OFF THE WALL

We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

Vander Meer’s record unlikely to be matched

Whenever a major league pitcher throws a no-hitter, invariably the name

comes up in the days after the achievement. And it lingers there until the pitcher gives up a hit in his next start, writes

Meer Kirk Kenney

of

the UnionTribune.

Vander Meer is the Cincinnati Reds left-hander who in 1938, his first full season in the major leagues, pitched no-hitters in backto-back starts June 11 and 15 against the Boston Bees and Brooklyn Dodgers.

Before Friday, this was not a note Padres fans would have been particularly preoccupied with while following their team. Righty Joe Musgrove changed all that at Texas when he threw the first no-hitter in franchise history.

Musgrove returns to the mound today at Pittsburgh, the team that traded him to the Padres just three months ago. What does he do for an encore? Musgrove doesn’t seem too concerned with matching Vander Meer.

“I’m not really coming into this game with expectations or forcing myself to feel like I have to have another dominant outing,” Musgrove said during a Tuesday media call.

Musgrove’s no-hitter was the 306th in baseball history, the 200th since the first of Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-no’s.

It is one of the most notable feats in the game’s history and unlikely ever to be matched, let alone broken.

Vander Meer’s career fits midway between Hall of Famers and Who the Heck?

The New Jersey native went 119-121 over a 13-year career that was highlighted by 16- and 18-win seasons in 1941-42.

Vander Meer threw hard but often didn’t quite know where the ball was going. Control was always an issue for a player who once walked 16 batters in a minor league game. In the majors, he had nearly as many walks (1,132) as he did strikeouts (1,294).

After a slow start in 1938 in which Vander Meer was briefly sent to the bullpen, everything fell into place as he went on a nine-game winning streak that earned him a start in the All-Star Game hosted that year by the Reds.

When he took the mound against Boston on that June afternoon, Vander Meer was facing a team that was last in the National League in batting average (.245).

Trivia question Pete Rose

and Greg Maddux share a birthday today. Rose turns 80, while Maddux is 55. Despite the age gap, Rose’s final season, 1986, came in Maddux’s first year. But Rose, Cincinnati’s player manager, did not play in September of that season, when Maddux was making his first starts for the Cubs. It’s hard to compare a pitcher vs. a hitter, but we’ll try. Which of the two had a higher career WAR?

He said it

From 1986 Padres manager after going against Rose’s Reds in what turned out to be Rose’s final game as a player: “We were playing it like it was the seventh game of the World Series, weren’t we?” Rose used five pitchers and three pinch-hitters, including himself. He struck out vs. in his final career at-bat as the Padres won 9-5.

Trivia answer Johnny Vander Steve Boros, Goose Gossage

Maddux had the higher WAR, 106.6 over 23 seasons, to Rose’s 79.6 over 24 years.