Brushes with perfection- tickets to near no-hitters and perfect games

[Scott Garner]

In response to Perezfan Mark's question:

"Do you have the Armando Galarraga Ticket from when he was "jobbed" a couple of years ago? I've been meaning to ask about this, and the Harvey Haddix game as well. Even though neither qualifies as a No-Hitter, it seems like they'd make interesting additions to your incredible collection."

Here are tickets to some of the games where pitchers came within an eyelash of greatness only to have history snatched from them....

1) Harvey Haddix's 12 perfect inning masterpiece vs. the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959. Many baseball experts believe that this was the greatest game ever pitched.

The story behind how I came to own this ticket is almost as great as the ticket itself! Around 1999, a sometimes Milwaukee collector/ dealer went to an estate sale and was looking around at what they had out front of the house. The people running the sale mentioned thast there were a few more items in the house. The guy looked around and didn't spot anything that caught his eye. On a whim, he climbed down the stairs into the basement where he discovered that the incinerator was open and burning. Next to the incinerator was a small box of old Milwaukee Braves to be burned. He grabbed the box and brought them up to the people running the estate sale. He told them that he wanted to buy the box of tickets. They responded: "Why? That's just trash that we're going to incinerate..." :eek::eek: He bought the tickets for virtually nothing and literally saved the 3 nicest Harvey Haddix near perfect game stubs known in the hobby from burning! Mine is the nicest of the three and I bought it from the guy that discovered them, with a major assist from my long time Milwaukee collector friend Ted Sternemann. Thanks Ted! ;)This continues to be a highly sought after ticket by collectors. I estimate that only a small handfull of these that survived this historic game....

2) Montreal Expos pitcher Mark Gardner pitched 9 no-hit innings, only to lose to the LA Dodgers 1-0 on July 26, 1991 at LA. Ironically, fellow Expos pitcher Dennis Martinez pitched a perfect game two days later in LA on July 28....

3) Montreal Expos picher and possible HOF'er Pedro Martinez pitched 9 inning of perfection, but surrendered a hit in the 10th inning. Close but no cigar, the Expos do win this one 1-0. Ironically, Pedro's brother Ramon Martinez ends up pitching a no-hitter of his own a month later on July 14, 1995....

4) Finally, the mother of all close one's. Armando Galarraga pitches what absolutely should have been a perfect jame, but AL umpire Jim Joyce blows an obvious play at 1st base on the 27th out of the game. As Perez fan Mark says, Galarraga got "jobbed".

Here's a great story about this game and what followed. I watched this Tigers game live on TV at home with my family (not uncommon in our house!) and you wouldn't have believed how loud the groans and screams were from 4 people when this happened! :eek:

I was so pissed that one of my Tigers lost an obvious perfect game that I e-mailed Bud Selig the following day. Much to my surprise, Bud Selig (The Master of Inaction), actually responded to my e-mail with a personal letter that I received a couple weeks later. Please see the scan. I have since managed to get both Armando Gallaraga and umpire Jim Joyce to sign this letter. A great family momento of one of the ultimate sports disappointments, but ended up becoming one of the great lessons in sportsmanship. Note how many times Selig uses the word "situation". I think he likes this word. A letter writer, he ain't! :D

Finally, my 10 year old baseball playing son, Sam and I attended a dinner benefitting CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) athletics where umpire Jim Joyce was the key note speaker. OT- Sam's team won the 5th- 6th grade CYO Championship and tournament in 2011 and I was one of the coaches. Sam and I were fortunate enough to speak to Mr. Joyce alone about CYO sports and the Galarraga game for 10 minutes prior to him going on stage. Jim Joyce is a humble, caring man and both of us will always cherish this conversation. Ironically, Joyce was a pitcher himself in CYO sports and high school athletics. He actually pitched a perfect game in high school. Pretty cool! After the dinner there was a live auction as a fundraiser. I was fortunate enough to win Jim Joyce's signed actual locker plate from Comerica Park the night that the Galarraga "Nearly Perfect" game occured. A great momento of the game, and our conversation with Mr. Joyce. He still blew the call though!! :rolleyes:

Enjoy!

