I wrote about this game a while ago on the blog, so I’ll use that here:
“Wise's incredible game took place on June 23 (43 years to the day I am writing this actually!), 1971, and as I mentioned earlier, was against the freakin' "Big Red Machine" of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez et al!
Talk about an extra "oomph" of an accomplishment!
The guy goes out and no-hits a killer line-up, and also slams TWO home runs, good for three of the four runs the Phillies score that day (a Roger Freed double accounting for the other)!
It's easy to forget that the guy put together a really solid Major League career, finishing with a 188-181 record to go along with a 3.69 earned run average, 30 shutouts and 1647 strikeouts over 506 games (455 starts) between 1964 and 1982.
Yes he'll always be remembered for being the "wrong" side of the Steve Carlton trade (ironically enough during the off-season after his no-hit year), but if not for an injury-plagued season in 1974 while with the Red Sox, he could have been a 200-game winner.”
It’s also worth remembering that the Reds, well on their way to the “Big Red Machine” days, were no-hit twice in the month of June, by Wise and by Ken Holtzman just three weeks before.
Go figure...
