Rod Caborn’s Deadball Era replay no-hitters

Rod Caborn sends in a look at all of no-hitters from his deadball replays

One of the features that replaying an entire season offers is the thrill of a no-hitter. Like real life, no-hitters occur infrequently, and, on occasion, the pitchers that throw them are totally random.

In replaying three complete Deadball Era seasons (1911-1913), I have played out 16 no-hitters. Eleven of the no-hitters occurred in the 1913 replay, six of them in the pitching-dominant American League.

The pitchers who recorded no-hitters range from the great (Walter Johnson, Rube Marquard) to the obscure (Bill Luhrsen, George Pierce, and Ad Brennan).

The most remarkable no-hitter development took place in the 1913 (replay) World Series, where Cleveland’s Willie Mitchell and Fred Blanding threw back-to-back no-hitters to close out the New York Giants in a four-game sweep.

In the 1913 Series, the Giants were managed by fellow OAPBA league manager Dave Larson while I managed the Naps. To  clarify, my management had nothing to do with the no-hitters, which simply unfolded as each of the no-hitters was played out. Neither Larson nor I, who have played an estimated combined 20,000 games between us, had ever witnessed anything quite like the back-to-back no-hitters, particularly against a team like the Giants, which was certainly one of the most dominant teams of the Deadball Era.

 Like real-life, some of the pitchers who threw the no-hitters were totally unpredictable.

The most surprising no-hitter was by Pittsburgh’s Bill Luhrsen in the 1913 NL replay. In real-life, Luhrsen was Pirate late-season call up who appeared in the majors only in 1913 (2-1, 3.38 in three replay starts) no-hit the seventh place Boston Braves, who had been no-hit earlier in the 1913 replay by Cubs lefty George Pierce (13-8, 2.18 in the replay).

In real life, Luhrsen had a 3-1 record in 1913, his only season in the majors, with back-to-back complete game wins in early September and a 3-1 CG loss to the Giants in mid-September.

Pierce was a mainstay in the Cubs rotation from 1913-1915, twice winning 13 games. He pitched in the majors for total of six seasons, five with the Cubs and his final year with the St. Louis Cardinals

Two pitchers threw two no-hitters during the 1913 replay: Senators great Walter Johnson and Cleveland southpaw Willie Mitchell. Mitchell’s no-hitters were particularly notable because his second pitching gem came in Game Three of the 1913 World Series.

Johnson, of course, is one of baseball’s all-time pitching great (417-279, 2.17, 3,509 Ks). Mitchell pitched for 10 years in the majors, winning 14 games in 1913 and, four seasons later in 1917, winning 12 games with Detroit, finishing with an 83-92, 2.88 record.

Philadelphia A’s great Jack Coombs also recorded two no-hitters, both against the St. Louis Browns, one in 1911 and another in 1912.

A 1913 no-hitter by A’s standout Chief Bender was notable because it went 11 innings against the tough Boston Red Sox, a 2-1 win that saw Bender edge Boston’s Ray Collins.

Rod Caborn’s list of no-hitters 1911-13

Twelve of the 16 no-hitters were shutouts with the losing team scoring a run in four of the no-hitters, all of the scores resulting from an error of one sort or another, during an era when defensive play was not particularly good because of poor equipment, lack of training and coaching, and sub-par field conditions.