1990: Year of the No-Hitter - September 2 Dave Stieb

On September 2^nd of 1990 Dave Stieb’s quest for a no-hitter finally ended.

1990 Score #707 No-Hit Club Dave Stieb  

Stieb and his Blue Jays teammates defeated the Cleveland Indians 3-0. Stieb Struck out 9 while issuing 4 bases on balls. However he pitched to 2 over the minimum thanks to his batterymate Pat Borders throwing out a a pair of runners on attempted steals.

Box Notes

1990 Score #707 No-Hit Club Dave Stieb (b-side)

Not a lot of big names in the unit that Dave Stieb recorded his milestone game against. Two parts of the Indians lineup versus Stieb arrived from San Diego in a Trade for Joe Carter (Boo!) Carlos Baerga and Chris James. The Padres originally received James in a trade that sent John Kruk to the Phillies. 

Seifeld favorite Ken Phelps makes his 3rd appearance in our Year of the No-Hitter Series. He busted up Brian Holman's perfect game on April 20th and was struck out in a pinch hitting appearance versus Nolan Ryan on June 11th. Phelps went 0 for 2 versus Stieb but did reach base via one of the four walks.

Borders, Mookie Wilson and Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff are the Notables that backed up Dave Stieb in his outing. The Center Fielder for Toronto was future White Sox GM Ken Williams who we previously saw on the wrong side of a no-hitter pitched by Randy Johnson (June 2)

Tomorrow I'll be Perfect 
Notice above I state Stieb’s quest “Finally Ended” well I have no real way of knowing if this was really a quest for the Blue Jays Ace. But I do know that he came awful close to tossing no-hitters several times.

September 24^th 1988 - with 2 outs in the 9th inning also against the Indians Stieb gave up a bad hop single to Julio Franco

September 30^th 1988 - Versus the Orioles Pinch Hitter Jim Traber singled

August 4^th 1989 – Stieb was perfect for 8 2/3 innings versus the Yankees prior to giving up a double to Roberto Kelly 

Dave Stieb’s autobiography titled “Tomorrow I’ll be Perfect” was released in 1986, two years prior to his No-Hitter string. The reference to Tossing a Perfect Game, which never happened but hopefully the No-Hitter he got on September 2 1990 was close enough.

Like Dave Stieb finally getting his No-Hitter, we have finally finished are year of the No-Hitter series. I enjoyed writing the series and find it fitting that it occurred in another heavy no-hitter year. While our coverage of the 1990 No-Hitters has ended, I see the series continuing by checking in on a smattering of the remaining 280+ No-Hitters and related trading cards

SABR Games
The SABR Games summary of this game was authored by Adrian Fung and can be found  here.
 
Sources and Links

Year of the No-Hitter Index
LA Times
Amazon 

baseball-ref

SABR Games (added 2015 1104)

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - August 15 Terry Mulholland

Terry Mulholland made year of the No-Hitter official by pitching the seasons eighth no-no en route to a 6-0 Phillies victory over his former club, the San Francisco Giants

1991 Score #706 No-Hit Club Terry Mulholland

Only one hitter reached base in Terry Mulholland's No-Hitter, Rick Parker on an Error by Phils Third Baseman Charlie Hayes. Hayes made up for his error when he speared a line drive off the bat of future Hall of Famer Gary Carter for the final out of the game.

1991 Score #706 No-Hit Club Terry Mulholland (b-side)

Terry Mulholland's pitched to the minimum in the no-hitter as Parker was erased on a double play two pitches after he reached. Notable players in the Giants lineup included Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell, and Matt Williams.

Darren Daulton caught Mulholland's No-Hitter and also hit a Home Run.

No-Hit Cards
Earlier in our no-hit series we dedicated several posting to Nolan Ryan due to his record setting prowess in pitching gems. Similarly we will be putting together a miniseries for Terry Mulholland since he is a member of the local 9. Just posting the Cards here, will have an addendum on each of these cards over the next day or two.

