901 Class-A Dayton (Ohio) Veterans, Walter Justus of the 1908 Class-D Lancaster (Ohio) Lanks, and Bill Bell of the 1952 Class-D Bristol (Virginia) Twins.26

Eleven weeks after no-hitting Edmonton, Drees did the “unthinkable,” tossing a third no-hitter against the Las Vegas Stars.27 Like his second no-hitter, it was a seven-inning effort in the opener of a twin bill. Vancouver won that game, 5-0, as Drees held hitless a lineup that included future major-league All-Stars Carlos Baerga, Joey Cora and Sandy Alomar Jr. “What’s next; Tom Drees, the movie?” asked Lowell Ullrich of the Vancouver Province.28 Encouraged that White Sox general manager Larry Himes was in the stands, Drees said “Another no-hitter is nice, but the goal is still to pitch in the major leagues.”29

Drees helped lead Vancouver to the PCL pennant, winning the Northern Division championship series clincher over Calgary before suffering a loss to the Albuquerque Dukes in the league championship series.30 After that series, Chicago added reliever Jose Segura from the Canadians roster, but none of his teammates.31 Drees finished the season 12-11, with a 3.37 ERA in 26 starts.

Two long years passed before Drees finally reached the major leagues, as a White Sox callup in September 1991. He made four relief appearances, allowing 10 earned runs in 7⅓ innings for an ugly 11.86 ERA, then spent the next two seasons back in Triple-A before calling it quits.

During the month of Drees’s major-league debut, Major League Baseball’s Committee for Statistical Accuracy, chaired by commissioner Fay Vincent, revised the qualification for no-hitters, specifying that they could only be credited for games lasting at least nine innings.32 Under that new definition, which Minor League Baseball also adopted, Drees’s second and third no-hitters in 1989 became no-hit shutouts.

Looking past that recategorization, Drees in 2019 told MLB.com’s Kevin T. Czerwinski, “I never get tired of talking about the no-hitters. That whole summer is a great memory for me. I think about my place in history. Someone will throw a no-hitter in the PCL, and I’ll get the reference for having thrown two in a row, so I feel that piece of history often during the season.33

Acknowledgments

This article was reviewed by Kevin Larkin and factchecked by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and statscrew.com websites.

Notes

1 Monte Stewart, “Vancouver lefty silences Cannons with a no-hitter,” Calgary (Alberta) Herald, May 24, 1989: D4.

2 Attendance figures for the game varied from 2,857 to 3,378. “PCL Record,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Province, May 29, 1989: 32; “Drees no-hits again,” Red Deer (Alberta) Advocate, May 29, 1989: 3B.

3 Lowell Ullrich, “Drees survives a hit,” Vancouver Province, April 17, 1989: 21. Score had his nose broken, right cheekbone damaged and right eye injured after getting hit on May 7, 1957 with a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougal. Conigliaro suffered a broken cheekbone and very nearly lost the sight in his left eye when he was hit by an errant Jack Hamilton fastball while batting, on August 18, 1967. Barons manager and longtime Red Sox infielder Rico Petrocelli was on deck when Conigliaro was hit and tried to comfort him as he lay writhing on the ground. Joseph Wancho, “Herb Score,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/herb-score/, accessed July 24, 2026; Bill Nowlin, “Tony Congiliaro,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tony-conigliaro/, accessed July 24, 2026.

4 Andrew Bagnato, “No. 1 draft choice Ventura among 19 cuts by White Sox,” Chicago Tribune, March 20, 1989: 3-7; Lowell Ullrich, “Drees Back in Groove,” Vancouver Province, August 17, 1989: 13.

5 “C’s Plan to Start With New Old Guys,” Vancouver Province, April 7, 1989: 52; Lowell Ullrich, “Itch For His Niche,” Vancouver Province, May 17, 1989: 6; Lowell Ullrich, “Drees is cool in a breeze,” Vancouver Province, May 24, 1989: 61.

6 Lee Bacchus, “Pitching woes, weak defence add up to loss for Canadians,” Vancouver Sun, May 23, 1989: F2.

7 Frank Maestas, “Dukes Need to Reverse Trend in One-Run Games,” Albuquerque Journal, May 28, 1989: E5. Among the Seattle Mariners farmhands that Drees held hitless was future Mariners Hall of Famer Jay Buhner.

