NO-HITTERS SPECIAL SUB-SET: NOLAN RYAN, JULY 15TH, 1973

Fresh off of Nolan Ryan’s first no-hitter profiled here on the blog, we have his second, thrown just two months later on July 15th against the Detroit Tigers, forever made famous when Tigers’ slugger Norn Cash came to the plate with two-out in the ninth wielding a table leg instead of a bat:

Cash had the right idea since Ryan was on a brutal roll, mowing down batter after batter not only that game, but that season, when he would finish with a (still) Major League record 383 strikeouts while posting 21 wins and a 2.87 ERA.
On this Sunday in particular, Ryan faced the Tigers at Tiger Stadium and proceeded to strikeout 17 batters against “only” four walks, striking out every Tiger batter at least once, shutting them out 6-0.
According to game re-caps, Ryan didn’t even need any great plays behind him to keep the gem going. Only a sharp line drive off the bat of Gates Brown with one out in the ninth was even considered a “sure hit” if not for Rudy Meoli shading him a bit to the right, snaring the drive about a foot over his head.
The “Ryan Express” was steaming his way into the record books, and to think he STILL had 20 more seasons to go before he was done!
Amazing.