[D. Broughman]

That is a GREAT letter and story. Thanks for sharing. :D

[perezfan]

Wow! Great stuff, Scott...

That personalized letter from Selig is off the charts, and what a great idea to have Galarraga and Joyce both sign it!

Also, you may have answered this before.... But where do you get those small cameo photos of the players? Never seen those before... thanks!

[David Atkatz]

Trophies should always be bigger than their recipients! :)

[Jay Wolt]

Scott, what a great read, very enjoyable!

[Scott Garner]

Wow! Great stuff, Scott...

That personalized letter from Selig is off the charts, and what a great idea to have Galarraga and Joyce both sign it!

Also, you may have answered this before.... But where do you get those small cameo photos of the players? Never seen those before... thanks!

Thanks Mark! I was actually asked this exact question by King of Clout Jimmy in this months December pickups. Here's how I responded:

Hey Jimmy,
Those cameo type photos I make myself. It's something that I came up with to better display my no-hit tickets.

I collect no-hit pitcher postcards (signed preferrably), some team issued, some Burke/Brace, some actual RPPC or 3 x 5 photos. Mostly I prefer B/W, but I do have some that are in color when I can't find one in B/W.

With tickets in my no-hitter collection, I manufacture these cameos by making color copies of these postcards and diminish or enlarge the image to custom "fit" the cameo portion. I make color copies of B/W to get better quality copies. Finally, I use a cameo shape template to cut out the image and mount it with glue stick to a white, unlined 3 x 5 index card.

When you look at my no-hitter ticket collection, I have the tickets in toploaders with a second top loader behind it with the photo cameo card in a toploader facing forward, with a signed 3 x 5 or GPC signature of the pitcher on the backside of the cameo. My no-hitter tickets are stored in albums in chronological order in 3 pocket pages. It makes for a great way to store them and look through them as a collection.

It takes a little time to do this when you are starting from scratch, but I have been working on these cameos as a project over the last 2-3 winters.

What can I say, winters are long around here, and I guy with too much time on his hands gets board...

[doug.goodman]

Wow. Amazing stuff.
Doug

[Scott Garner]

Thanks Dynarl, Jay and David and Doug! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Here's a picture of the CYO dinner program where Jim Joyce was the keynote speaker in Jan., 2011 and one more picture of my son Sam in action on his SJA Warriors championship team. At this age kids play several positions. Sam is a pretty great catcher despite being a left handed thrower. He threw several runners out at 2nd base. He will be one of the starting pitchers on 2012's version of this team. Being a southpaw pitcher has its advantages...

Happy holidays to all on net54!

[Scott Garner]

Trophies should always be bigger than their recipients! :)

Absolutely!! I was amazed that this trophy looked like the Stanley Cup!! :D

[barrysloate]

Scott- that's a wild story about the Harvey Haddix ticket stubs. Why do people throw out stuff like that? It's not like those tickets were taking up a lot of space.

[mr2686]

Hey Scott, how about a sub-sub catagory of pitchers that had no-hitters with 2 outs in the ninth. I believe Dave Stieb actually had 3 of those, and of course Bill Bevens in the 1947 world series.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Hey Scott, how about a sub-sub catagory of pitchers that had no-hitters with 2 outs in the ninth. I believe Dave Stieb actually had 3 of those, and of course Bill Bevens in the 1947 world series.

I remember when I was a kid watching the Yankees play the Red Sox and watching Billy Rohr no-hit the Yankees until the bottom of the ninth with two outs until Ellie Howard poked a hit to right to break it up.

[barrysloate]

Chris- I remember watching that game too. I think it was 1967?