8 “PCL Record,” Vancouver Province, May 28, 1989: 96.

9 During Edmonton home games, Kotchman was frequently accompanied by his six-year-old son Casey, who was drafted by the Angels in the June 2001 amateur draft and spent 10 seasons in the major leagues, the first 4½ with the Angels. Joanne Ireland, “Baseball a battle for family men,” Edmonton (Alberta) Journal, May 20, 1989: G4.

10 Lee Bacchus, “Trappers double trouble for struggling Canadians,” Vancouver Sun, May 26, 1989: E2; Lowell Ullrich, “Robidoux fills shoes of Meyer,” Vancouver Province, May 28, 1989: 92. Edmonton won by identical scores in the two doubleheaders; 5-4 in the opener and 1-0 in the nightcap.

11 “Pitching Leaders,” Calgary Herald, May 28, 1989: F4.

12 As a member of the Atlanta Braves, Willard hit a walk-off sacrifice fly at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Game 4 of the 1991 World Series, The win pulled Atlanta even in a Series that they ultimately lost in seven games.

13 Mark Spector, “Beavers rebound to down Trappers,” Edmonton Journal, May 24, 1989: H6; “PCL,” Edmonton Journal, May 24, 1989: H5.

14 Team rankings for Brown and Stevens is based on league-wide statistics through May 25 published in the Calgary Herald, combined with their performances in Saturday’s doubleheader. “Baseball Statistics,” Calgary Herald, May 28, 1989: F4; “PCL Record,” Vancouver Province, May 28, 1989.

15 Newspaper accounts don’t indicate how Johnson reached second, but Smith, the next batter, was credited with a sacrifice in the Vancouver Province box-score and the circumstances (the next-to-last inning with the score tied and Smith hitting .216) seemed ripe for a sacrifice. Smith’s batting average calculated from league-wide statistics through May 25 published in the Calgary Herald, combined with his 2-for-5 performance in Saturday’s doubleheader. “Baseball Statistics.”; “PCL Record,” Vancouver Province, May 28, 1989.

16 Lowell Ullrich, “History made at Nat Bailey,” Vancouver Province, May 29, 1989: 22.

17 Ullrich, “History made at Nat Bailey.”

18 Number does include any who might have played in countries other than the US and Canada. “Keith Smith,” Baseball Reference website, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Keith_Smith, accessed July 22, 2026.

19 “History made at Nat Bailey.”

20 “History made at Nat Bailey”; Bacchus, “Drees hurls gem for second no-hitter.”

21 Newspaper accounts did not delve any deeper into Drabowsky’s comment.

22 “Drees no-hits again.”

23 Lee Bacchus, “Drees hurls gem for second no-hitter,” Vancouver Sun, May 29, 1989: C1.

24 Kevin T. Czerwinski, “Drees recalls 1989 trifecta of no-hitters,” MLB website, November 5, 2019, https://www.milb.com/news/tom-drees-recalls-trifecta-of-no-hitters-311404434.

25 See, for example, “Drees no-hits again.”

26 “Throwing Smoke,” Dearborn (Michigan) County Register, July 13, 2000: 15; “Wright’s Good Work,” Akron (Ohio) Democrat, September 30, 1901: 6; “Breaks the Record,” Marion (Ohio) Star, September 14, 1908: 6; Warren Corbett, “Bill Bell,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bill-Bell/, accessed July 22, 2026.

27 Ullrich, “Drees Back in Groove.”; Lyndon Little, “C’s Drees produces No-Hitter Part-III,” Vancouver Sun, August 17, 1989: E1.

28 “Drees Back in Groove.”

29 Lyndon Little, “C’s Drees produces No-Hitter Part-III,” Vancouver Sun, August 17, 1989: E1.

30 “Canadians win PCL Northern Division Title,” Vancouver (Washington) Columbian, September 4, 1989: D4; “Dukes win to stay alive in series,” Santa Fe (New Mexico) New Mexican, September 9, 1989: 12.

31 “Players shunned by Sox,” Vancouver Province, September 10, 1989: 65.

32 “The true ‘no no-hitters’,” NoNoHitters.com, https://www.nonohitters.com/near-no-hitters/, accessed July 22, 2026.

33 Czerwinski, “Drees recalls 1989 trifecta of no-hitters.”