Happy 51st birthday to Bret Saberhagen, who threw a no-hitter for the Kansas City Royals in 1991.

Saberhagen had a lot of success with the Royals, winning Cy Young awards in 1985 (20-6 with a 2.87 ERA) and 1989 (23-6 with a 2.16 ERA). His no-hitter came on Aug. 26, 1991 during a 7-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Kauffman Stadium, but it was not without controversy.

In the fifth inning of the game, Royals outfielder Kirk Gibson got a late jump on a Dan Pasqua line drive, according to Baseball Digest. Gibson made a last-ditch-effort jump at the warning track but the ball tipped off his glove, letting Pasqua reach second. The official scorer initially ruled it a hit but changed it to a two-base error after watching replays.

Saberhagen’s no-no remained intact, and he retired 14 of the next 15 batters while issuing just his second base on balls in the eighth.

Category: General1 Comment

Author: Dirk Lammers

Dirk Lammers is a veteran journalist who began rooting for the New York Mets in the early-1970s when the team’s no no-hitter count was barely 2,000 games old. Lammers has since turned his research into Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders: More Than a Century of Pitching’s Greatest Feats (Unbridled Books) and NoNoHitters.com, where he maintains the Internet's largest archive of no-hitter information.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.