September 4, 1993: Jim Abbott throws a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium

It was 77 degrees with an overcast sky and occasional rain in New York, on September 4, 1993, when the second-place Yankees hosted the sixth-place Cleveland Indians.

The Yankees (76-60) were chasing down the Toronto Blue Jays (78-58) in the American League East. A series against the sub-.500 Indians (65-70) could be their chance to gain ground. But the Yankees had lost the previous night’s series opener, 7-3.1 

Jim Abbott, a left-handed pitcher famous for being born without a right hand, was the starting pitcher for the Yankees that afternoon. During a 1987 interview with Sports Illustrated, the then-sophomore at the University of Michigan had stated, “I’ve been blessed with a pretty good left arm and a not-so-great right arm.”2

Abbott had posted a career 26-8 record at the University of Michigan, earning the 1987 Golden Spikes Award and the 1987 James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur. He was named the 1988 Big Ten Conference Male Athlete of the Year, led the US National team to a Silver Medal at the Pan American Games, and pitched the 5-3 Gold Medal-clinching victory over Japan at the 1988 Olympics.3

He had started his career with the California Angels in 1989,4 skipping over the minor leagues completely to go from college ball to the majors, and had come to the Yankees in a December 1992 trade for three players.5

But the southpaw entered his 27th start of 1993 with a 9-11 record and a rather lofty ERA of 4.31; his struggles were in part attributed to his somehow losing 2 mph off his fastball.6 To this point in his career, Abbott was 2-4 with a 3.92 ERA against the Indians. Though Abbott’s last start, six days earlier, against the same Indians roster at Cleveland Stadium, was a game he’d likely prefer to forget. Abbott was able to survive only 3⅔ innings, giving up seven earned runs and 10 hits.

Hence why he showed up to the ballpark that day wearing his “lucky” jeans. (They had an “X” in the waistband.) Warming him up before the game, bullpen coach Mark Connor suggested Abbott “work the outside more and mix in breaking pitches” to compensate for his flagging speed.7

Despite the Indians’ record, their lineup could hit. Abbott faced six players that day batting at least .287.8 But their starting pitcher, journeyman Bob Milacki, was making his first appearance with the big-league club, having recently been called up from a season in Triple A.9

The game opened with Abbott walking Kenny Lofton. Shortstop Felix Fermin, the next batter, grounded into a third-to-second-to-first double play. Carlos Baerga ended the top of the frame by flying out deep to left field.

Abbott struck out Albert Belle to start the second frame. Randy Milligan worked a walk. Ramirez flied out to center, and Candy Maldonado wrapped up the top of the inning by striking out.

The third inning saw Jim Thome fly out to center, and both Junior Ortiz and Lofton ground out to second base.

In the bottom of the third, the home team provided some run support for Abbott. Mike Gallego led off with a walk off Milacki. Randy Velarde fouled out to catcher Ortiz. Gallego went to second on Wade Boggs’s line-drive single to right field. Left fielder Dion James hit what seemed an innocent single to Lofton in center, knocking in Gallego, but it turned into Indians chaos as Lofton’s throw handcuffed third baseman Thome. After he ran to pick up the ball off the ground near the Indians dugout, with Boggs sliding home, Thome made a throw that bounced past Ortiz and into the Yankees dugout, allowing James to score. The Yankees got three runs on the single and two Indians errors, and led, 3-0.

In the fourth inning the Indians’ Fermin and Baerga grounded out to second, and Belle grounded to third.

Cleveland’s Milligan led off the fifth with a base on balls. But Ramirez grounded into a 6-4-3 twin killing. Maldonado followed with an easy fly out to left field.

The Yankees padded their lead as Velarde led off the bottom of the fifth with a homer to deep right-center field, making the score 4-0.

Thome led off the Indians’ sixth with a line drive to shortstop. Again Abbott walked Ortiz, but Lofton flied out to left field, and Fermin grounded out to third. Abbott had still not given up a base hit.

