The No-Walk Streak
Posted: February 25th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 24 Comments »
So, this was fun … I had breakfast at spring training with Bill Fischer, Royals Senior Pitching Advisor (when you get to a certain age, you move up from “coach” to “Senior Advisor“) and, I believe, the longest-running full-time baseball man in the game. Fish has been in the game since 1948, when he went 14-3 with a 2.63 ERA for the Wisconsin Rapids. To give you an idea, he’s been in this game one year longer than DON ZIMMER, who I think we all know is old enough to have his own book in the Old Testament,*
*The Book of Pedrobrawl 13:7, ”And lo, it shall come to pass, a man from Hialeah, known to all as Bucky, shall swing a mighty stick, scale a great wall …“
Fish is an absolute beauty, one of those crusty 77-year-old baseball men who have seen everything and can still swear with the kids. I wrote a column about Fish, which you can read here, but I did not get to spend as much time in that story as I would have liked on his amazing no-walk streak, which lasted from Aug. 3 to Sept. 30, 1962. It covered 14 games, 13 of those starts, and lasted 84 1/3 innings. Here are the longest no-walk streaks in baseball history:
1. Bill Fischer, 1962, 84 1/3
2. Greg Maddux, 2001, 72 1/3*
3. Christy Mathewson, 1913, 68
(tie) Randy Jones, 1976, 68
5. Harris White, 1907, 65 2/3
*The Maddux streak ended with an intentional walk which sucks. More than that, it ends with an intentional walk to Steve Freaking Finley, which REALLY sucks. And more than that, it ends with an intentional walk to Steve Freaking Finley in the third freaking inning with the Braves already freaking trailing 4-0 which REALLY REALLY REALLY sucks. I’m not saying a no-walk streak is up there with DiMaggio, but really, you’re going to blow that streak with an intentional walk to a guy who had a 91 OPS+ that year with the team already down four in the third inning? Come on.
Two batters later, Maddux intentionally walked Damian Miller to get to the pitcher. Whatever. The Braves lost the game 9-1. To me, when you’re intentionally walking two batters in the third inning of a home game in August, you deserve to lose 100-1.
Anyway, if you only count unintentional walks, Maddux actually went 84 innings — 1/3 of an inning short of the record — before walking Ben Davis; and I’m sure Mad Dog would NOT have walked Ben Davis if there had been a record on the line.
Back to Fish. He had never really been known for historical control before 1962. He did rank sixth in the American League in 1959 in walks per nine — he walked 43 in 187 1/3 for the old Washington Senators — but it’s probably fair to say that the world did not stand still. The Senators traded him to Detroit the next season for Tom Morgan, who is notable for his memorable 1957 season with Kansas City, when he went 9-7 despite walking 61 and striking out 32 — almost pulling off the rare 1-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio.*
*Since World War II ended, only five pitchers have had winning records while walking twice as many as they strike out (min. 100 ip). The include:
1. Joe Haynes, 1950, 7-5 record, 15 strikeouts, 46 walks.
2. Jim Bagby, 1946, 7-6 record, 16 strikeouts, 49 walks.
3. Dick Fowler, 1949, 15-11 record, 43 strikeouts, 115 walks — Fowler had a 110 ERA+ that year, one of my favorite pitching seasons.
4. Dick Starr, 1950, 7-5 record, 30 strikeouts 74 walks.
5. Dave Ferris, 1948, 7-3 record, 30 strikeouts, 61 walks.
After that is Spec Shea in 1953 (12-7, 38 Ks, 75 walks) and Tom Morgan.
In 1962, Fish did not pitch in his first game with the A’s until May 27. He was clearly a mop-up bullpen guy, and after failing to get an out against the New York Yankees on Independence Day, his ERA was at 5.79. The funny thing is that the A’s starting pitching was SO bad, and injuries were piling up, that 10 days after that, Fish made his first start in more than a year. He pitched pretty well too, giving up just two runs in eight innings to Boston. He only walked one … he was exhibiting better control than ever. That year, Fish had started throwing this slow curve to lefties. It wasn’t especially effective (lefties hit .310 off him that year) but he did seem to be pitching with more confidence. On July 29th, he threw nine innings and got a win against Baltimore. He didn’t walk anybody. It was a sign.
