When the Champs Were No-Hit: Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Akron Generals, 1926
This article was written by Richard McBane
This article was published in Baseball in Pittsburgh (SABR 25, 1995)
On Sunday, August 22, 1926, the defending World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates were locked in a tight pennant race with the St. Louis Cardinals. That afternoon the Pirates fielded a lineup that included three future Hall of Famers. For their efforts, the Bucs were no-hit.
Neither the loss, nor the no-hitter, however, went into the record books because the Pirates weren’t playing a National League team. They weren’t even playing a team in the National Association. Instead, the Pirates lost to Charles E. Ketchum and the Akron Generals of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League, a semi-pro industrial circuit.
Sunday baseball was illegal in Pennsylvania in 1926. Pittsburgh had a Monday doubleheader on tap the next day against the Brooklyn Dodgers, but teams of that era seldom enjoyed an off-day. Akron was easily accessible by rail, so the Pirates boarded a train for their date with destiny.
As for the Hall-of-Fame lineup, Pittsburgh led off with Paul Waner in right field. Waner, a rookie, hit .336 that year with 35 doubles, 22 triples, 8 homers and 79 RBIs. Batting second was another rookie, shortstop Joe Cronin. While Waner was a regular, Cronin was a true rookie. He appeared in only 38 games for the Pirates that year and was in the lineup only because regular shortstop Glenn Wright was injured. The other Buc Hall of Farner was Pie Traynor, playing third and batting cleanup. He was on his way to a .317 average that year with 92 RBIs and a league-leading 182 put-outs by a third baseman. 1926 was the third time he led the National League in that stat; he would do it four more times to tie the all-time record.
The hurler who baffled them was a tall, thin, raw-boned 30-year-old righthander who was at the pinnacle of his career. Charlie Ketchum had bounced around the minor leagues. He’d left Columbus of the American Association earlier in 1926 to pitch for the Generals, and was a key factor in making them an industrial league power. He had tossed a no-hitter for the Generals against New Castle of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League on the previous Sunday. Three days later he pitched a 6-0 five-hitter against Youngstown in another league game, extending his string of hitless innings to 13 before giving up a single through the box.
Ketchum, however, had a poorly kept secret. He scuffed the ball, apparently using emery dust stuck into a wad of chewing gum. Harold Sloop, an Akron high school boy trying to rehab his shoulder by pitching batting practice for the Generals, was on the field before the game. He overheard a conversation between the umpire and Pirate skipper Bill McKechnie. Sloop recalled:
“Before the game, the umpire (Red Carney) told McKechnie that Ketchum cheated, and asked if McKechnie wanted him to call it. McKechnie said ‘Let him throw.’ He thought McKechnie may have regretted it later.”
Whatever Ketchum threw that day, his General teammates gave him fine defensive support. Four fine fielding plays robbed the Pirates of possible hits. Until the ninth inning, only one Pittsburgh batter had reached base, and that on a shortstop error.
Akron scored in the first inning and clung to a 1-0 lead until the last of the seventh when they gave Ketchum some breathing room. With two outs in the top of the ninth Waner came to the plate. Leading 6-0, Ketchum decided to play the odds and protect the no-hitter. He issued an intentional walk to Waner in order to pitch to Cronin. Ketchum induced Cronin to ground out, ending the game.
Not surprisingly, Akron sports writers touted Ketchum as a future big leaguer. His two no-hitters in eight days attracted the attention of scouts — for about a week. The following Sunday, Ketchum pitched another exhibition against the Boston Braves and lost 7-5. He never reached the big time.
Ketchum became a golf pro in 1928, serving several public courses around Akron and one in Toledo. But he also liked to drink and he soon fell on hard times. Subsequently, he had some run-ins with the law. In addition, in February 1934, in just his second day of work as a coal truck driver, he was struck by a trailer while unloading coal on Akron’s East Market Street. Ketchum died at his parents’ home in Akron in October 1944. He was 48.
As for the 1926 Pirates, they finished third.
