Wednesday, May 15, 2024

REVISITING A BLOG POST FROM 2015: ALLIE REYNOLD'S TWO NO-HITTERS

On the blog today, we revisit a blog post from November of 2015 celebrating Allie Reynolds and his two no-hitters of 1951 on a 1971 "Turn back the Clock" card:


Here's the original write-up for the post as it appeared back then:
Today we celebrate Allie Reynolds and his two no-hitters in 1951, which he threw against the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, in my “Turn Back The Clock” series.
The “Super Chief” had it going on in 1951, winning 17 games and leading the league with seven shutouts.
On July 12th of that year he faced his old team, the Indians, and beat them 1-0 thanks to a solo home run by Gene Woodling. He retired the last 17 batters he faced, and his rival pitcher, Bob Feller, pitched a no-hitter himself just eleven days earlier!
On September 28th, he faced Boston and easily beat them 8-0, which allowed the Yankees at least a tie for first in the American League.
Reynolds struck out nine and walked four, and of course we all know that the final batter he faced was none other than Ted Williams, arguably the greatest all-around hitter in baseball history.
All Reynolds had to do was, in a sense, retire him TWICE, as Yogi Berra dropped a foul pop-up for the final out, before catching the very next one, as Williams popped out to end the game.
Only six pitchers have thrown two no-hitters in one season, with Roy Halladay (2010) and Max Scherzer (2015) being the most recent to the exclusive club.