Hilton Smith was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001

Hilton Smith was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001

Hilton Smith threw the first Negro American League no-hitter, 79 years ago today.

On May 16, 1937, during the first game of a Sunday doubleheader, Smith threw a no-no as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs. The right-hander from Giddings, Texas no-hit the Chicago American Giants for a 4-0 win.

According to his SABR bio written by Ralph Berger, Smith became a school teacher after baseball and also worked for the Armco Steel Company in Kansas City as a foreman until 1978.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001.

Category: This day in no-no history4 Comments
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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).

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