[Tigerden]

I remember when I was a kid watching the Yankees play the Red Sox and watching Billy Rohr no-hit the Yankees until the bottom of the ninth with two outs until Ellie Howard poked a hit to right to break it up.

I will never forget in the early 80's watching the Tigers on television and Milt Wilcox had a perfect game with two outs in the ninth against the Chicago White Sox, until utility player Jerry Hairston hit a pinch hit single. The great George Kell was doing play by play and I still remember the disappointment in his voice with that genteel southern manner of speaking "...and a base hit up the middle".

[thetruthisoutthere]

Chris- I remember watching that game too. I think it was 1967?

Yep, 1967. The Yankees were a crappy team back then and the last thing I wanted to see was the Yankees being no-hit.

[Scott Garner]

Hey Scott, how about a sub-sub catagory of pitchers that had no-hitters with 2 outs in the ninth. I believe Dave Stieb actually had 3 of those, and of course Bill Bevens in the 1947 world series.

Hi Mike,
This list is fairly long, actually. Here is a list by doing a google search, but it only includes all no-hitters that made it to the 9th inning since 1961:

# Perfect game broken up

1961 1 no-hitter kept through 9 innings; 1 broken up in the ninth
9/27, Al Schroll, Minnesota vs. Cleveland, Don Dillard (0 out-2 hits total)

1962 5 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
5/1, Bill Stafford/Roland Sheldon/Marshall Bridges, New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, Nellie Fox (0 out-2 hits total)
5/22, Whitey Ford/Jim Coates, New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels, Bob Rodgers (1 out-1 hit total in 12 innings)

1963 3 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
5/11, Ted Bowsfield, Kansas City at Minnesota, Vic Power (0 out-2 hits total)
7/29, Joel Horlen, Chicago White Sox at Washington, Chuck Hinton (1 out-2 hits total)
8/27 (1st game), Jim Bouton, New York Yankees vs. Boston, Russ Nixon, (0 out-2 hits total)
8/4, Johnny Podres, Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston, Johnny Temple (0 out-1 hit total)

1964 3 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
4/18, Jim Maloney/John Tsitouris, Cincinnati vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Frank Howard (2 out-1 hit total)
6/26 (first game), Gerry Arrigo, Minnesota vs. Chicago White Sox, Mike Hershberger (0 out-1 hit total)

1965 4 no-hitters (including Maloney’s); 0 broken up in the ninth

1966 1 no-hitter; 2 broken up in the ninth
9/25, Ken Holtzman, Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Dick Schofield (0 out-2 hits total)
#9/30, Larry Dierker, Houston at New York Mets, Ed Bressoud (0 out-2 hits total)

1967 4 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
4/14, Billy Rohr, Boston at New York Yankees, Elston Howard (2 out-1 hit total)
4/16 (2nd game), Steve Barber, Baltimore at California, Jim Fregosi (1 out-1 hit total)

1968 5 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
6/1, Dean Chance, Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, Bill Voss (1 out-3 hits total)
6/7 (1st game), Blue Moon Odom, Oakland vs. Baltimore, Dave Johnson (2 out-1 hit total)

1969 6 no-hitters; 5 broken up in the ninth
5/15, Dave McNally, Baltimore at Minnesota, Cesar Tovar (1 out-1 hit total)
5/31, Joe Sparma, Detroit at Seattle, Don Mincher (1 out-1 hit total)
#7/9, Tom Seaver, New York Mets vs. Chicago Cubs, Jim Qualls (1 out-1 hit total)
8/10, Mike Cuellar, Baltimore vs. Minnesota, Cesar Tovar (0 out-1 hit total)
9/13, Larry Dierker, Houston at Atlanta, Felix Millan (2 out-7 hits total in 13 innings)

1970 4 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
6/4, Jim Rooker, Kansas City at New York Yankees, Horace Clarke (0 out-6 hits total in 12 innings)
6/19, Sonny Siebert, Boston vs. New York Yankees, Horace Clarke (0 out-4 hits total)
7/2, Joe Niekro, Detroit at New York Yankees, Horace Clarke (1 out-1 hit total)
7/21, Clay Kirby/Jack Baldschun, San Diego vs. New York Mets, Bud Harrelson, (0 out-3 hits total)