1991 Fleer Box Bottom #8 Terry Mulholland

1991 Donruss #BC14 Terry Mulholland



Mulholland No-Hitter Index
1991 Donruss #BC14
1991 Fleer Box Bottom #8

Sources and Links
Year of the No-Hitter Index
Baseball-ref
NY Times
Chicago Tribune
Philadelphia Inquirer

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: Andy Hawkins

On July 1st 1990 Andy Hawkins tossed the rare eight inning no-hitter

1991 Score #704 No-Hit Club Andy Hawkins

 Team Phungo just got back from vacation so we are a bit busy with returning to work and recovering from the SABR conference in Chicago.

Perhaps at some future time I will return to the rather interesting "no-hitter" tossed by Andy Hawkins.

1991 Score #704 No-Hit Club Andy Hawkins (b-side)

As noted in the box score, Hawkins had five walks in the game. A pair of those Walks, coupled with a bunch of Yankees errors led to the White Sox 4 run eighth inning

Following the 1991 Season an MLB Stats committee adopted a rule requiring a game to have at least 9 innings pitched to be considered a no-hitter. So Andy Hawkins No-Hitter in a loss, is now no longer considered a no-hitter. This is not the only 1990 Year of the No-Hitter game that the new ruling effected. In a few weeks we will get to the other 1990 game that has been rescinded.

The White Sox are not the only team to score in a no-hitter. Baseball-Ref has a list here.

Sources and Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
South Side Sox
Baseball-ref

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - June 29th Fernadomania!

If 1990 was the year of the No-Hitter, June 29th of that year was the Day of the No-Hitter.

After Dave Stewart's East Coast No-Hitter, Fernando Valenzuela followed up with one for the fans in the Pacific Time Zone. He turned the trick in a 6-0 victory over the St Louis Cardinals.

1991 Score #703 No-Hit Club Fernando Valenzuela

Fernando Valenzuela peaked early, He won Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards as well as a World Series ring all at the age of 20 in 1981. He made every all-star team between 1981 and 1986.

In 1990 Fernando was only 29 but his best years were behind him. He was struggling through a mediocre season when he tossed his gem on June 29th.

There were a couple of close calls in the No-Hitter which is featured here. With one out in the 9th Pedro Guerrero hit a grounder back at Valenzuela which the pitcher just got the tip of his glove on. It is hard to tell in the video, The Dodgers were playing for the double play, but had Valenzuela not tipped the ball it may have sped pass the two middle infielders. As it worked out the ball glanced off Valenzuela's glove and was fielded by second baseman Juan Samuel who started the game ending double play that was completed by future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray. 

Flip

 1991 Score #703 No-Hit Club Fernando Valenzuela (b-side)

Valenzueala pitched to three over the minimum - three walks and an error, one of the walks was erased on the game ending double play mentioned above. 

The obstacles in the Cardinals lineup included Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith (batting 8th!!!), One time MVP and Batting Champ Willie McGee and the speedy Vince Coleman. McGee worked one of the three Cardinal walks, three of Valenzuela's seven strikeouts came against Coleman.

The Dodgers defense included the aforementioned Eddie Murray and Juan Samuel as well as Future Angels Manager Mike Scioscia who made up the other half of the No-Hit Battery.

One time Philies second baseman Juan Samuel hit one of two homers for the Dodgers - the other was by Hubie Brooks.  

It was the first of two no-hitters caught by Scioscia, the latter was authored by Kevin Gross who like Samuel debuted with the Phillies.  

Within the game box on the Score Card I like how they triple-apostrophe-d Mike Sharperson's name.

Fernandomania

2001 07 29 Fernando Valenzuela Bobblehead

In 2001 The Dodgers honored Fernando Valenzuela with one of the first three Bobbleheads ever given away at Dodgers Stadium.  Unfortunately, the Dodgers lost the game 3-2 to the Rockies on a 9th inning RBI single by Alex Ochoa.

The bobblehead shown above is part of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Viva Baseball exhibit which celebrates the Heritage of Latin American players. 

