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ngruz25

Bibby
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Sep 20, 2005
18,976
Pittsburgh, PA
That was a "baseball is good" moment, for sure. First major league start for a guy with a long minor league history, family in the stands bawling. Good stuff.
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
29,152
Alamogordo
Baseball is so dumb sometimes and I love it.

27 year old guy toils away in the minors for seven years, finally gets the call up for a truly atrocious baseball club, makes a couple appearances out of the pen, finally gets to make his first start and it's against one of the top 10 offenses in the league.... so of course he no hits them, because it makes total sense.
 

Soxcat

New Member
Aug 6, 2006
114
Baseball is so dumb sometimes and I love it.

27 year old guy toils away in the minors for seven years, finally gets the call up for a truly atrocious baseball club, makes a couple appearances out of the pen, finally gets to make his first start and it's against one of the top 10 offenses in the league.... so of course he no hits them, because it makes total sense.
His age is one reason this could take place. If he were a young golden boy most teams would have had him on a strict pitch count in his first start and this wouldn’t happen.
 

ledsox

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Nov 14, 2005
398
The Padres are good but he caught a team struggling pretty hard right now. 5 runs in their last 4 games Good for Tyler Gilbert though, that was a great moment.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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May 5, 2017
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This is a little research I did on the most unlikely no-hitter ever pitched during the barrage of hitless games earlier this year...

Everyone is familiar with Jackie Robinson, and serious baseball fans know of Fleet Walker (the last recognized African American to play big league baseball in the 19th century). However, the "color barrier" was never a well-defined line. During the 63 years between Walker and Robinson, there were several men of African American descent, mixed race or, especially for those from the Caribbean, light enough complexion to pass as white or "Cuban" and play on a major league field. If you could pass, you could play, and if no one asked, there was no benefit in telling.

Charles "Bumpus" Jones, a Cedarville, Ohio native who enjoyed one brief moment as the talk of baseball, was most likely one of those men. His father's identity was never on record, but he and his mother's family lived in mixed neighborhoods and were listed as mulatto in multiple census records. The family was also said to have Native American ancestry. When Bumpus was about four, his mother married a man whose family was described as black or colored. Years later, folks around Cedarville recalled Bumpus as a black man, but there's no evidence his race was disputed during his days in the game. Regardless, his skin tone was not what put Bumpus in the record books.

Jones had made a name for himself as an arm for hire on the sandlots around southwestern Ohio and spent the first two summers of the 1890s pitching and dominating two minor leagues in Illinois and the Pacific Northwest. He also pitched for a minor league team in Atlanta until its disbandment brought Bumpus home to Ohio in September 1892. In the 1800s, even National League teams would play semipro town teams on their off-days for a share of the gate, and when the Cincinnati Reds came to Wilmington for a game, the locals added Jones to bolster their roster. He spent the first six innings in the outfield, but then took the mound and impressed Cincinnati's manager Charles Comiskey so much the Reds immediately signed him to a contract.

Cincinnati played the last game of the regular season against Pittsburgh on October 15, 1892, and Comiskey handed the ball to his new find. Jones started his major league debut shakily by walking the first two batters he faced. However, the next batter bunted into a double-play when Patsy Donovan was thrown out at the plate making a reckless attempt to score from second base. Jones was wild but effective for the next two innings although he allowed a run in the third on a walk, stolen base and error. He then settled in and retired the final 19 batters in a row. He'd walked four, but Pittsburgh failed to get a hit against the rookie in a 7-1 Cincinnati victory. Jones was – and still is – the only pitcher to throw a 9-inning no-hitter in his first major league appearance and became a folk hero during the winter of 1892-93.

If you're currently a major league fan, the rest of this might start to sound familiar. In 1881 the pitching distance to the plate had been set at fifty feet, but in 1884 the overhand pitch was legalized. For the next eight years pitching grew in dominance, and people were complaining the game was being ruined by climbing strikeout rates and a lack of action in the field. In 1892 the National League once again stood alone in its dominance, as its major league rival, the American Association, had folded after the previous season. The concentration of talent to twelve National League pitching staffs hurt offense even more, and brought the issue to a head. Prior to the 1893 season, by a vote of 9-3, the league moved the pitching distance to the 60'6" we still know today. Specifically, the measurement changed from the back line of the defunct pitcher's box to the placement of a pitcher's rubber, which meant the distance from the average release point to the plate changed by about five feet. Still, this was enough to instantly and fundamentally change pitching and revive scoring.