In the seventh, Baerga grounded out to first. On a 1-and-2 count, Belle appeared to take away Abbott’s no-hit bid by grounding hard to the gap between third and shortstop. But Boggs dove to snare the ball, jumped to his feet, and threw a rocket to first to get Belle by a step.

It was Boggs who was struck out by Yankees hurler Dave Righetti in 1983 as the final out in Righetti’s no-hitter, which was the Yankees’ last before this game.10 No doubt with tongue in cheek, first baseman Don Mattingly joked after the game, “I was definitely thinking Boggsie, making a great play in this one and striking out in that one back in ’83. I guess he helped make both [no-hitters] possible.”11

After Boggs’s heroics on Belle’s drive, he fielded a routine grounder by Milligan to complete the seventh.

Abbott struck out Manny Ramirez to start the eighth. He thus matched his career high of 7⅓ no-hit innings. On May 29, 1993, Bo Jackson of the Chicago White Sox had ruined Abbott’s no-hit bid by lining a hit to center. Ron Karkovice followed with a home run. Abbott eventually earned a win but had lost his no-hitter with just five outs to get.

The Indians’ Maldonado grounded out to shortstop for the second out of the eighth. Again Abbott walked Thome (his fifth base on balls of the game) before Sandy Alomar Jr., pinch-hitting for Ortiz, grounded out to third.

“The last couple of innings, I had these huge goose bumps on my forearms, and the hair on the back of my neck was standing up,” said Mattingly. “Maybe that would have happened with someone else. Maybe I’d have the same feelings. But I think because it was Jim there was a little something extra.”12

In the ninth inning, leadoff batter Lofton bunted trying to get the Indians’ first hit (and his 17th bunt base hit of the season). It went foul. Lofton heard the wrath of all 27,125 fans, because he broke one of baseball’s unwritten rules: “No bunting to break up a no-hitter.”13

Boggs then positioned himself closer to home to deter Lofton. With umpire Ted Hendry behind the plate, Lofton stared at a fastball down the middle for strike two. Lofton watched Abbott’s third pitch go by. It was a ball, just an inch or two outside. On the next pitch, Lofton bounced a ball over the leaping Abbott to second baseman Gallego, who threw out the speedy Lofton running to first. One out.

Fermin watched the first pitch, down the middle, called strike one. The next pitch was low for ball one. Abbott threw a changeup that Fermin weakly bounced foul down the third-base line. With all in attendance standing, Abbott pitched ball two inside. Fermin lined the 2-and-2 pitch foul into the left-field stands. Then Fermin hit a line drive into left-center. The speedy Bernie Williams chased it down, catching it a couple of strides away from the fence. Two out. One to go.

Baerga came up, the Indians’ last hope for a hit. The cheering was at such a noise level that Baerga had to call time to regain his concentration. Baerga, to that point batting 5-for-26 against Abbott and .318 for the season, took strike one. On the next pitch he grounded to shortstop Velarde, who threw to Mattingly at first. Jim Abbott had his no-hitter.

After the game, a smiling Abbott said, “I felt a little tired in the seventh inning, but in the eighth and ninth, with the crowd, I didn’t feel it at all.”14

Speaking about being at bat during the history-making out, Baerga said, “He had a very good curve and slider. He was way different last weekend. He kept the ball down today.”15

Abbott walked five and struck out three, and 17 of his outs were on groundballs.

A day after the no-hitter, the Yankees moved into a tie for first, though the ultimately finished second to the repeating World Series champion Blue Jays.

Abbott finished 11-14 for the Yankees in 1993 and 9-8 the following year. He wrapped up a 10-year major-league career with 87 victories.16

“How does it all happen?” Abbott said of the no-hitter in retrospect. “A guy, growing up in Flint, Michigan, to this? For a tiny second, you’re outside yourself.”17

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Bill Nowlin, who would cause me to yell at the monitor, at times, while pushing me to write better than I ever thought possible. 

