The Strangest No-Hitter Ever

The Hardball Times recently featured a story about "flawed no-hitters" which included the no-hit loss that the Yankees' Andy Hawkins suffered July 1, 1990.

I was at this game, which was also the 80th birthday of Comiskey Park:

Pitching for the Yankees during their dire early '90s period Andy Hawkins took the mound in Chicago for a game against the White Sox on July 1.

Through eight innings Hawkins had yet to allow a hit, but his hapless teammates had failed to muster any offense of their own. After getting Ron Karkovice and Scott Fletcher on pop-ups to second baseman Steve Sax, Hawkins had to face a young Sammy Sosa. Sosa reached based after an error by third baseman Mike Blowers. Perhaps rattled by this, Hawkins issued back-to-back walks to Ozzie Guillen and Lance "One Dog" Johnson.

With the bases now loaded, but two outs, Hawkins bore down and got a fly ball to left field out of Robin Ventura. The best laid plans were awry, as Jim Leyritz-—inexplicably stationed in left field by Yankees skipper Stump Merrill-—committed an error of his own, clearing the bases and leaving Ventura standing on second.

Despite this, Hawkins managed to settle down and Ivan Calderonhit a flyball in the direction of right fielder Jesse Barfield. Hawkins must have been feeling better, as Barfield was a real, actual outfielder. In fact, he wasn’t just any real, actual outfielder; he was a two-time Gold Glove winning outfielder. Those Gold Gloves didn’t do him, or Hawkins, any good. Barfield also made an error, allowing the inning’s fourth run to score.

After Hawkins finally recorded the last out, the Yankees couldn’t manage any runs in the ninth, so Hawkins had pitched a no-hitter, allowed four unearned runs and had only a loss to show for his troubles.

I remember the crowd cheering when the scorer gave Blowers an error on Sosa's grounder to third. It was an in-between hop, and Sosa was fast in those days. It could have gone either way, but nobody wanted to see the no-hitter end on a weak two-hopper to third.

Things really got cooking when the bases were loaded. Everyone realized that, hey, the no-hitter is still intact and the White Sox might actually score!

We were sitting down the left-field line and when Ventura hit his routine fly ball, I looked out at Leyritz and immediately realized that he didn't have a bead on it at all. I think he lost it in the sun. He staggered around trying to find it and never really made a competitive play on it.

After that point, the place was rocking. The no-no was still intact, the White Sox had a three-run lead, and Bobby Thigpen was ready to go in the 9th.

So at that point, it was like everybody in the ballpark switched allegiances. Everybody wanted to see the no-hitter.

So when Barfield made his error, the place erupted in groans and boos. And when Hawkins finally - mercifully - escaped with the final out, the place went nuts.

I kept a scorecard of the game, and I took a couple of grainy pictures of Comiskey's scoreboard. It's the strangest line score I've ever seen:

Yankees: 0 4 4
White Sox: 4 0 0