Sources and Links
1990: Year of the No-Hitter index
Baseball-ref
mlb
LA Times
Dodger Bobble
Baseball Hall of Fame

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - June 29th Dave Stewart

June 29th 1990 was one of the two greatest days in No-Hitter History. It started in Toronto with the Oakland A's Dave Stewart.....

1990 Score #702 No-Hit Club Dave Stewart

On May 9th 1986 the Phillies released Dave Stewart to make room for Ron Roenicke whom they purchased from the Oakland A's. A year later the Phillies released Roenicke and Dave Stewart led the AL in Wins en route to finishing 3rd in the AL Cy Young Voting.  

1990 was the fourth consecutive year that Stewart would finish in the Cy Young top four. He was coming off a World Series MVP award in 1989 and was near the top of his game.

That was not good for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Flip

1990 Score #702 No-Hit Club Dave Stewart (b-side)

Stewart was dominant, He struck out 12 and walked 3 pitching to two over the minimum - the extra runner (Junior Felix) was eliminated via caught stealing.

Looking inside the box we find the 1990 Blue Jays to be a pretty good hitting squad, Fred McGriff would hit .300 that season and the young John Olerud would eventually win a batting title.  Stewart's final three outs were Strike Outs of Manny Lee and Mookie Wilson and a Tony Fernandez Fly Out.

Dave Stewart's battery-mate for the no-hitter was Terry Steinbach who doubled and tripled in the game. In 1999 as a member of the Twins Steinbach called a second no-hitter authored by another Phillies connected pitcher - Eric Milton.

Among the folks playing defense for Stewart's no-hitter was future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson. Rickey pitched in with a Homer, Sac Fly, and a Put Out in left.

1990 06 29
We are only half way threw June 29th 1990. Tomorrow we will jet off to the West Coast to see what happens later that day...




Team USA

in 2003 Dave Stewart was pitching coach for Team USA for a look at his 2004 UD card check here
  Sources and Links
1990: Year of the No-Hitter
Baseball-ref

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: June 11 - NOLAN RYAN

As noted earlier in this series there are some great names and stories among the pitchers who were involved in the year of the No-Hitter, none of those pitchers was bigger than Nolan Ryan.

1991 Score No-Hit Club #701 Nolan Ryan

Nolan Ryan only had 7 spring training innings in prior to his Opening Day start which he had to leave despite having not given up a hit over 5 innings.

By June 11th he had nine starts under his belt including a 1-hitter versus the White Sox on April 26th.  Ryan now had built up plenty of arm strength to finish his record setting sixth career no-hitter.

Box Notes

1991 Score No-Hit Club (b-side)

First off that is a scuff on the card, that is not bird droppings on Nolan's cap!

For the second time in the series we have the Oakland A's making a guest appearance. Back in mid-April we discussed Brian Holman's near perfect game which was spoiled by a Ken Phelps Home Run.  

Ken Phelps made a 9th inning pinch hit appearance in this game as well. Nolan Ryan won this battle as he did something he did 5713 other times in his career. He Struck Out Phelps. That was the first out of the 9th which left Future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson and Willie Randolph as the last two outs Ryan needed to complete his record extending 6th no-hitter. Henderson Grounded  Out and Randolph Fouled out to right.

More Cards
There are three other Cards in the Phungo Collection dedicated to this game. We will be taking a closer look at each of the other cards tomorrow. For now we will just post the cards. 

1993 Pacific Texas Express #63 Last Pitch No-Hitter #6

1991 Donruss #BC-3 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter

1991 Topps #6 Record Break Nolan Ryan

You cannot tell from the front but this card honors Nolan Ryan breaking his own record of five no-hitters.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170

Added this card to the listing in November of 2015. Found it in a card show dime box.

Nolan Ryan
The name most associated with No-Hitter is likely Nolan Ryan, to recognize this we will be dedicating several postings to this no-hitter and the Ryan Express over the next few days. Below is an Index to these No-Hitter related Postings - a couple related to the cards above.

1993 Pacific Texas Express #63
1991 Donruss #BC-3
1991 Topps #6
1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170
Guaranteed No-Hitter Night

Sources and Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
Nolan Ryan HoF Index 
baseball-ref
MLB Network Willie Randolph Discusses WBC

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - June 2 Randy Johnson

A star is Born.