Whether it was the change in distance or Bumpus Jones simply wasn't the legendary talent he'd looked like one October afternoon, the last person to pitch a gem from fifty feet was about to become nothing more than a trivia answer in baseball history. He struggled out of the gate in 1893, and after just three games was sent home to “get the kinks out of his arm”. In an era when pitchers were expected to finish what they started, he would complete just two of his six starts. Shortly after his return to the club, the Reds were enjoying a 14-0 lead over Louisville after three innings, so Comiskey decided to rest starter Icebox Chamberlain and give Jones another chance. Things did not go well for Jones, but Cincinnati won 30-12. Aside from his no-hitter, it would be the only major league game Jones ever won. He was released soon after with an ERA over 10.00. The Giants gave him one start but also released him after he walked 10 batters in 4 innings.

Jones went on to enjoy a successful minor league career over the next decade. He even picked up the victory in the first game ever played by the Cleveland team that would ascend to major league status and become the Indians, but he never threw another pitch in the majors. Of the 311 no-hitters ever thrown in the majors, baseball historian Bill James ranks Jones' accomplishment as the least likely to have happened. If he wasn't able to pass as white, it certainly wouldn't have.

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Lowrielicious

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Apr 19, 2011
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Twins rookie Joe Ryan (came from Rays in the Nelson Cruz trade) in his second career start perfect through 6 against Cleveland. 74 pitches.


edit: aand broken after 6.1
 
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Sad Sam Jones

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May 5, 2017
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Everyone put a ball in play against Corbin Burnes (baby steps!) in the 6th, so I'll move it over to this thread. Burnes is still perfect, but *only* has 11 K's now. He's also at 83 pitches, so he might make this a tough decision for a team that should be saving bullets for October.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Still a no-hitter, but the Indians waited him out in the 7th. Myles Straw broke up the perfect game with a lead-off walk and then they ran Burnes' pitch count to 103. Burnes walked off the mound yelling "I ain't done", but the bullpen is up and there's no way any Cleveland batters will be swinging at the first pitch. He's at 13 strikeouts.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Lorenzo Cain with a diving catch of an Owen Miller line drive to keep the no-hitter intact through 8 (Miller is the only batter Burnes has not struck out). 14 K's, 115 pitches.
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
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I can't believe he is still in there. Counsell cannot be having a ton of fun right now.

The things Burnes can make a baseball do should be outlawed in the lower 48 states, though. It's just pure filth.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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And Cleveland makes history as the only team to ever be no-hit three times in a season (not even counting a 7-inning no-hitter in Tampa). Meanwhile, they're also the only team not to throw one in the past 40 years.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Eric Lauer through 4 innings. Yeah, it's only 4 innings, but it's Cleveland and they haven't had a hit in 14.2 innings. Harold Ramirez drew a walk and then was promptly picked off (it wasn't even close to a legal move, but maybe just stand on the base when you're down 4-0 and can't buy a hit), so Lauer has faced the minimum.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Now through 5 innings. Lauer has 8 K's, but is already at 77 pitches. Cleveland has 3 hits in the series and 6 errors... 1 run in the last 22 innings.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Now through 5 innings. Lauer has 8 K's, but is already at 77 pitches. Cleveland has 3 hits in the series and 6 errors... 1 run in the last 22 innings.
Cleveland is starting to feel like the yin to the Jays yang. In order for one team to hit and score so much, another team must not hit at all to maintain balance in the baseball universe.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Ryan Lavarnway, who I thought would have been DFA'd this weekend, finally gets a Cleveland hit! They only struck out 25 times in between hits.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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Jul 20, 2005
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Opposing pitchers are also two outs away from a second consecutive perfect game against him. He's 0-52 with no walks on the season. Buy his record is 13-4, so that hole at the bottom of the lineup isn't really hurting him.
 

Archer1979

shazowies
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Jul 18, 2005
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Luis Garcia has a no hitter through five. Just putting it out there as there is a superstition that if you mention a no-hitter while its going on, it doesn't last too much longer.
 

staz

Intangible
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Dec 2, 2004
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The cradle of the game.
Mesa Solar Sox RHP Caleb Kilian (CHC) was perfect through 6 in the Arizona Fall League Championship Game. Teammate LHP Nick Vespi (BAL) gave up a walk in the 7th, so the perfecto is now just a mere combined no-no.

edit: it was broken up in the 8th.
 
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