It's
Happened Only Once in 140 Years—Some 400,000 Major League Games!
The
Rarest one game pitching performance of all-time!
Bob Meyer Played Major Role In
Historic Major League Baseball Game
 Since
1871 there have been 200,000 major league baseball games played. During
that time, some 271 No-hitters have been pitched…23 perfect games
recorded…and 16 games in which a hitter has hit 4 home-runs in a
game…all incredible accomplishments.
Yet the rarest
occurrence seen on a major league baseball field is none of the above
feats. Even rarer is a game where both starting pitchers pitched a
one-hitter in the same game. How rare is it to see a game where both
pitchers throw a 1-hitter? Consider this: It's only happened 5 times in
145 years!**
Moreover,
only one game EVER has seen the double
1-hitter pitched wherein both pitchers were
major league rookies.
So, the chances
of seeing a rare no-hitter pitched in the big leagues is much greater
than are the odds of seeing two rookie pitchers toeing the rubber and
each pitching a complete game one-hitter.
It happened
nearly 50 years ago on September 12, 1964.* The rookie pitchers, both
left-handers, were Frank Bertaina of the Baltimore Orioles and Bob Meyer
of the Kansas City Athletics (the team has since moved to Oakland A's).
The game was
decided when John Orsino, Oriole catcher, led off the eighth against
Meyer and hit a double to left center, pinch-runner Bob Savarine took
third on Bertaina's bunt and scored on Jackie Brandt's sacrifice fly to
right.
Up until that
break-through, a fifth-inning leadoff double off the left-field wall by
catcher Doc Edwards represented the lone hit on either side during the
titanic struggle. (The win boosted the Birds first place hold to 1 1/2
games over the White Sox and 2 games over the Yankees.)
Major League
Record Set
The Orioles
established a major league record for the fewest official times at bat
(19) by one club in an official 9 inning game. Their total eclipsed by
one the major league record set by the Detroit Tigers in a game against
the St. Louis Browns on April 27, 1915.
**Double
One-hitters pitcher in all of major league baseball history: (Every game
was 1-0 score)
August 20, 1886:
Matt Kilroy over Joe Miller.
July 4, 1906: Mordical Brown over Lefty Leifield.
April 23, 1952: Bob Cain over Bob Feller.
June 21, 1956: Jack Harshman over Connie Johnson.
September 12, 1964: Frank Bertaina over Bob Meyer. (Both major league
rookies.)
*Interestingly,
five days earlier, on September 7, 1964, Bob Meyer went 9 innings to
beat the first place Orioles in Kansas City, besting four-time 20-game
winner Dave McNally, 6-1.
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