1971 3 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
4/16, Juan Marichal, San Francisco vs. Chicago Cubs, Ken Rudolph (0 out-2 hits total)
7/18 (2nd game), Luke Walker, Pittsburgh vs. Los Angeles, Joe Ferguson (0 out-1 hit total)

1972 3 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
6/18, Jerry Reuss, Houston vs. Philadelphia, Larry Bowa (0 out-1 hit total)
7/4 (1st game), Tom Seaver, New York Mets vs. San Diego, Leron Lee (1 out-1 hit total)
7/11, Marty Pattin, Boston at Oakland, Reggie Jackson (1 out-1 hit total)
7/18, Steve Arlin, San Diego vs. Philadelphia, Denny Doyle (2 out-2 hits total)

1973 5 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
6/13, Rick Wise, St. Louis at Cincinnati, Joe Morgan (1 out-1 hit total)
#6/16, Jim Palmer, Baltimore vs. Texas, Ken Suarez (1 out-2 hits total)
7/6, Ron Schueler, Atlanta at New York Mets, Ron Hodges (0 out-2 hits total)
8/21, Stan Bahnsen, Chicago White Sox at Cleveland, Walt Williams (2 out-1 hit total)

1974 3 no-hitters; 5 broken up in the ninth
#5/27 (1st game), Ken Brett, Pittsburgh vs. San Diego, Fred Kendall (0 out-2 hits total)
7/15, Wayne Garland, Baltimore vs. Oakland, Dick Green (0 out-4 hits total)
7/20, Doc Medich, New York Yankees vs. Kansas City, Fran Healy (0 out-2 hits total)
8/7, Nolan Ryan, California at Chicago White Sox, Dick Allen (1 out-3 hits total)
9/4, Don Wilson/Mike Cosgrove, Houston vs. Cincinnati, Tony Perez (0 out-1 hit total)

1975 3 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
6/8, Ken Holtzman, Oakland at Detroit, Tom Veryzer (2 out-1 hit total)
7/2 (1st game), Rick Wise, Boston at Milwaukee, George Scott (2 out-2 hits total)
9/24, Tom Seaver, New York Mets at Chicago, Joe Wallis (2 out-4 hits total in 11 innings)

1976 4 no-hitters; 7 broken up in the ninth
5/2, Rudy May, New York Yankees at Kansas City, Amos Otis (0 out-3 hits total in 11 innings)
5/26, Ken Brett, Chicago White Sox at California, Jerry Remy (2 out-2 hits total in 11 innings)
6/4, Andy Messersmith, Atlanta at Montreal, Pepe Mangual (1 out-1 hit total)
7/23, Doyle Alexander, New York Yankees vs. Boston, Rick Burleson (0 out-3 hits total)
8/7, Steve Luebber, Minnesota at Texas, Roy Howell (2 out-2 hits total)
8/28, Vida Blue, Oakland vs. Detroit, Mickey Stanley (1 out-1 hit total)
10/2, Phil Niekro, Atlanta at Cincinnati, Cesar Geronimo (1 out-1 hit total)

1977 3 no-hitters; 0 broken up in the ninth


1978 2 no-hitters; 1 broken up in the ninth
9/26, Mike Flanagan, Baltimore vs. Cleveland, Gary Alexander (2 out-3 hits total)

1979 1 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
7/13, Nolan Ryan, California vs. New York Yankees, Reggie Jackson (1 out-1 hit total)
7/13, Steve Renko, Boston at Oakland, Rickey Henderson (1 out-1 hit total)

1980 1 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
4/23, Bruce Kison, California at Minnesota, Ken Landreaux (1 out-1 hit total)
8/20, Dan Spillner, Cleveland vs. Chicago White Sox, Leo Sutherland (1 out-1 hit total)

