Andy Hawkins, July 1, 1990
July 1, 1990: Imagine pitching a no-hitter, and losing 4-0. Andy Hawkins doesn't have to imagine it: He did it.
This was the New York Yankees' last game at Comiskey Park, which was closing after 80 years as home of the Chicago White Sox. The Yankees were in the middle of a season in which they would finish last for the 1st time since 1966 -- the only other times in their history being 1908 and 1912. So it remains the only time in this writer's lifetime that the Yankees have finished last. George Steinbrenner had just been suspended from operating the team. This allowed Gene Michael to begin the process of rebuilding.
One of the guys who is part of that was Jim Leyritz, a catcher who had made his major league debut the day before, in a Yankee win. He played out of position, at 3rd base, and hit 2 home runs. But today, manager Carl "Stump" Merrill starts Leyritz in left field, a position he has literally never played before, at any level.
Both Hawkins and White Sox starter Greg Hibbard get through the 1st 4 innings without allowing a baserunner. But in a foreshadowing of what was to come, Hawkins walks 2 batters in the 5th. He gets out of it, though, and pitches a perfect 6th. He walks a batter in the 7th, but still doesn't allow a hit. And now, we could talk about it.
Of course, you can't say the word "no-hitter" while one is in progress, because that jinxes it. It is "the other N-word." Of course, lots of people say it, and the achievement ends up being completed anyway. And, according to baseball historian John Thorn, for some reason, the words "perfect game" can be spoken aloud without jinxing the achievement.
The Yankees got 2 singles in the top of the 6th, 2 more in the top of the 7th, and a player reached on an error in the top of the 8th. But the game is still scoreless when the bottom of the 8th began. And now, it is getting later in the day, and the Sun is right over Comiskey's roof, making it tough for the outfielders to see.
Hawkins gets first Ron Karkovice, then Scott Fletcher, to pop up to 2nd base, and it looks like the inning will end benignly, and give the Yankees the chance to win the game in the top of the 9th. What follows is one of the most shocking baseball sequences I've ever seen on WPIX-Channel 11, and I still have the videotape in my basement.
The batter is Sammy Sosa, not yet the steroid-riddled slugger who would thrill people under false pretenses across town at Wrigley Field. He hits a sharp grounder to 3rd, and Mike Blowers can't handle it. He picks it up and throws to 1st. Sosa dives headfirst, and beats the throw. There is no immediate decision from the official scorer, but it is ruled an error.
Sosa steals 2nd. Ozzie Guillen, later to manage the Pale Hose to their 2005 World Championship, draws a walk. Lance Johnson also works Hawkins for a walk, and now the bases are loaded with nobody out in a tie game -- despite Hawkins still having a no-hitter.
The batter is Robin Ventura, who would eventually make his mark in postseason play for both New York teams. This time, he hits a lazy fly ball to left field. But the Sun is making the ball hard to see. And Leyritz has never played the position before. He can't see the ball, even with sunglasses. He gets right under it, but closes his glove too early, and the ball bounces off his fingers and rolls away. All 3 runners score, and Ventura ends up on 2nd base.
And Hawkins still has the no-hitter. But he's losing 3-0. In the visiting team TV broadcast booth, Phil Rizzuto is "Holy cow"ing away, and George Grande, better known as an announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, tells the Scooter, "There isn't a hole deep enough that you want to crawl into." "You," of course, meaning Leyritz.
The batter is Iván Calderón. He hits the ball to right field, where Jesse Barfield is one of the best fielders at the position. But the Sun bothers him, too, and the far more experienced outfielder makes the exact same mistake as the rookie Leyritz: He closes his mitt too early, and the ball hits it and rolls away. Ventura scores. It's 4-0 Chicago.
Rizzuto yells, "Oh, he dropped the ball, too! Holy cow, what's comin' off here?" Grande asks him if, in 50 seasons' involvement with the Yankees, he's ever seen anything like this before. He admits he hasn't. Finally, the inning ends when former Yankee Dan Pasqua bats for the White Sox, and pops up to short.
I switch over to WOR-Channel 9, where the Mets are about to finish off the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Their announcers bring up what's happening at Comiskey. Ralph Kiner mentions that only 1 other pitcher has ever pitched a complete game no-hitter and lost, and says, "I think it was Ken Johnson." Tim McCarver, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and helping them win the World Series that year of 1964, confirms that it was the pitcher for the team then known as the Houston Colt .45's, becoming the Astros the next year: "It is Ken."
I switch back to Channel 11, and I see that the fight has gone out of the Yankees. Mattingly flies deep to center. Steve Balboni, a one-dimensional player (a slugger who struck out too much to justify it) who had no speed, reaches on an error, with some irony. Merrill sends Wayne Tolleson in to pinch-run for him. But Barfield, who certainly had power, doesn't help, grounding into a game-ending double play.
After the game, for WPIX, Hawkins is interviewed by, of all people, Tom Seaver. Now broadcasting for the Yankees, Seaver was "The Franchise" for the Mets, but pitched the only no-hitter of his career for the Reds. But even he, who has seen some remarkable things in his baseball life -- some good, some not -- finds this one, to borrow a Met adjective, amazing.
Hawkins is circumspect, accepting responsibility for walking batters and putting himself in position to lose, but knowing that now, he is a part of baseball history.