On June 2nd Randy Johnson authored the second no-hitter of the 1990 Season.

1991 Score #700 No-Hit Club Randy Johnson

Back in April Johnson's teammate Brian Holman had come within an out of a perfect game, but he lost it on a Ken Phelps Home Run.

Randy Johnson's start would end up differently. He retired the last five batters he faced, his 9th inning went Strikeout, Pop Out, Strike Out. The final batter was journeyman catcher Mike Heath who went down swinging on an 0-2 pitch.

While it was a No-Hittter, Johnson was far from perfect. He allowed six walks, and Mariners Shortstop Mike Brumley committed an error.

Box Notes

1991 Score #700 No-Hit Club Randy Johnson (b-side)

Couple of good hitters that Johnson had to sit down, including Cecil Fielder and perennial Hall of Fame snub Alan Trammell. The "Williams" in the 9 spot of the Tigers Order is Ken Williams, the current GM of the Chicago White Sox.

The defense behind Randy Johnson included Ken Griffey Jr, Pre-DH Edgar Martinez, and MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds. The right fielder for the Mariners was Jay Buhner who was traded for the aforementioned Ken Phelps, the man who spoiled Brian Holman's no-hit bid. 

The No-Hitter was the first of two for Randy Johnson, 14 years later he threw a Perfect Game versus the Atlanta Braves as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Relics

1990 0602 Cap Worn by Randy Johnson when he pitched the No-Hitter

Team Phungo made a brief stop at the Hall of Fame recently and we spotted this item in the Randy Johnson HoF display.  Pretty cool item here with the Classic Seattle Logo, which probably most synonymous with the career of Young Ken Griffey Jr.

The HoF visit was quick but fun. While I dedicated most of the day to the Cooperstown Classic, I did manage a quick HoF tour and we will show of some items/displays over the next couple of weeks.


1990 Seattle Mariners
There Mariners were 51 games into the 1990 season and had been involved in two no-hitters Plus Brian Holman's near perfect game. The teams promotions department would attempt to capitalize on the events by sponsoring a Guaranteed No-Hitter Night. We will cover that game in a a future post, I will just let you know that one of the starting pitchers that evening was Nolan Ryan.

2015 Randy Johnson
Part of the reason I wanted to do a series on Year of the No-Hitter is with so many pitchers involved there are just tons of great stories. We have already had the Mariners involved in 2 no-hitters (one on each side) and a near perfect game. We have had Mike Witt who completed a no-hitter after years earlier pitching his own perfect game.

And now we see a future Hall of Famer just as he emerges into greatness.

I am a fan of Twitter and one of the more interesting follows has been Randy Johnson. He dedicates a lot of time to his photography, and due to his resources he has premium access for great places and events which makes for some great shots. Right now his account appears dormant but his website is still operational - @rj51photos

Sources & Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
Phungo Randy Johnson HoF Index
Baseball Hall of Fame
LA Times
baseball-ref
Chicago White Sox

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - April 11 Mark Langston & Mike Witt

The First No-Hitter of 1990 was pitched on April 11th, it was the first No-Hitter for one man and the second for another.

1991 Score #699 No-Hit Club Mark Langston/Mike Witt

The California Angels were playing their third game of the 1990 Season when they sent out Free Agent Acquisition Mark Lagnston for his first ever start for the club. 

Langston came through in his team debut in a big way. 

He no-hit his former club, the Seattle Mariners for 7 innings but, Like Nolan Ryan two days prior had to leave the early season game. In fact the game was still knotted at 0-0 when Langston finished his day. Fortunately for him and the Angels, they would score the in the bottom of the 7th.

The Angels also had a no-hitter secret weapon. The Langston signing had left them with an extra starting pitcher, relegating Mike Witt to bullpen duty. He was a nice piece to have in a no-hitter because he knew what it was like to pitch one. Witt authrored the Angels most recent previous No-No, A Perfect Game versus the Rangers on September 30th 1984  

Witt had no trouble finished off the game easily retiring all six batters he faced including a strike out of 2016 Hall of Fame Candidate Ken Griffey Jr for the final out.