On August 3rd, in Cleveland, Fish walked Bubba Phillips to lead off the game. And the streak began. Fish pitched eight walk-free innings that day (and lost despite giving up only one run), and four days later threw nine walk-free against the Senators. he did not walk anyone in a blown save against Minnesota or in an eight inning, one run loss to the White Sox (that’s the second 1-0 loss during the streak). He beat the Yankees on August 17, a complete game six hitter (he did give up a homer to Mickey Mantle … the Mick OWNED Fish) and then struggled for four walkless innings against Boston. Nobody was really aware of it at this point, but Fish had thrown 39 innings without a walk.
The A’s went to Minnesota, and he threw eight more walk free innings and for the third time in the streak lost 1-0. This is the amazing thing to me … say what you will, it’s GOT to be frustrating to keep going out there and losing 1-0. And yet, Fish kept on throwing strikes. He threw six innings at Yankee Stadium (six innings, nine hits, three runs — it’s a quality start!) and 2 1/3 brutal innings at Fenway (he gave up seven runs in the third, the big hit being, well, all nine of them). He threw six walkless in Chicago, and that took the streak to 61 1/3.
And Fish says this is when he became aware of the streak. He was now just seven innings away from breaking Christy Mathewson’s record for most consecutive innings without a walk. As I mentioned in the column, the A’s owner at the time was Charlie Finley, who was of course a circus barker who would jump on ANY sort of hype-able commodity. So it was in the papers when the A’s returned home to face Baltimore that there was a record on the line.
Fish was supposed to pitch Saturday night, Sept. 14, but the game was rained out and a doubleheader was scheduled for a Sunday. A couple of interesting notes about that game:
1. The Orioles started two Hall of Famers that night — Brooks Robinson was at third and Robin Roberts started the game — but also started two people who would be absolutely fundamental to the future of the Kansas City Royals. Charlie Lau started behind the plate (he actually got six at-bats, one of three times in his career). And Whitey Herzog started in right field.
2. At one point in the game, probably the fifth inning, Fish remembers getting a 3-1 count on Roberts. A fan at that game has emailed me and said he remembered it as a 3-0 count. Either way, he was close to walking Roberts. ”I thought, ‘(Expletive), I’m going to (expletive) walk the (expletive) pitcher,“ he said. Fish remembered getting a called second strike on Roberts and then getting a swing-and-miss third. Baseball-Reference, on the other hand, has Roberts striking out looking, which seems more logical. You’ve got to be believe Roberts was taking all the way. It should be noted that Roberts had a very good eye. In 1955, Roberts walked 20 times, which (along with Mickey Lolich in 1972) is the most for any pitcher the last 80 years.
Anyway, in the record breaking inning, Fish struck out Marv Breeding, gave up back-to-back singles to Barry Shatrone and Jerry Adair, got Russ Snyder to foul out and then, for the record breaker, coaxed a fielders choice grounder from Brooks Robinson. And that was it. The record was hit. Fish said that after the game, Finley gave him a $1,000 bonus (Obligatory addendum — ”1,000 was a lot of money in those days“) and then got so carried away that he promised Fish a $100 bonus for every inning he could keep the streak going. In retrospect, this seems like a pretty stupid offer, but hey, so was having a live mule as a mascot.
Fish was locked in by now — he could keep it going forever if he wanted. And he wanted … what else was there to do? He threw four miserable innings against Cleveland his next time out, but didn’t walk anybody. He threw seven pretty good innings at Baltimore the start after that, and again didn’t walk anyone. And then it was the last game of the season, at Detroit, and apparently the night before the game Finley told A’s manager Hank Bauer that he was going to get canned. He also — at least according to Bauer — said that he wasn’t going to pay Fish his innings bonus.
This led to this memorable conversation that was later enhanced in that classic Goodfellas scene between Jimmy and Morrie.
Original conversation:
Fish: Mr. Finley, I hear you’re not going to pay me.
Finley: Yeah, Mr. Fischer, I get carried away with moments and then I realize I made a mistake.
Fish: You’re going to pay me that (expletive) money.
Enhanced conversation:
Morrie: Did I ever bust his balls? I could’ve dropped a dime a million times.
Henry: Don’t call the cops. You’re talking crazy. You got money for that commercial.
Jimmy: You don’t got my (expletive) money?
Henry: Jimmy, he’s going to pay you.
Jimmy: I’ll (expletive) kill you. Give me the money (expletive). Pay me! (Starts choking him with phone cord).
Morrie: Jimmy, I’m sorry.