A year later, Major League Baseball convenes a committee to re-examine rules, and one of their decisions is that a game can only be defined as a "no-hitter" if the game is a complete game with no hits allowed.
The batter is Sammy Sosa, not yet the steroid-riddled slugger who would thrill people under false pretenses across town at Wrigley Field. He hits a sharp grounder to 3rd, and Mike Blowers can't handle it. He picks it up and throws to 1st. Sosa dives headfirst, and beats the throw. There is no immediate decision from the official scorer, but it is ruled an error.
Sosa steals 2nd. Ozzie Guillen, later to manage the Pale Hose to their 2005 World Championship, draws a walk. Lance Johnson also works Hawkins for a walk, and now the bases are loaded with nobody out in a tie game -- despite Hawkins still having a no-hitter.
The batter is Robin Ventura, who would eventually make his mark in postseason play for both New York teams. This time, he hits a lazy fly ball to left field. But the Sun is making the ball hard to see. And Leyritz has never played the position before. He can't see the ball, even with sunglasses. He gets right under it, but closes his glove too early, and the ball bounces off his fingers and rolls away. All 3 runners score, and Ventura ends up on 2nd base.
And Hawkins still has the no-hitter. But he's losing 3-0. In the visiting team TV broadcast booth, Phil Rizzuto is "Holy cow"ing away, and George Grande, better known as an announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, tells the Scooter, "There isn't a hole deep enough that you want to crawl into." "You," of course, meaning Leyritz.
The batter is Iván Calderón. He hits the ball to right field, where Jesse Barfield is one of the best fielders at the position. But the Sun bothers him, too, and the far more experienced outfielder makes the exact same mistake as the rookie Leyritz: He closes his mitt too early, and the ball hits it and rolls away. Ventura scores. It's 4-0 Chicago.
Rizzuto yells, "Oh, he dropped the ball, too! Holy cow, what's comin' off here?" Grande asks him if, in 50 seasons' involvement with the Yankees, he's ever seen anything like this before. He admits he hasn't. Finally, the inning ends when former Yankee Dan Pasqua bats for the White Sox, and pops up to short.
I switch over to WOR-Channel 9, where the Mets are about to finish off the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Their announcers bring up what's happening at Comiskey. Ralph Kiner mentions that only 1 other pitcher has ever pitched a complete game no-hitter and lost, and says, "I think it was Ken Johnson." Tim McCarver, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and helping them win the World Series that year of 1964, confirms that it was the pitcher for the team then known as the Houston Colt .45's, becoming the Astros the next year: "It is Ken."
I switch back to Channel 11, and I see that the fight has gone out of the Yankees. Mattingly flies deep to center. Steve Balboni, a one-dimensional player (a slugger who struck out too much to justify it) who had no speed, reaches on an error, with some irony. Merrill sends Wayne Tolleson in to pinch-run for him. But Barfield, who certainly had power, doesn't help, grounding into a game-ending double play.
After the game, for WPIX, Hawkins is interviewed by, of all people, Tom Seaver. Now broadcasting for the Yankees, Seaver was "The Franchise" for the Mets, but pitched the only no-hitter of his career for the Reds. But even he, who has seen some remarkable things in his baseball life -- some good, some not -- finds this one, to borrow a Met adjective, amazing.
Hawkins is circumspect, accepting responsibility for walking batters and putting himself in position to lose, but knowing that now, he is a part of baseball history.
A year later, Major League Baseball convenes a committee to re-examine rules, and one of their decisions is that a game can only be defined as a "no-hitter" if the game is a complete game with no hits allowed.
Not only does this mean that a player who pitches 9 no-hit innings, then loses the no-hitter in extra innings (as Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates famously did with a 12-inning perfect game in 1959), no longer gets the credit for it, but Hawkins lost credit for the no-hitter because he pitched "only" 8 innings. In other words, he got robbed. He got credit for a complete game, because he was the only pitcher that his team used in the game, and allowed no hits in a complete game; but, because it wasn't 9 innings, he didn't get credit for a no-hitter.
The craziest game in the worst Yankee season of my lifetime -- and maybe the craziest game in any Yankee Fan's lifetime.
The craziest game in the worst Yankee season of my lifetime -- and maybe the craziest game in any Yankee Fan's lifetime.
*
July 1, 1990 was a Sunday. In addition to the games mentioned above -- White Sox 4, Yankees 0 and Mets 3, Reds 2 -- these games were played in Major League Baseball that day:
* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 15-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 8-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angeles, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City royals, 9-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 11-10 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Matt Sinatra wins it by drawing a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Also, the World Cup was being played in Italy, and it had reached the Quarterfinal round. England beat Cameroon, 3-2 after extra time, at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples. And West Germany beat Czechoslovakia, 1-0 at the San Siro in Milan. Both winning goals were scored on penalties: Lothar Matthäus for West Germany in the 25th minute, and Gary Lineker for England in the 105th.
A weird fact: The referee for West Germany (which was about to reconsolidate with East Germany following the previous November's fall of the Berlin Wall) vs. Czechoslovakia (a country that would split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia 2 1/2 years later) was named Helmut Kohl -- the same name as the man then Chancellor of Germany. This Helmut Kohl, however, was from Austria, and thus neutral.
West Germany would beat England in the Semifinal in Turin, and then reverse their defeat in the 1986 Final by beating defending Champions Argentina in Rome.
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