1981 3 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
5/6, Bert Blyleven, Cleveland at Toronto, Lloyd Moseby (0 out-2 hits total)
8/25, Dennis Lamp, Chicago White Sox at Milwaukee, Robin Yount (0 out-1 hit total)
9/5, Jim Slaton, Milwaukee at Minnesota, Sal Butera (0 out-3 hits total)
9/12, Bob Ojeda, Boston at New York Yankees, Rick Cerone (0 out-2 hits total)

1982 0 no-hitters; 1 broken up in the ninth
#9/28 (1st game), Jim Clancy, Toronto vs. Minnesota, Randy Bush (0 out-1 hit total)

1983 3 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
#4/15, Milt Wilcox, Detroit at Chicago White Sox, Jerry Hairston (2 out-1 hit total)
6/26, Storm Davis, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Rick Leach (0 out-2 hits total)
7/31 (2nd game), Jose DeLeon, Pittsburgh at New York Mets, Hubie Brooks (1 out-3 hits total in 12 innings)
8/24, Chuck Rainey, Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati, Eddie Milner (2 out-1 hit total)

1984 2 no-hitters; 1 broken up in the ninth
5/12, Mario Soto, Cincinnati vs. St. Louis, George Hendrick (2 out-1 hit total)

1985 0 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
5/8, Mike Moore, Seattle at Milwaukee, Robin Yount (0 out-4 hits total)
6/6, Jimmy Key, Toronto vs. Detroit, Tom Brookens (0 out-4 hits in 12 innings)
8/24, Dave Stieb, Toronto at Chicago White Sox, Rudy Law (0 out-5 hits total)

1986 2 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
6/16, Charlie Hough, Texas vs. California, Wally Joyner (1 out-1 hit total)
8/20, Walt Terrell, Detroit vs. California, Wally Joyner (2 out-1 hit total)
#8/20, Don Carman, Philadelphia at San Francisco, Bob Brenly (0 out-1 hit total in 10 innings)
10/1, Danny Jackson, Kansas City vs. California, Dick Schofield (0 out-2 hits total)

1987 1 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
4/13, Jamie Moyer, Chicago at Philadelphia, Juan Samuel (0 out-3 hits total)
5/5, Eric Bell, Baltimore at Minnesota, Tom Nieto (0 out-5 hits total)
6/7, Mike Jackson, Philadelphia vs. Montreal, Tim Raines (0 out-2 hits total)

1988 1 no-hitters; 8 broken up in the ninth
4/27, Nolan Ryan, Houston vs. Philadelphia, Mike Schmidt (1 out-2 hits total in 10 innings)
#5/2, Ron Robinson, Cincinnati vs. Montreal, Wallace Johnson (2 out-2 hits total)
5/8, Doug Drabek, Pittsburgh vs. San Diego, Randy Ready (0 out-2 hits total)
5/28, Odell Jones, Milwaukee at Cleveland, Ron Washington (1 out-2 hits total)
6/6, Tom Browning, Cincinnati at San Diego, Tony Gwynn (1 out-1 hit total)
6/12, Mike Scott, Houston vs. Atlanta, Ken Oberkfell (2 out-1 hit total)
9/24, Dave Stieb, Toronto at Cleveland, Julio Franco (2 out-1 hit total)
9/30, Dave Stieb, Toronto vs. Baltimore, Jim Traber (2 out-1 hit total)

1989 0 no-hitters; 6 broken up in the ninth
4/23, Nolan Ryan, Texas at Toronto, Nelson Liriano (1 out-1 hit total)
4/28, Kirk McCaskill, California vs. Toronto, Nelson Liriano (0 out-1 hit total)
5/4, John Farrell, Cleveland vs. Kansas City, Kevin Seitzer (0 out-1 hit total)
#7/4, Tom Browning, Cincinnati at Philadelphia, Dickie Thon (0 out-2 hits total)
#8/4, Dave Stieb, Toronto vs. New York Yankees, Roberto Kelly (2 out-2 hits total)
8/10, Nolan Ryan, Texas vs. Detroit, Dave Bergman (1 out-2 hits total)