Jimmy: You should be (expletive) sorry. Don’t do it again. Give me my (expletive) money. You hear me? Give me the (expletive) money.
Morrie: I’ll give you. You’ve got it, kid. You’ve got it, believe me.
In any case, Fish admits that it wasn’t much fun to pitch that last game at Detroit. He only went five innings, and the streak ended with nobody out in the fourth when he walked Bubba Morton. I mentioned this in the column too … this has to be the only streak in sports history to begin and end with men named Bubba. Maybe Bassmasters.
in the end, Finley did finally pay Fish, but he refused to give Fish a raise the next year so it all evened out. In all, the streak last 84 1/3 innings, he gave up 100 hits, struck out 22, walked nobody and had a 2-10 record. I guess it all depends how you look at it — some would consider this streak nothing more than an oddity, and maybe that’s right. But the fact that Greg Maddux and Christy Mathewson are the pitchers behind Fish, I would say it means something.
I don’t know what the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hall of Fame will become … I’m honestly not sure how they will judge it. But when they look back over Fish’s 60 years of baseball, the work he put in with an old Tom Seaver and young Roger Clemens (who swears by him), the impact he had on a pretty good Atlanta organization, well, I’m not sure he’s the kind of candidate that the Hall of Fame is thinking about. We’ll have to see how that shakes out. No matter what, for two months in ‘62 he sure had pretty good control.
Loading ...
How about George Kissell with the St Louis Cardinals – he’s been affiliated with the team since 1940?
I think Toby Harrah on the ‘85 Rangers used to wear two different colored shoes in order to get the pitcher to look at his feet. I’m not sure if this is true or not. I do know he walked a TON that year.
Not only did he lose all those 1-0 games, but Jack Kralick of the Twins threw a no-hitter in one of them.
I’m not sure anybody cares who or what Roger Clemens swears by anymore.
Fisher was Clemens’ first pitching coach, I believe. And if he wasn’t the first, he was there in the 1986 season.
Fisher also always backs Clemens’ story that Roger didn’t want to come out of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and that Sox manager John McNamara was the one that lifted him. It’s a charge that McNamara vehemently denies and claims that Clemens asked out because of a blister.
I’m not sure who to believe: McNamara was a miserable prick of a guy (so I’ve heard) and Clemens is a proven liar.
BTW Joe, did you get a chance to ask him about Clemens and steroids?
Ohmygoodness, what a glorious entry!
As a young control pitcher I used to pride myself on (trying to) throwing “no walkers!” Walking a batter is an admission of lameness. I had 0-2 on the best hitter in the league. I threw him my high not-s0-fast-one. He hit it out of the park. I’ve never regretted the pitch. I’ve only regretted the result, shoulda thrown it harder or higher.
I still think of Randy Jones as a great pitcher, Frank Tanana in the sundown years…Jaime Moyer not so much, not sure why…but the thing is, dammit, ya gonna pitch ya gotta throw strikes. Fish threw ‘em! …rocketing up the list of oldeys I never heard of before…
I think Maddux would have walked anyone at any time if he thought it’d give him a better shot to get the next guy out. If I recall, when they asked him about the game after the intentionals, he blew it off.
The man cares about keeping the other team from scoring runs. Not records. Not no hitters. Just no runs.
When I read the title of this entry, my brain took it to mean OFFENSIVE streaks with no walks. Which led me to wonder why the heck you were writing a blog about Mark Quinn.
That’s pretty funny, Minda.
Oddibe- To help you in your quest to figure out who JoePo supports politically, I have interviewed Joe at spring training. Our conversation went like this:
Joe is seated behind a covered table. Joe holds a dagger, sharpening it on
a rock. On the table is a bottle of wine and two goblets. Man in Black
approaches the Table.
Man in Black: Joe, I think that there are only a few questions that I need to ask to determine who you voted for recently. Would you mind?
Joe: So it is down to you, and it is down to me.
Man in Black: Let me explain-
Joe: There’s nothing to explain. You’re trying to determine what I have
rightfully hidden.
Man In Black: Perhaps an arrangement can be reached?
Joe: There will be no arrangement.
Man In Black: Well if there can be no arrangement, then we are at an
impasse.
Joe: I’m afraid so. I can’t compete with you physically, and you’re no
match for my brains.
Man In Black: You’re that smart?
Joe: Let me put it this way: have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle,
Socrates?
Man In Black: Yes.
Joe: Morons. They never won columnist of the year- let alone twice!
