HoraceClarke66: Was Corey’s No-Hitter a Mogridge or a Monte?

Corey Kluber’s no-no was officially the 12^th no-hitter or perfect game by your New York Yankees. 

I say “officially” because MLB, in its infinite wisdom, has discounted 2 no-hitters. 

 

One, most of you will remember, came in the midst of the plague years, on July 1, 1990, when Andy Hawkins, on a horrendous Sunday afternoon in Chicago, pitched 8 hitless frames.

 

 

With one out in the 8^th, though, White Sock Sammy Sosa (Remember him?) reached on an error by third baseman Mike Blowers (Remember him? I hope not.). Two walks later, with the bases loaded, Hawkins got Robin Ventura to hit a lazy flyball to left. Which leftfielder Jim Leyritz lost in the sun. And dropped. Ivan Calderon then hit a flyball to right-center. Which rightfielder Jesse Barfield dropped.

 

Hawkins got old friend Dan Pasqua to hit a pop-up that shortstop Alvaro Espinoza managed to actually catch. But when the Yanks went down quickly in the top of the ninth it was all over, depriving Hawkins of any chance to pitch a “real” no-hitter, and creating perhaps the ugliest line score in baseball history:

 

 

 

Back in 1910, a year which nobody here will remember, Tom L. Hughes—the second Yankees pitcher in the deadball era named Tom Hughes—threw 9 no-hit innings against the Indians. “Salida Tom,” as he was nicknamed, gave up a hit in the 10^th, but kept the shutout into the 11^th, when he surrendered five runs and the game.

 

Should these games have been no-hitters?

When it comes to Hawkins, an absolutely awful pitcher with the Yankees (and to this day the only pitcher to win a World Series game for the San Diego Padres), it’s hard to say you should get credit for a no-hitter when you don’t pitch the toughest inning in such a game, even if that’s not your fault.

 

As for Hughes—absolutely! That’s an idiotic ruling! You start and pitch nine, no-hit innings, that should be a no-hitter.

 

One more interesting stat (unless somehow you don’t find this interesting!):  When a Yankee pitches a no-hitter, it generally means good things.

 

Seven of the years in which they did—Sad Sam Jones in 1923, Monte Pearson (below, doing his famous "ventriloquist's dummy" act with Lou Gehrig) in 1938, Allie Reynolds in 1951 (twice!), Don Larsen in 1956, Doc Gooden in 1996, David Wells in 1998, and David Cone in 1999—ended with World Series wins. 

 

Indeed, it felt as if Gooden’s 1996 no-hitter really turned around the team’s prospects for the whole season, and that Wells’ set the tone for 1998.

 

Did they, really? And will Corey Kluber’s change the tone for the Yanks this year? 

 

Or will it be more like the no-hitters thrown by George Mogridge (winner of the good posture award) in 1917, Dave Righetti in 1983, and Jim Abbott in 1993, feel-good moments in otherwise undistinguished seasons? (I’m assuming that Mogridge’s felt good. It was 1917, a time when getting an orange for Christmas was a big deal, so how bad could it have been?)

 

A Mogridge or a Monte? Which will 2021 be?