Allie Reynolds - The Two No Hitters, 1951
Cleveland, 1-0, July 12, 1951 & Boston, 8-0, September 28, 1951
Cleveland ace Bob Feller took the mound to face Allie Reynolds on July 12. The two had been roommates on the Indians and knew each other very well.
The game moved through five innings, a taut, tight pitching duel. Neither team had a hit. Gene Woodling homered for the Yanks in the seventh. That was the only run the man they called “Chief“needed.
Retiring the last seventeen batters to face him, Reynolds struck out Bobby Avila for the final out. In the game the big right-hander faced just 29 batters. He won his 10th game, his fifth shutout of the year.
The second no-hitter was before 40,000 at Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox, the hottest hitting team in the American League.
“I was very much aware of the no-hitter and the ninth inning,” Reynolds said. “All I had to get out was Ted Williams. Most times I tried to walk the damn guy. In my opinion it was just stupid to let an outstanding hitter like him beat you.”
With two out in the ninth, Ted Williams was all that stood in the way of the Reynolds’ no-hitter and the clinching of the American League pennant by the Yankees.
Reynolds got a fastball strike on Williams The next pitch -fastball again. Ball popped up behind home plate. Yogi Berra under it, waiting. The ball bounced off his glove and Yogi bounced off Reynolds who was backing up the play.
Helping Berra to hit feet Reynolds was kind: “Don’t worry Yogi, we’ll get him next time.”
An angry and annoyed Williams told Berra: “You sons of bitches put me in a hell of a spot. You blew it, and now I’ve got to bear down even harder even though the game is decided and your man has a no-hitter going.”
On the next Reynolds’ offering, Williams again popped up. This time Berra squeezed it. Yanks win, 8-0. Reynolds had his second no-hitter and the Yankees had their third straight American League flag.
Harvey Frommer is the author of 34 sports books, including the classics: “New York City Baseball,” “Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,” “Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball’s Color Line,” “The New York Yankee Encyclopedia,” “A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team,” and the 2005 Updated “Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry” (with Frederic J. Frommer). His THE SPORTS JUNKIE’S BOOK OF TRIVIA, TERMS AND LINGO will be published in September. Frommer sports books are available direct from the author -discounted and autographed. Contact Harvey Frommer for details. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of 750,000 and appear on Internet search engines for extended periods of time. This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2005 by Harvey Frommer. All rights reserved worldwide.