Hello Fans,
Do you guys remember where you were on September 24th, 2000? What you were doing? Who you were with?
I do. I was with my parents and sister witnessing baseball history at Fenway Park. Years later, I realized it was rare history. And then a few years after that, I realized it was in fact, VERY rare history. On a Sunday afternoon, we watched our second game in two days between the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. Mike Mussina pitched for the O’s and went 7 innings with 15 strikeouts in a very low scoring game won 1-0 by Baltimore. Not bad, right? Even during the game, we knew it was a GREAT performance.
Now fast forward a bit. In July of 2009, I was reading some stats and an article in Baseball Digest, when I realized that at that time, there had been 257 No-hitters, 287 Hit-for-the-Cycles (Mom, just a reminder, that’s at least one of each type of the 4 hits you can get, but you probably remember that!). And come to find out, we saw 1 of the 253 performances where a pitcher managed at least 15 strikeouts. That’s a lot of Ks, and doesn’t happen everyday, you can be sure. 105 guys had accomplished the feat. Randy Johnson owns 29 of them and Nolan Ryan another 26. Mussina did it three times, including 9/24/00. I thought it was pretty cool for someone like me who loves baseball (and good pitching) and didn’t live in a major league city, yet was randomly present for a game of such historical significance.
Ok, fast forward again. This time to May of 2013. AGAIN, I was reading a stats listing in the front of my coveted Baseball Digest magazine. This listing was of pitchers who had thrown 15Ks AND had 0 BBs in the SAME game. I had my Mussina memory in the front of my head as soon as I saw the caption of the listing. I had no idea if he walked anybody that day, but thought he may make the list one way or the other. As it turned out, he didn’t issue a free pass to first and he is on the list with other greats. NOTE: I DO still have the scorebook that I actually filled out. Priceless!
The listing was in the magazine because a fan wrote in after he saw James Shields strikeout 15 O’s in 2012’s season finale. He, too, had no BBs and is on the list. As you know, just like Mussina, Shields’ history-making performance was also his last game in Tampa, his original organization, as he’s in KC now. Moose went to the Yanks three months later after his gem in Fenway. (BOOOOO!)
So the extra kicker of realizing what I had witnessed several years ago is that a game with 15 Ks AND 0 BBs is as RARE as can be. Much more so than even a No-no. After a surge of perfect games the last five years, the total is ‘up’ to just 23. Similarly, even after adding Clayton Kershaw’s No-no performance last night (June 18th, 2014) of 15 Ks and, you guessed it, 0 BBs, there have still only been 24 pitchers to accomplish the feat a whopping 36 times. WOW!!
That’s some real odd ball stuff, and the list is not made up of jokers either. Amazingly, Kerry Wood’s, Randy Johnson’s, and both of Roger Clemens’ 20 K games came with NO walks. UNREAL! Johnson and Clemens did it 5 times each overall. Pedro Martinez 4 times and Dwight Gooden twice are your only other multiple times guys (aside from Mussina).
We mentioned Shields, Mussina, and Wood above with 1 each. The list is rounded out by Luis Tiant, Vida Blue, Frank Tanana, Johan Santana, Sam McDowell, Mark Langston, Sid Fernandez, Curt Schilling, Mark Prior, Van Mungo, Gary Nolan, Mario Soto, Sterling Hitchcock, John Smoltz, and Erik Bedard.
There you have it fans. That’s why baseball keeps track of EVERYTHING. Get out to a park today and enjoy the game. You too, will witness part of the history of the game.
Later Fans.