I’m truly inspired and grateful for Tara Krieger. Tara, behind the scenes, is literally a literature alchemist. She took my written words and turned them into polished words that you will read and hopefully enjoy.

Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and reviewed the broadcast of the game on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199309040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1993/B09040NYA1993.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhdzG2Y9HUQ

Notes

1 In that game, Cleveland rookie Manny Ramirez, called up two days earlier, hit his first and second career home runs.

2 Hank Hersch, “That Great Abbott Switch,” Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1987: 28-29.

3 “Jim Abbott (2004) – University of Michigan Hall of Honor,” University of Michigan Athletics, https://mgoblue.com/honors/university-of-michigan-hall-of-honor/jim-abbott/150. Accessed October 13, 2022.

4 At a postgame press conference after his major-league debut, Abbott patiently discussed his pitching/fielding motion. “I’ve been doing this since I was 5 years old. Now it’s as natural as tying my shoes.” Rick Swaine, “Jim Abbott,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jim-abbott/. The quotation comes from Rick Swaine, Beating the Breaks: Major League Ballplayers Who Overcame Disabilities (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2004), 13. Swaine discusses how Abbott fielded his position and handled batting in his 24 plate appearances with the 1999 Milwaukee Brewers. (He hit .095, but with 3 RBIs.)

5 To acquire Abbott, the Yankees traded pitchers Jerry Nielsen and Russ Springer and first baseman J.T. Snow.

6 Tom Verducci, “A Special Delivery,” Sports Illustrated, September 13, 1993, https://vault.si.com/vault/1993/09/13/a-special-delivery-that-was-no-ordinary-no-hitter-yankee-jim-abbott-threw-against-the-indians.

7 Verducci.

8 The six players were starters Kenny Lofton (.317), Carlos Baerga (.317), Albert Belle (.296), Randy Milligan (.287), and Jim Thome (.292), and pinch-hitter Sandy Alomar Jr. (.286).

9 A right-hander, Milacki had come to Cleveland after five years with the Baltimore Orioles. This was his first major-league appearance of 1993.

10 Righetti no-hit the Boston Red Sox on July 4, 1983, winning 4-0. Bill Nowlin, “Dave Righetti tosses a no-hitter of Fourth of July,” SABR Games Project.

11 John Harper, “Shades of Rags for Don, Wade,” New York Daily News, September 5, 1993: 52.

12 Verducci.

13 This unwritten rule was discussed on the website baseballcodes.com: “‘The first hit of a no-hitter is not a bunt,’ said Kansas City Royals pitcher Danny Jackson 15 years earlier, in 1986, after Angels rookie Devon White attempted to break up his no-hitter with a failed eighth-inning bunt attempt. ‘I don’t know how long he’s been around,’ Jackson said about the outfielder, ‘but he’s got to go down.’” Jason Turbow, “Tenth Anniversary of an Unwritten Rule Violation People Still Delight in Referencing,” The Baseball Codes, May 27, 2011, https://thebaseballcodes.com/2011/05/26/tenth-anniversary-of-an-unwritten-rule-violation-people-still-delight-in-referencing/.

14 Jennifer Frey, “Abbott: Not a Hit, Not a Run, Not a Doubt,” New York Times, September 5, 1993: 3.

15 Sheldon Ocker, “Yankees’ Left-Hander Stifles Indians 4-0,” Akron Beacon Journal, September 5, 1993: E1.

16 A free agent after the 1994 season, Abbott signed with the White Sox. He signed with the California Angels before the 1996 season and experienced a dismal 2-18 season. After being released, he sat out 1997 but mounted a comeback with the White Sox in 1998 and was 5-0, winning each of his five starts. A final season with the National League’s Brewers was less successful (2-8, 6.91 ERA). He retired from baseball in 1999.

17 Anthony McCarron, “Former Yankee Pitcher Jim Abbott Still Delivering a Positive Message,” New York Daily News, May 31, 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20130911022845/http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankee-pitcher-jim-abbott-delivering-positive-message-article-1.412950.