Man In Black: Really. In that case, I challenge you to a battle of wits.
Joe: For a definitive answer of whom I support?
Man in Black nods.
Joe: And for $200 in Gates gift cards?
Man in Black nods again.
Joe: Very well I accept.
Man in Black: Good, then pour the wine. It is so simple, Joe all I need to
do is divine from what I know of you- are you the sort of man who would
vote for a young, quite unqualified, brash, well spoken, (Muslim?), liberal
senator from Illinois, or are you the sort of man who would vote for an
aging unethical liberal senator from New York (I still can’t believe that
New Yorkers voted for that trailer trash from Arkansas) whose only
qualification is that she has been a propionate of change for 30 years now,
and yet after 30 years, is still married to one of the great philanderers
of all time? Perhaps you are the type of man, who would vote for a
maverick senator from AZ who has served his country in battle overseas, and
worked with those across the aisle, even to the extent of making his own party angry.
Joe: Clearly you have a dizzying intellect.
Man in Black: What till I get going. Where was I?
Joe: The candidates.
Man in Black: Yes, the candidates. Perhaps you are the sort of a guy who
would vote for a former minister, current Governor, again from Arkansas,
who like a certain Governor before him, pardoned every criminal with a nice
smile.
Joe: You’re just stalling now.
Man in Black: YOUâ€D LIKE TO THINK THAT WOULDN’T YOU? You are an eight time
winner of the Missouri columnist of the year award, so that means you are
probably in a ‘republican’ tax bracket. So, clarly I cannot chose the
liberals on the left. But, you have two little girls, and that means that
you are probably a liberal when it comes to taking care of youth and
education. So I clearly cannot chose the conservitives on the right. You
have said that you didn’t agree with what Clinton said in SC, so I can
clearly not chose the liberals on left. You are from Cleveland, and
everyone knows that Cleveland is entirely populated with criminals and
Jews. And criminals and Jews are used to have people not trust them, so I
can clearly not chose the conservatives on the right. But, Cleveland is
typically republican territory, all those blue collar jobs, unlike
Columbus, with all its heighty-tighty college educated democrats. So
clearly I cannot chose the liberals of the left.
Joe: You’re tyring to trick me into giving away something- it won’t work.
Man In Black: IT HAS WORKED! YOUâ€VE GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY! I KNOW THE REAL
ANSWER!
Joe: Then make your chose.
Man In Black: I will and choose—What in the world can this be- a text
message on my cell phone- THE ROYALS HAVE TRADED BILLY BUTLER TO THE A’s
FOR MIKE SWEENEY!. WHAT! Oh sorry- I read that wrong. No matter.
Man in Black is smirking.
Joe: What is so funny?
Man in Black: I’ll tell you in a minute. First, lets drink. Me from my
glass, you from yours.
Joe: You guessed wrong.
Man in Black: You only think that I guessed wrong! That’s what is so funny
I have been reading your stuff for years, I know you like the back of my
hand. HA HA! You fool, you fell victim to the classic blunders! The most
famous of which is never get involved in a debate with Paul White about
whether Jim Rice belongs in the hall or not, only slightly less well known
is this: never go against a South Dakotan when Gates gift cards are on the
line. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
Joe: You didn’t pick one yet. You still don’t know do you? Have no idea
really?
Man In Black: No, I actually have no idea, I just like the movie and
reading your stuff that I thought I could out bluff you. I’m republican
and was hoping you were too.
Joe: I actually didn’t even vote, I was traveling covering college
basketball.
Man in Black: Next time I’ll call myself the Dred Pirate Roberts. That
sounds cooler.
“When I read the title of this entry, my brain took it to mean OFFENSIVE streaks with no walks. Which led me to wonder why the heck you were writing a blog about Mark Quinn.”
I thought the exact same thing. Quinn would make a few really interesting lists, like “Longest Streak of Plate Appearances Without a Walk”, or “Players Who Hit Two Homers in His First Major League Game”, or “Most Precipitous OPS+ Declines by Top-3 Rookie of the Year Finishers”, or “Most Teams In a Calendar Year” (Quinn played for 4 teams in 2003 and didn’t reach the majors for any of them.) Or my personal favorite, “Dumbest Career-Ending Injuries”, since I contend that Quinn’s career ended when he broke his rib as he lost that infamous karate fight to a chair before Spring Training 2002. I’m sure all other Rice University grads are proud.