1991 Score No-Hit Club

The Langston/Witt No-Hitter card is part of a 9 card subset in 1991 Score. This is the initial offering in the set, but it appears somewhat different then the remaining cards due to the use of two pitchers. 

We get both pitchers on the front of the card which is presented landscape style to accommodate the photos. The remaining eight cards in the set are all in the traditional portrait format.

1991 Score #699 No-Hit Club Mark Langston/Mike Witt (b-side)

The Flip side of each card contains a head shot of the pitcher (two pitchers here) along with a box score for the game.

Interesting Box notes here include that Opposing pitcher Erik Hanson had his own shutout going before being lifted. In addtion to the aforementioned Griffey Jr the Mariners lineup included career .312 Hitter Edgar Martinez - back when he was still a third baseman. The Ms catcher was Dave Valle who would just miss being on the good side of a no-hitter a few weeks later.

The Angels catcher was Lance Parrish who previously caught a Jack Morris No-Hitter as a member of the Tigers. Between his Tigers and Angels years Parrish spent a couple of unremarkable seasons with the Phillies in which he did not catch a no-hitter. 

Sources & Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
baseball cardpedia
baseball-ref

No-Hitter Index

This is an Index of columns related to the Phungo "1990: Year of the No-Hitter" Series. These Postings first ran in 2015 commemorating the 25th anniversary of the events.

1991 Score #706 Terry Mulholland


No-Hitters, Lo-Hitters, Near-Hitters and Perfect Games

 
1956 1008 - Don Larsen World Series Perfect Game (1961 Topps / Memorial)
1956 1008 - Don Larsen World Series Perfect Game (1961 Nu-Cards)
1965 0909 - Sandy Koufax Perfect Game and Fourth No-Hitter
1968 0508 - Jim "Catfish" Hunter Perfect Game 
1974 0619 - Steve Busby
1974 0719 - Dick Bosman
1974 0928 - Nolan Ryan's 3rd No-Hitter


1990: The No-Hitters
1990 0411 - Mark Langston & Mike Witt
1990 0602 - Randy Johnson
1990 0611 - Nolan Ryan
1990 0629 - Dave Stewart
1990 0629 - Fernando Valenzueala
1990 0701 - Andy Hawkins (rescinded)
1990 0712 - Melido Perez (rescinded)
1900 0815 - Terry Mulholland (above)
1900 0902 - Dave Stieb

   1990: The Near-Hitters, Lo-Hitters & Milestones
   1990 0409 - Nolan Ryan Lifted from No-Hitter on Opening Day  
   1990 0420 - Brian Holman Near Perfect Game
   1990 0527 - John Smoltz takes no-hitter into 9th versus Phillies
   1990 0604 - Ramon Martinez 18Ks in a 3 Hitter  
   1990 0607 - Greg Harris starts 1-Hitter (Switch Pitcher)
   1990 0729 - Scott Garrelts one out away from no-hitter
   1990 0731 - Nolan Ryan 300th Victory
   1990: Other Heroes and Villains  
   1990 0411 - Lance Parrish - Catcher for Langston/Witt No-Hitter
   1990 0411 - Bruce Hornsby and the Range - Mark Langston Connection
   1990 0527 - Len Dykstra Breaks up Smoltz No-Hitter

  
1991 0523 - Tommy Greene (Phillies)
1991 0728 - Dennis Martinez (Perfect Game)
1995 0603 - Pedro Martinez Perfect through 9
2003 0427 - Kevin Millwood
2007 0418 - Mark Buehrle
2010 0529 - Roy Halladay Pitches Perfect game for the Phillies
2010 1006 - Roy Halladay NLDS No-Hitter vs Reds
2015 0727 - Cole Hamels No-Hitter (Last start with Phillies)
2015 0727 - Cole Hamels No-Hitter 5the Anniversary

Sources and Links
Baseball Cardpedia
Stew Thornley