McGowan: Not the ‘Greatest’ Game
by Richard McGowan, Ph.D.
I grew up reading sports writers like Grantland Rice, Art Dailey and Red Smith. Their writing caught the nuances of whatever sport they covered and, if anything, they understated the achievements of the competitors and the teams. The writing hewed closer to reporting. That meant that theirs readers had to form their own judgments about an event.
Further, the writing was crisp and clear. They knew how to write! A friend who spent a life in journalism told me, “Journalists could not just jump into reporting news. There were already so many good writers doing that. So, many of those good writers covered sports.”
The early sportswriters did their homework, too. They knew writing, the sport and the athletes. But they let the reader appraise the performance. By contrast, the hyperbole and overstatement by the media regarding the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani in game four directed people what to think. Here is a headline from the Los Angeles Times: “Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani spoils Angelenos with the greatest game ever.”
The Washington Post headline was “Shohei Ohtani just played the greatest game in baseball history.”
Even the Wall Street Journal sportswriter got into the act: “By the time the final out had been recorded, the fact that the Dodgers had clinched yet another pennant was practically an afterthought. Everyone was still too dumbstruck by what they had witnessed from Ohtani: perhaps Shohei Ohtani just played the greatest game in baseball history.”
The Journal reported “’No one’s ever seen something like this,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.”
The manager should not be believed. In fact, 36,365 people had already seen something very much like that several times already.
In 1931, approximately 7,000 people watched Wes Ferrell toss a no-hitter while also helping himself by hitting a home run, a double, and getting four RBIs. Pitching for the Cleveland Indians, he shut down the St. Louis Browns 9-0. And it’s not like he faced players who could not hit. Among the hitless were two Hall of Famers, Goose Goslin and his brother, Rick Ferrell. I note that Wes Ferrell, a six-time 20 game winner who holds the record for career home runs by a pitcher, certainly belongs with his brother at Cooperstown.
On April 27, 1944, Jim “Old Ironsides” Tobin no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers. He helped himself by blasting an eighth inning homer. By then he had become the first pitcher since before the 1900s to hit three homers in a game, a complete game, five-hit victory, similar to Ohtani’s pitching except that Tobin pitched all nine innings. The knuckleball throwing Tobin faced HOFer (Hall of Famers) Paul Waner and Dixie Walker, who led the league that year in batting average. In fact, the Brooklyn Dodgers had three hitters over .300 in 1944. Tobin would have faced other HOFers but they were in the military.
Earl Wilson, the first black pitcher to toss a no-hitter in the American League, did so on June 26, 1962. Pitching for the Red Sox before a crowd of 14,002 spectators, he beat the Angels 2-0, hitting a home run in the third inning. Among the batters he faced were Jim Fregosi and all-star second baseman Billy Moran.
Rick Wise, playing for the Phillies, pitched a no-hitter at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium on June 23, 1971. He helped his cause by hitting a two-run homer in the fifth inning and a solo shot in the eighth, the only pitcher in baseball history to toss a no hitter while having a multi-homer game. He faced some good hitters, too — George Foster, Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Johnny Bench. He performed in front of 13,329 spectators.
Ohtani pitched six innings, giving up two hits and hitting three home runs. As a pitcher, he faced no likely Hall of Fame player, though it may be too soon to tell about the Brewers’ catcher, W. Contreras.
If a person looks only at hitting feats, Milwaukee Brave Joe Adcock’s game with 4 homers and a double (it hit two feet below the fence) stands out. It was eclipsed by Shawn Green’s game with four homers, a double, and a single — a record of 19 total bases.
There have been 326 complete game no-hitters. In only one did the pitcher also have multi-homer games. In three other complete game no-hitters, the pitcher hit a home run.
It might have been nice for sport writers and media sources to provide the data before declaring that Ohtani “just played the greatest game in baseball history.”
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University.
On Wednesday, April 29, 1931 at Cleveland’s League Park, Ferrell no-hit the Browns for a 9-0 victory. Ferrell struck out eight while walking three and also contributed at the plate with a 2-for-4 day including a home run, a double and 4 RBIs.
Only three other pitchers have hit a homer while pitching a no-hitter (Rick Wise actually hit two). Here are those games:
| 1 | Jim Tobin |
| Boston Braves (NL) | |
| Thursday, April 27, 1944 Boston Braves 2, Brooklyn Dodgers 0 Braves Field (Boston) (Tobin went 1-for-3 with an 8th-inning leadoff homer off Fritz Ostermueller, 1 RBI) | |
| 2 | Earl Wilson |
| Boston Red Sox (AL) | |
| Tuesday, June 26, 1962 Boston Red Sox 2, Los Angeles Angels 0 Fenway Park (Boston) (Wilson went 1-for-3 with a one-out homer off Bo Belinsky in the 3rd inning, 1 RBI) | |
| 3 | Rick Wise |
| Philadelphia Phillies (NL) | |
| Wednesday, June 23, 1971 Philadelphia Phillies 4, Cincinnati Reds 0 Riverfront Stadium (Cincinnati) (Wise went 2-for-3 with a 5th-inning, two-run homer off Ross Grimsley and an 8th innings solo shot off Clay Carroll, 3 RBIs) |
Box score for Rick Wise no-hitter
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197106230.shtml
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