{"id":35566,"date":"2013-05-13T08:01:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T12:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=35566"},"modified":"2013-05-13T12:07:53","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T16:07:53","slug":"sixty-one-years-ago-today-a-feat-for-the-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=35566","title":{"rendered":"Sixty-one Years Ago Today: A Performance for the Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the anniversary of a singular and amazing achievement.\u00a0 It’s also one you\u2019ve probably never heard of.<\/p>\n

Sixty-one years ago, a 19-year-old right-handed pitcher with the Bristol Twins – the Appalachian League farm club for the Pittsburgh Pirates – pitched a complete game shutout.\u00a0 Complete game shutouts were nothing unusual in that day and age.<\/p>\n

He pitched the game in front of a crowd of less than 1,200.\u00a0 Nothing too out of the ordinary about that for a minor-league game in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

He pitched a 9-inning no-hitter, but not a perfect game.\u00a0 Excellent \u2013 but not terribly uncommon, either.<\/p>\n

He won the game (that’s not a given; at least five 9-inning games have been recorded in the Major Leagues alone where one team was held hitless but nonetheless won the game<\/a> by scoring unearned runs).\u00a0 So even if had he had lost the game while pitching a no-hitter (he didn’t), that fact would hardly be unique.<\/p>\n

What was unique \u2013 and amazing \u2013 about the performance involves what he did during this no-hitter.<\/p>\n

The young man pitched a complete game – all 9 innings.\u00a0 He was the only pitcher for his team.<\/p>\n

He recorded 27 strikeouts<\/span><\/i>.<\/p>\n

In professional baseball at any level that had never been done before.\u00a0 It has never been repeated.<\/p>\n

Who was it?\u00a0 A man named Ronald Allen Necciai.<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated<\/em> has an excellent article about both Necciai and this amazing game.\u00a0 It was written nearly 26 years ago.\u00a0 If you’re a baseball fan it\u2018s definitely worth reading, and can be found online here.<\/a>\u00a0 Be forewarned – it’s a bit lengthy.<\/p>\n

In his next start, Necciai was nearly as dominating.\u00a0 In that game, he pitched a 24-strikeout two-hitter.<\/p>\n

So what happened next, and why haven\u2019t you ever heard of him?<\/p>\n

Necciai was indeed called up to the Pirates that August.\u00a0 He pitched fairly poorly that year \u2013 after all, he\u2019d just turned twenty, and it was his first time in the “big leagues”.\u00a0 But the potential was clearly there.\u00a0 When “on”, his fastball smoked; his curve dropped like it had fallen off a table.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, like many promising athletes Necciai had health issues.\u00a0 He had severe stomach ulcers.\u00a0 He was drafted into the Army (the Korean War was ongoing), but ended up being medically discharged because of his stomach problems.\u00a0 And the next spring, while pushing himself to make up for missed spring training, in April Necciai suffered a serious rotator cuff injury.\u00a0 Due to that shoulder injury, Necciai was never was able to pitch in the Major Leagues again.<\/p>\n

That’s truly unfortunate.\u00a0 Given health and some experience, he might have been truly special.<\/p>\n

After a few years of trying to overcome his shoulder injury, Necciai moved on with his life.\u00a0 He went into business, and was ultimately quite successful.\u00a0 His ulcer spontaneously cleared.<\/p>\n

His shoulder issues, unfortunately, never did.\u00a0 His shoulder still troubled him when Sports Illustrated<\/em> wrote the article linked above – over 34 years after his injury.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, Mr. Necciai is apparently still alive.\u00a0 He turns 81 this year.<\/p>\n

And regardless of what happened later:\u00a0 sixty-one years ago today, in Bristol, VA, Ronald Allen Necciai accomplished something that is . . . simply amazing.\u00a0 His performance that day has never been equaled at any professional level.<\/p>\n

Hat tip to you, sir.\u00a0 You own a unique and amazing place in baseball history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the anniversary of a singular and amazing achievement.\u00a0 It’s also one you\u2019ve probably never … Sixty-one Years Ago Today: A Performance for the Ages<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}