1990 7 no-hitters (not including Hawkins’s); 5 broken up in the ninth
#4/20, Brian Holman, Seattle at Oakland, Ken Phelps (2 out-1 hit total)
5/27, John Smoltz, Atlanta at Philadelphia, Lenny Dykstra (1 out-2 hits total)
6/13, Trevor Wilson, San Francisco at San Diego, Mike Pagliarulo (0 out-1 hit total)
7/29, Scott Garrelts, San Francisco vs. Cincinnati, Paul O’Neill (2 out-1 hit total)
8/3, Doug Drabek, Pittsburgh at Philadelphia, Sil Campusano (2 out-1 hit total)

1991 8 no-hitters (including Gardner’s); 3 broken up in the ninth
4/10, Scott Sanderson, New York Yankees at Detroit, Tony Phillips (0 out-1 hit total)
4/24, Darryl Kile/Al Osuna/Curt Schilling, Houston vs. Cincinnati, Bill Doran (0 out-3 hits total in 13 innings)
8/14, Randy Johnson, Seattle vs. Oakland, Mike Gallego (0 out-1 hit total)

1992 2 no-hitters (not including Young’s); 2 broken up in the ninth
9/13, Bob Welch/Kelly Downs, Oakland vs. Seattle, Harold Reynolds (1 out-2 hits total)
9/30, Frank Viola, Boston at Toronto, Devon White (0 out-1 hit total)

1993 3 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
4/6, Jose Guzman, Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta, Otis Nixon (2 out-1 hit total)
5/16, Randy Johnson, Seattle at Oakland, Lance Blankenship (1 out-1 hit total)
9/29, Tim Pugh, Cincinnati at San Diego, Billy Bean (1 out-1 hit total)

1994 3 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
4/13, Pedro Martinez, Montreal vs. Cincinnati, Brian Dorsett (0 out-2 hits total)
5/29, David West/Heathcliff Slocumb, Philadelphia vs. Houston, Steve Finley (0 out-3 hits total)
6/13 Jeff Fassero, Montreal vs. Pittsburgh, Carlos Garcia (2 out-3 hits total)

1995 2 no-hitters (including Pedro Martinez’s perfect game through 9); 4 broken up in the ninth
6/17, David Cone, Toronto vs. Texas, Benji Gil (1 out-3 hits total)
7/3, Mike Morgan, St. Louis vs. Montreal, Wil Cordero (1 out-1 hit total)
8/29, Paul Wagner, Pittsburgh vs. Colorado, Andres Galarraga (2 out-1 hit total)
9/25, Frank Castillo, Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis, Bernard Gilkey (2 out-1 hit total)

1996 3 no-hitters; 1 broken up in the the ninth
9/2, David Cone/Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees at Oakland, Jose Herrera (1 out-1 hit total)

1997 2 no-hitters; 4 broken up in the ninth
4/10, Alex Fernandez, Florida at Chicago Cubs, Dave Hansen (1 out-1 hit total)
5/16, Alan Benes, St. Louis at Atlanta, Michael Tucker (2 out-7 hits total in 13 innings)
#5/30, Mike Mussina, Baltimore vs. Cleveland, Sandy Alomar (1 out-1 hit total)
9/5, Andy Ashby, San Diego vs. Atlanta, Kenny Lofton (0 out-2 hits total)

1998 1 no-hitter; 2 broken up in the ninth
9/13, Andy Benes, Arizona at Cincinnati, Sean Casey (1 out-1 hit total)
9/27, Roy Halladay, Toronto vs. Detroit, Bobby Higginson (2 out-1 hit total)

