Presented by POOL SCOUTS.
This Day In Sports…July 28, 1976, 50 years ago today:
Chicago White Sox pitchers Blue Moon Odom and Francisco Barrios combine to pitch a no-hitter at the Oakland Coliseum in a 2-1 win over the A’s, the team for whom Odom pitched in three World Series in the early 1970s. Blue Moon was removed from the game after walking nine batters in five innings. Barrios walked two more to set an MLB record of 11 walks issued in a no-hitter. It would prove to be the final major league victory of Odom’s career.
The A’s, two years removed from their third straight championship, had seen most of their stars from that period leave via free agency or trades that sold off their top talent. Odom was traded to Atlanta in 1975, but mainly due to declining performance. He was a stellar 15-6 during Oakland’s first World Series run in 1972 but dropped to 5-12 and 1-4 in the subsequent two title years. Blue Moon was dealt from the Braves to the White Sox six weeks before the no-hitter—and made his final big league appearance three weeks after.
The Odom-Barrios combo no-hitter is certainly one of the strangest in big league history. Others that rank up there include one—er, make that two—by Detroit’s Virgil Trucks in 1952. Trucks had an otherwise miserable season, finishing 5-19. Then there was Cubs left-hander Ken Holtzman’s no-no in 1969. He threw his against the Braves without striking out a single batter. In 1971, Rick Wise of the Philadelphia Phillies not only spun a no-hitter against Cincinnati, he also helped his cause by clubbing two home runs.
Arguably the most infamous no-hitter came from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Dock Ellis in 1970. Ellis stymied the San Diego Padres while under the influence of LSD. As the story goes, Ellis was visiting friends in L.A., thinking his start was the next day. His girlfriend read in the paper that he was starting that night against the Padres, so Ellis hopped a commercial flight to San Diego while still on an acid trip. He later said he could barely see the catcher’s signs and thought the plate umpire was Richard Nixon. Ellis walked eight batters and hit another, but he unbelievably got through it without yielding a hit.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
