1990 Year of the No-Hitter June 11th - Nolan Ryan pt 3

This is the third of four postings on cards dedicated to Nolan Ryan's 6th No-Hitter.

 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan 

Topps chose to honor the fact that Ryan became the oldest pitcher to throw a No-Hitter, rather than to honor that fact that he had pitched a record 6th no-hitter - which was breaking his own record of five no-hitters. 

Of course less than a year later Ryan broke both of these records once again when he tossed his 7th No-Hitter at age 44. 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan (b-side)

The flip side contains the an Oakland CA dateline and notes the record was previously held by Cy Young who pitched one at 41+ on June 30 1908

Cy Young No-Hitter #3
Boxes don't go back to 1908 in Baseball-ref but we were able to find this line score for the game

Salt Lake Tribune July 1 1908

Interesting that a No-Htter in a Red Sox vs Yankees (Highlanders) game warranted a grand total of 1 line in the article.

According to the B-R Bullpen the future Hall of Famer almost pitched a perfect game. The first batter Harry Niles walked but was subsequently erased on a caught stealing. Cy Young then retired the last 26 batters to complete the No-Hitter .

Sources and Links
1991 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index
Baseball-ref
Salt Lake Tribune (1908 07 01)

2011 Topps Opening Day #16 Max Scherzer

Tonight the Detroit Tigers Max Scherzer is attempting to become the first member of the 20 win club in 2013.

2011 Topps Opening Day #16 Max Scherzer

The Tigers Max Scherzer has put together an amazing season. Going into tonight he is 19-1. Sometimes Win Loss records are seen as empty numbers. Certainly each season there seems like there is one Phillies pitcher that gets no run support (Hamels in 2013), and one who gets a lot of runs (Kendrick every season). In Scherzer's case This isn't true. He may not of racked up 20 wins with less offense, but he was still destined to get a bunch.

The current WAR leader among AL pitchers is Chris Sale. I am not sure why this is. Scherzer and Sale have comparable innnigs, ERA, ERA+, Strikeout and WHIP numbers.In fact Scherzer wins All of those categories. I checked around on Twitter and Dan M @_LeftField  (blog = Left Field) specified higher competition, ballpark factors, and the Whilte Sox mediocre defense as reasons that Sale's WAR rating is better than Scherzer.

This amounts to a WAR calculation for Sale of 6.2 while Scherzer stands at 5.8.

Regardless Scherzer is pitching for a team likely destined for postseason play, while the White Sox certainly are not.  There is still a month left to play and right now I would have Scherzer as unanimous Cy Young in the AL.

Another interesting aspect of Max Scherszer's season is his emergence as staff ace on a team that also has Justin Verlander. Verlander has been decent, but not nearly as dominant as his previous seasons.  He has struggled a bit his last few starts and overall his season has been average since Mid May.  Through his first 8 starts of the Season Verlander had an ERA of 1.93.  Since then his ERA has been in the middle 4s.  He has maintained a .500 record across both sets of starts and is still among the league leaders in Innings and Strikeouts.  However, both of those numbers are in the middle of the top 10 among his peers. He led the the league in both Ks and IPs in 3 of the last 4 years.

Justin Verlander is still a good pitcher on a good team and it will be interesting to see if he can return to form as October approaches.  If Max Scherzer can be the staff Ace in the playoffs it makes for some nice options for Jim Leyland at the top of the Tigers rotation.

Sources
baseballcardpedia.com
@_Leftfield

High Heat Stats

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year that is. 

Thursday marked the Chinese New Year, 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit or Hare - The Chinese Zodiac runs in 12 year cycles rather than a 12 (or 13 month Ophiuchus??) cycle. 

Year of the Rabbit luminaries include:

Born in 1927 Richie Ashburn!

Sorry, PC still on the blink so your getting Photos rather than scans.

Ray Chapman (1891)
Bert Blyleven (1951)
Red Dooin (1879)

Chapman was killed by pitch thrown by Carl Mays in 1920.  The incident led to rule changes regarding the use of new baseballs and batting helmets.  Red Dooin was the Phillies catcher roughly 100 years ago.  

   

Johnny Callison (1939)
Cy Young (1867)

Randy Johnson (1963)
Lou Gehrig (1903)
Placido Polanco (1975)

Lot of great Year of the Rabbit players - 1987 is off to a pretty good start as well - I am saving that spot for Phillies Prospect Dominic Brown.

Other rabbits I didn't have the patience to look for included Joe Gordon (1915) and Jim Bouton (1927).

Going Way Back 
Representing 1855 Paul Hines who won the first triple crown in 1878.  Another Triple Crown Winner, Carl Yastrzemski is a Rabbit as well (1939).  The first Rabbit would be Nate Berkenstock (1831) who is the earliest born player in the history of baseball.

Rabbit King
That is a lot of incredible names but perhaps the most significant Baseball related Year of the Rabbit Birth is Hall of Famer Walter James Vincent Maranville or RABBIT MARANVILLE born November 11 1891.