1999 3 no-hitters; 0 broken up in the ninth

2000 0 no-hitters; 1 broken up in the ninth
8/29, Pedro Martinez, Boston at Tampa Bay, John Flaherty (0 out-1 hit total)

2001 3 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
6/19, Tim Wakefield, Boston at Tampa Bay, Randy Winn (0 out-3 hits total)
7/13, Todd Ritchie, Pittsburgh vs. Kansas City, Luis Alicea (1 out-1 hit total)
#9/2, Mike Mussina, New York Yankees at Boston, Carl Everett (2 out-1 hit total)

2002 1 no-hitter; 1 broken up in the ninth
9/3, Aaron Myette, Todd Van Poppel, Joaquin Benoit, Texas at Baltimore, Jerry Hairston, Jr. (0 out-1 hit total)

2003 2 no-hitters; 0 broken up in the ninth


2004 1 no-hitter; 1 broken up in the ninth
7/25, Eric Milton, Philadelphia vs. Chicago Cubs, Michael Barrett (0 out-3 hits total)

2005 0 no-hitters; 0 broken up in the ninth


2006 1 no-hitter; 3 broken up in the ninth
9/4, Ramon Ortiz, Washington vs. St. Louis, Aaron Miles (0 out-2 hits total)
9/22, Chris Young, San Diego vs. Pittsburgh, Joe Randa (1 out-1 hit total)
9/28, Daniel Cabrera, Baltimore at New York, Robinson Cano (1 out-1 hit total)

2007 3 no-hitters; 3 broken up in the ninth
6/7, Curt Schilling, Boston at Oakland, Shannon Stewart (2 out-1 hit total)
6/24, Dustin McGowan, Toronto vs. Colorado, Jeff Baker (0 out-1 hit total)
#8/31 (2nd game), Scott Baker, Minnesota vs. Kansas City, Mike Sweeney (1 out-1 hit total) [The one-out hit by Sweeney broke up the no-hitter, but the perfect game was broken up by a leadoff walk by John Buck.]

2008 2 no-hitters (not including Weaver-Arredondo’s); 2 broken up in the ninth
5/6, Gavin Floyd, Chicago White Sox vs. Minnesota, Joe Mauer (1 out-1 hit total)
7/29, John Lackey, Los Angeles Angels at Boston, Dustin Pedroia (1 out-2 hits total)


2009 2 no-hitters


2010 6 no-hitters (including Halladay’s no-hitter in the playoffs); 5 broken up in the ninth
#6/2, Armando Galarraga, Detroit vs. Cleveland, Jason Donald (2 out-1 hit total)
6/13, Ted Lilly, Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox, Juan Pierre (0 out-1 hit total)
#7/10, Travis Wood, Cincinnati at Philadelphia, Carlos Ruiz (0 out-4 hits total in 11 innings)
8/8, Brandon Morrow, Toronto vs. Tampa Bay, Evan Longoria (2 out-1 hit total)
5/6, Rich Harden/Matt Harrison/Darren O’Day/Neftali Feliz, Texas vs. Minnesota, Joe Mauer (1 out-1 hit total)


2011 3 no-hitters; 2 broken up in the ninth
4/22, Anibal Sanchez, Florida vs. Colorado, Dexter Fowler (0 out-1 hit total)
7/9, Aaron Harang/Josh Spence/Chad Qualls/Mike Adams/Luke Gregerson, San Diego at Los Angeles Dodgers, Juan Uribe (2 out-2 hits total)

I hope this helps!

[barrysloate]

Scott- I assume you posted that list entirely from memory.:)

[Tigerden]

51152

Scott- These are a pair of tickets to the near perfect game you watched on television. My brother and I share Tigers season tickets which are exactly ten rows behind the four gentleman seated in the foreground of the attached picture. Big bro gets the aisle seat because the tickets account is in his name, and well, he is the big brother after all. Unfortunately, we did not attend this game and watched it on television together at his house, having to celebrate his wife's birthday. Guess the wife would have been pissed if we went to the ball game on her special day. Sadly, the four tickets went unused and we missed out at the chance to witness baseball history. Aside from being sick that this was the game we decided not to attend, it was really upsetting because we would have had the perfect vantage point for Jim Joyce's now infamous call.

