Back-to-Back No-Hitters: Call It a Vander Meer-acle

In this century, major league pitchers have pitched 185 no-hit games.

Only five pitchers have thrown two no-hit games in one season.

One of those is Johnny Vander Meer, who did it in 1938.

But the case of Vander Meer merits special scrutiny, even 61 years later.

His no-hitters were consecutive.

When Vander Meer pitched no-hitters against the Boston Braves (June 11) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (June 15) it stunned baseball, and it’s a stunner today.

When the Reds moved on to Boston, Vander Meer extended his hitless streak to 21 2/3 innings. With two out in the fourth inning, Boston’s Debs Garms hit a 2-and-1 pitch into center for a single.

Said Vander Meer afterward: “I could’ve walked over and handed Debs a twenty-dollar bill, because that foolishness had to stop sooner or later.”

Cincinnati won the game, 14-1. It was Vander Meer’s seventh consecutive victory.

Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens . . . guys like that should pitch back-to-back no-hitters.

Vander Meer pitched 13 seasons, retiring in 1951. He was 119-121 with a 3.44 earned-run average.

Except for those two games, he gave up 1,799 hits.

He was 82 when he died in 1997.

Also on this date: In 1976, unpredictable Oakland A’s owner Charles O. Finley shocked baseball with the announcement he’d stripped his World Series championship club of three superstars, sending Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Boston Red Sox and Vida Blue to the New York Yankees. The two deals totaled about $3 million. However, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in two days later and negated the deal. Said Finley of Kuhn: “He’s the village idiot.” . . . In 1976, the Dodgers acquired St. Louis outfielder Reggie Smith, trading catcher Joe Ferguson and two minor leaguers. . . . In 1974, USC won its fifth consecutive College World Series with a 7-3 victory over Miami. . . . In 1976, Los Angeles Ram lineman Charlie Cowan retired after 15 seasons. . . . On the same day, George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier for the second consecutive time. Wrote Jim Murray: “Foreman hit Frazier so hard it didn’t look like Frazier would come down in 10 seconds.”