“I’m sure Mad Dog would NOT have walked Ben Davis if there had been a record on the line.”
Oh, I giggled. (I wonder how obscure that reference is nowadays?)
Great stuff. Made me think of 2 Royals…Miguel Asencio’s MLB debut & Jeff Austin’s final 2 MLB starts.
Oy, Man in Black my head’s about to explode. What was that?
Clearly you’ve never been to Ohio or read anything about it. Cleveland is definitely the most Democratic of the big three in Ohio. There are no “college educated democrats” in Columbus, mostly cuz there’s no college in Columbus – only Ohio State. The center for learning in Ohio is in Cleveland – it’s called Case Western Reserve University.
Anyway if you’re just betting demographics Joe’s an Obama man.
I’m just so pleased that Fisher is associated with the Royals this season. He’s exactly the kind of guy the Royals have been missing.
Joe said: “To give you an idea, he’s been in this game one year longer than DON ZIMMER, who I think we all know is old enough to have his own book in the Old Testament,* *The Book of Pedrobrawl 13:7, â€And lo, it shall come to pass, a man from Hialeah, known to all as Bucky, shall swing a mighty stick, scale a great wall …“ ”
This is absolutely fantastic. It’s like Monty Python’s Holy Hand Grenade. Great aside.
- TL
MiB, that was the funniest thing I’ve read since Bobby Heenen’s retirement speech. Thanks.
Regarding McNamara and Fischer in Boston – Early in ‘86 the Sox made a pitching change and had the reliever throw an intentional walk to the first batter he faced. It made so little sense to me, I hate IW’s if only because it seems to mess with most pitcher’s control after throwing four pitches intentionally out of the strike zone. I wrote to Fischer asking him to explain the reasons for this move – needless to say he never wrote back. But I should have written to McNamara than Fischer. I believe McNamara was responsible for keeping Tom Seaver off the ‘86 post season roster. I still dream about Seaver coming out of the bullpen in game 6, the last game of his major league career, and getting the save to beat the Mets at Shea Stadium and win the long overdue Series for the Sox. Something Mark Harris would write.
The the thing that shocked me the most about Fischer’s record is how he managed to go 2-10 with a 3.92 ERA during it. That’s about as bad as Steve Carlton tying the then-record with 19 strikeouts in a loss. I guess that gives me a taste of how bad the old Kansas City Athletics were in 1962.
(On the other hand, Maddux went 9-1 with a 3.45 ERA during his streak [2.99 before that final game against the Diamondbacks.])
I just read your article about Coach Fischer. Saw your quote: “So it goes.” Hmmmm…..
For about the last five years, anytime I get riled up about something, anytime that roller-coaster up and down thing happens to me, I think back to that quote. Good or bad, good and bad, so it goes.
So it goes.
I’ve just got to follow up on my last comment. I wish I had read the rest of the article on Coach Fischer before I posted, because if I had there’d only be one post.
In any event, I really appreciate your use of “That’s baseball” right after your reference to Clemens. I interpret that to be essentially the equivalent to “So it goes,” as both suggest that the ups and downs of life and baseball are inevitable. Nevertheless, that’s no justification for abandonment.
I just read Bob Dutton’s piece on Hillman and fundamentals.
Can the Royals slogan this year be, “I’m be on the ‘wa.’”
I think it can.
I’m big on the ‘wa.’
MiB-
Think you captured the essence of one of the great movies of our time. Very funny.
Man, I need to proofread my comments.
I’m big on the ‘wa.’
I’m big on the ‘wa.’
I’m big on the ‘wa.’
I must disagree with the Baseball Reference account of the game. It was perhaps an error by the official scorer. At the time of the record-setting game (15-September-1962), I lived in Southern Pennsylvania and followed thr Orioles avidly on radio station WBAL. I listened to this game on my old Hallicrafters receiver (through US Army Signal Corps headphones) as Chuck Thompson described the fifth inning. When the count was 3-2 on Robin Roberts, I, too, felt sure that he would take the next pitch. But, I distinctly remember Chuck Thompson calling a “swing and a miss”, and not a called thrid strike. I also remember the cheering being much louder than one would expect from a crowd of less than 8000. A few years later, I often wondered if Roberts swung deliberately. After all, both the A’s and the O’s were both under .500 at the time, at ninth and sixth places, respectively, in the standings. However, I cannot suspect a Hall Of Fame player of that era of such actions.