July Pickups

[Scott Garner]

I finally filled another gaping hole in my no-hitter ticket collection.
After searching for this ticket for 45 years, I finally found it in Ontario, Canada of all places. A true global search...
To be honest, I wasn't sure that I ever would. More on that later...

On September 16, 1965 Red Sox pitcher Dave Morehead made history by hurling a 2-0 no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. 23 year-old Morehead came extremely close to pitching a perfect game; his only blemish was a walk that he issued on a 3-2 count in the 2nd inning.

Back to why this ticket was so challenging to locate. In 1965 the hapless 9th place Red Sox were wedged in between seasons where they were competitive.

According to the official box score, Morehead's no-hitter on September 16th had a miniscule 1,247 fans in attendance. Peter Gammons wrote about Morehead's no-hit game many years later in the Boston Globe and said that there were probably no more than 500 fans actually in the seats as he was one of them...

Finding any ticket to this game was a true snipe hunt, but finding two of them including one that was actually vintage signed on the back by Dave Morehead and his shortstop Eddie Bressoud the day of the no-hitter is downright crazy! The 2nd ticket was signed by Red Sox great Tony Conigliaro. All 3 of these players (Morehead, Bressoud and Conigliaro) were part of the starting nine during Morehead's no-hitter.

My no-hit ticket collection now stands at 205 tickets to different no-hitters dating back to 1901. 144 of the tickets are signed by 145 no-hit pitchers.

Ironically, I just wrote a letter to Morehead asking him to sign a program to his high school graduation that was a recent eBay purchase.
A multi-sport star, Dave Morehead graduated from Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, the same alma mater that produced baseball greats HOF Ted Williams and catcher Ray Boone of the famous baseball Boone family (3 generations of BB players). Morehead for many years has now lived in Tustin, CA, literally 5 blocks from the home I grew up in. Strange coincidence!