MLB Opening Day The Only No Hitter
The opening day of the baseball season has been filled with historic moments and happenings. Moments like Hank Aaron tying Babe Ruth’s home run record and Ted Williams hitting .449 in all of his opening day game appearances. One of these milestones happened in 1940 and has yet to be repeated on the day that starts the long baseball season, a no hitter.
On April 16, 1940 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Hall Of Fame pitcher Bob Feller made the history books when he threw his first no hitter. Completing a no hitter as a pitcher is incredible enough but there is another element that makes this feat even more incredible, this is the only occurrence of a no hitter on Opening Day. On that day Feller pitched his Cleveland Indians to a 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The eventual game winning run was scored by the Indians in the 4th inning when Jeff Heath scored on a Rollie Hemsley hit. The losing pitcher that day was Eddie Smith.
Bob Feller would have two more no hitters in his career before he retired in 1956. Those came in the 1946 and 1951 seasons against the Yankees and Tigers. Bob Feller was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1962. Feller amassed 266 wins and 162 loses and threw 2,581 strikeouts. An interensting note to his career is that he also threw 12 one hit games on top of his three no hitters.
Weblinks :
- MLB opening day the only no hitter | en.wikipedia.org