[Tigerden]

51152

Scott- These are a pair of tickets to the near perfect game you watched on television. My brother and I share Tigers season tickets which are exactly ten rows behind the four gentleman seated in the foreground of the attached picture. Big bro gets the aisle seat because the tickets account is in his name, and well, he is the big brother after all. Unfortunately, we did not attend this game and watched it on television together at his house, having to celebrate his wife's birthday. Guess the wife would have been pissed if we went to the ball game on her special day. Sadly, the four tickets went unused and we missed out at the chance to witness baseball history. Aside from being sick that this was the game we decided not to attend, it was really upsetting because we would have had the perfect vantage point for Jim Joyce's now infamous call.

I guess the attached picture showing the seats cannot be viewed. Sorry.

[Scott Garner]

Scott- I assume you posted that list entirely from memory.:)

Absolutely!! ;)

[Scott Garner]

Scott- that's a wild story about the Harvey Haddix ticket stubs. Why do people throw out stuff like that? It's not like those tickets were taking up a lot of space.

Barry,

I agree!! Stuff like this drives the collector in us nuts. I also believe that the background story behind how you come to own certain items is the best part about collecting.....

Thanks!

[David W]

2 others come to mind.

1972 Milt Pappas lost a perfect game with 2 outs in the 9th when Bruce Froemming called back to back borderline pitches balls. Pappas to this day thinks Froemming blew those calls. He did get the no hitter however.

1990 Andy Hawkins pitched a complete game no hitter, but only 8 innings as he lost the game on errors. The no hitter was taken from him by a later rule change that said no hitters had to be 9 innings. So he pitched a complete game with no hits, but it was not a no hitter????????? Very strange, and his game was struck from the record books.

[HRBAKER]

Wow, it happened to Dave Steib 3 times in two years, and twice in 6 days!

[Scott Garner]

2 others come to mind.

1972 Milt Pappas lost a perfect game with 2 outs in the 9th when Bruce Froemming called back to back borderline pitches balls. Pappas to this day thinks Froemming blew those calls. He did get the no hitter however.

1990 Andy Hawkins pitched a complete game no hitter, but only 8 innings as he lost the game on errors. The no hitter was taken from him by a later rule change that said no hitters had to be 9 innings. So he pitched a complete game with no hits, but it was not a no hitter????????? Very strange, and his game was struck from the record books.

David,

I actually do own a ticket to both of the games that you mentioned in my collection. There are surprisingly a lot of near misses that were lost in the 9th inning. The subset of games that were lost beyond 9 innings is reasonably short. Many of these games occured in the early 1900's. Andy Hawkins was not the only modern pitcher to have this happen to him. On April 12, 1992 (Game 2) Boston's Matt Young did the same thing in Cleveland. Recently, the Angels' Jered Weaver and Jose' Arredondo combined for the same scenario vs. the Dodgers in LA on June 28, 2008...

BTW, the liklihood of losing a no-hitter or perfect game was much greater during the deadball era (prior to Ruth). Runs (especially) as well as hits came at more of a premium because the ball didn't travel as far. The other factor that influenced the number of (unofficial) no-hitters that didn't end up going a full 9 inings was the obvious lack of lights in baseball. Prior to 1934 baseball was always played in the daytime. When the sun went down the game was over, no matter how many innings were played.... ;)

[Scott Garner]

Wow, it happened to Dave Steib 3 times in two years, and twice in 6 days!

David,
Yeah, that factoid is just crazy!! I'm glad that Steib finally managed to break through and get one on Sept. 2, 1990. We always figured he certainly had it in him. Weird coincidence: Dave Steib and I were both born in the same hospital...